ZZZZ,
I really don't care if there is a VIA chip for USB -2... I just don't want them to control all of the critical funtions of my computer.
I was going to buy a 266A board a few months ago, but then the PCI latency issue came up. While this might not bother most people (although logic leads me to believe that it is responsible for a lack of stability with that chipset), I am building a Digital Audio Workstation with an expensive Audio interface (close to $1000) and I can't afford bad PCI arbitration by VIA.
Also, I heard that while the Nforce's memory handling might be just on par with VIA (despite all of the cool technology), it tends to handle multi-tasking better (You can burn a CD, surf the net, and do some desktop publishing at the same time with ease). Again, with all of the thought that went into design, I would imagine that there would be some benifit (even if it doesn't show up in all of the benchmarks) of the nforce over the VIA.
I really don't understand why more MB companies do not build nforce boards. If Soyo made a Dragon version of nforce... Ahhhhhhh.
Does anybody have an opinion of Abit? I know that they used to have a piss poor reputation for reliablity. I am pretty sure that they are a different company now (in terms of product quality). I would love to hear if anybody has had any recent dealings with them (good or bad). The Abit nforce 415 features are much cooler than Asus, but Asus has that reputation for reliablity + their audio implementation might be better (I will be using the built in audio until I purchase my expensive audio interface).
Any thoughts would be welcome.