Pelly's nForce2 Review

[pelly]

First review over at [H]...

Chaintech 7NJS (http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NDE0)

:D

[druga runda]

Huh... you did get some interesting results in there... AOpen board so much faster at 640*400 in Q3 and JKII than other P4 solutions, Asus Nforce on Serious Sam.... kinda unusual.

Anyway... what is it now with Kyle and "we are investigatin this with BAPCO" Sysmark 2002 stuff... wasn't he the one who said, "ah maybe 2001 version was favouring AMD" :D... and was the one being hard on "Van's Hardware" (i think) supporting AMD in that issue at the beginning... hah oppinions change... I know.

Anyway, if I was buying an Nforce 2, I think I would go with ASUS most likely ;)

[volt]

Great review Pelly!

Though I would not get that board because it's lacking the Soundstorm APU. Benchmarks on the other hand are pretty impressive :) Also the round cables and other goodies...mmmm

[pelly]

I was so disappointed when I saw they disabled the APU...but the board came in running a 200MHz FSB and screamed on benchmarks!

Overall, this is a great board for those who either don't care about sound or already own a high-end PCI sound card...

:D

[The Baron]

So which is better--A7N8X or the Chaintech board? ;)

[pelly]

In my opinion ( although it has its own flaws ) the Asus A7N8X DELUXE is a better option. It comes complete with all the "original" MCP-T equipment ( ie: dual NICS, SoundStorm APU,etc.. ) and is significantly cheaper.

Overall though, it would be hard to go wrong with either board...

:D

[gokickrocks]

the asus would be a better choice...

new bios allows for 250fsb...all you need to do is apply the vmods (vcore, vdimm, and vdd) and you are set to go

[ReDeeMeR]

What you guys think of Abit? Heard good stories about it.

[pelly]

Good and bad...right now...we're looking into a strange scenario we've seen with Abit nForce2 overclocking...Seems as though it is VERY hit or miss...Those that overclock well are stellar boards...Those that don't have serious overclocking issues...

Overall, the Asus board looks to be the most robust and complete solution out there...I'm currently working with Shuttle's nForce2 SFF ( SN41G2 ) and will be receiving Soltek's nForce2 board in the near future. Thus far, the Shuttle is a little powerhouse...and the Soltek looks to be promising...

Overall, you really can't lose with most nForce2 boards...Pair it with a good CPU and some fast RAM and you're sure to see some impressive benchmarks and gameplay!

:D

[ReDeeMeR]

Aithy, thanks :)

[Hunter32]

Let me tell you, even if you don't overclock your board. You'll notice a difference. Say, when you run 3DMark 2001se. I got the ASUS board, and I switched over all the other stuff from my old computer to the Asus board. My score went up 1000 points. One thing I do like about the Asus board is I no longer have to use any pci cards in my computer.:D

[ReDeeMeR]

Yea well I already have my Audigy :D

[SavagePaladin]

I've heard from some that the onboard quality beats the Audigy, but I still wouldn't know.

[pelly]

My impressions would place the NVIDIA APU on par with Audigy 2 and the rest of the high-end PCI cards...

:D