nForce Mobo

I am building a home entertainment PC and in my research i came up with the nForce chipset as the best option. my question is has anyone had any experence with nForce mobos? and if so how are they. i plan on useing an abit NV7m as it is micro ATX and will be small enough to shoehorn into an IBM netvista flex atx. it will have a tbird 1.4 266fsb and 256mb ram (two 128 to take advantage of the dual channel) i think the GeForce 2 mx graphich should be pretty nice on my TV.

it ill work fine for an analog tv. If it will be hooked up to a hdtv then it may not be as sharp as you would like. If it is anything like the gf2 mx chipset that I have then movies will look really clean and sharp but gaming and some normal channels may be a bit fuzzy.

It should do pretty well. I think some NForce boards also have pretty good onboard sound (5.1 Dolby I think).

Let us know how you get on.

David

To use anything other than 2-channel sound with the nForce onboard sound you'll need to install WinXP or Win2k. The win98SE and ME drivers do not have the added features.

And to output to a TV with the onboard video you'll need to use a scan convertor (or just buy a different video card). www.PCstop.com sells the TVATOR EXEC scan convertor for $73


I love my nForce board. The onboard graphics are on-par with the performance of basic Geforce 2 models (not the MX cards) and is capable of playing any game available (provided you don't use high resolutions).

I've not used an Nforce board, but from what I've heard, they do serve owners pretty well in terms of multimedia PC use.

Just one question though, why the 1.4tbird? I'm assuming you must already have one lying around that you'll use. My only concern there is that the 1.4 tbirds were the hottest of the tbirds and will be a challenge to cool in a small flex atx case. Something like a 1600+ would actually be cooler, and same speed plus full SSE...

Not suggesting you go get an XP1600, but I will say, you may have more of a cooling challenge ahead of you!

I think the nforce will serve you well though.

Mike

Oh yeah. If you need a heatsink that will fit the Netvista case I highly recommend the Thermal Integration TI-V77L
It's comparably quiet and short enough to fit.

well i just ordered i nvidia board to use as a linux test machine so i can tell you in a few days.

heres how it is, my main rig has a 1.4 ghz, and i have been looking for an excuse to upgrade it. so i figure i will get something like a 1600+ or 1800+ for my main rig and hand-me-down the 1.4 to the HTPC. i already have a glaciator L/N that fits fine with room for a duct to the back. so cooling shoulden't be too hard. not looking for the 28-31 degrees that my main rig runs' just reasonable cooling.