nForce3 with a confirmed PCI lock was available at newegg for the last two months

[Silent Buddha]

I'm sure the nForce3 250GB isn't a huge revolution over the nForce3 150 but it does have desirable extras. The built-in firewall should be pretty useful once XP SP2 rolls out and the 1GB ethernet compeletely owns Intel's implementation .

 

[c627627]

Since the 250 GB chipset is close to being available, more features (direct SATA RAID support 0, 1, 0+1, JBOD, more RAID channels, span over SATA and IDE, ...), faster HT bus, less bugs, with PCI-lock, ..., why considering the 150 chipset now?

A more interesting question is whether

250 GB + 754 CPU
or
250 GB + 939 CPU

(The K8T800 PRO being an alternative, but not much motherboard info available.)

I completely agreed from the get go:

While it's best to wait for the new PCI locked VIA K8T800 Pro (not K8T800) chipset mobos or the PCI locked nForce3 250 (not 150) chipset mobos...

Since I read about people who cannot wait 30 days, news presented here is relevant for Socket A vs. nForce3-150 (for them).


One other reason that cannot be overlooked is a potential for a massive price decline of nForce3-150s once 250s hit the streets and for anyone considering a secondary rig, etc...


Also, people who hang around here already know but for others, nForce3 250 audio will not use the (quality) sound chips that (some) nForce2's did so besides performance, PCI locked VIA K8T800 Pro offers hope of onboard quality sound which means you don't need to spend extra $ on a sound card like you didn't with nForce2's which had onboard SoundStorm...

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Gew, onboard sound?

With the cost of a comparable PCI component I'm not sure how much onboard sound like soundstorm means to me... I mean I got the Audigy2 for under or around $50 from best buy. I think that is a pretty good deal for the features of the card and haveing external sound. That price is only going down further and there are other more inexpensive options with good sound quality also.

I guess I just never really liked onboard sound and can't see its benefit really... I mean a decent soundblaster card is how much now?

 

[hitechjb1]

Sound plays a less important role in my consideration for a motherboard and chipset, becuase sound quality is measured subjectively (and my ears may not be able to distinguish them), than many other things such as:

Stock HT / FSB bus + overclock potential
Stock memory bus + overclock potential (754 vs 939 factor)
Raid supports 0, 1, 0+1, JBOD
Number of SATA + PATA drives supported
Bios feature, setting and stability
Chipset cooling
Vcore range
Vdimm range
Chipset Vdd range
The famous PCI lock factor
Vcore regulator quality and 12V connector
Serial link speed (USB, firewire)
Ethernet support (speed and 2 connections ?)
....

I may be biased more towards server requirement, ....

As many ppl have pointed out, the worse may be just to get a separate sound card if quality and sound features become critical.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Where do you find things out about vcore regulator quality? Never heard anything about it really.

 

[c627627]

Why spend $50 to $100 on separate sound card when

I'm not much of an audiophile myself, but most seemed to say that Soundstorm blew away many other APU's... I went with an Audigy2 this time, but from what I've heard, SS might have actually been better...

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=286461

 

[hitechjb1]

Where do you find things out about vcore regulator quality? Never heard anything about it really.

Two phase vs three phase regulation (may be even 4 phase ?), decoupling capacitor placement and quality, use of 12 V connector (now is a common practice since nforce2 rev 2.0), MOSFET cooling possibility, ....

If one is serious enough, can use a sampling oscilloscope to monitor and measure Vcore line noise and fluctuation under various CPU load, task switching, ....,
voltage regulation transient response which I think play a role in determining how a system can handle heavy CPU load, and switching between light and heavy load, ....

 

[Speed_Mechanic2]

nVidia will go with Intel's new "High-Definition" standard audio later on which will be a boost to those who want nice audio to come onboard with their motherboards. nVidia's next chipset, along with PCI-Express, will have High-Definition 24-bit 96kHz 7.1 audio.

 

[c627627]

Yes but that's way into 2005, I hope VIA covers us in the next 12 months (or more) with PCI locked VIA K8T800 Pro (not K8T800), [providing it also has most features hitechjb1 listed above].

 

[I.M.O.G.]

c627627, $100 for a sound card will definetly blow away anything the SS has to offer - for that amount you can get an Audigy2 with all of the extra connections and junk that comes with it (that most people don't need) - stuff that can be used for high quality recording and other things you just can't do with onboard sound. I think the $100 sound card investment will get you things that put the sound offerings in another class.

Did SS eliminate the clicking that is notorious with onboard sound? I wish I had an example of the SS to compare to the Audigy2 so I could really tell - now that I think about it, I am quite a big fan of external controllers. I'm probably more prone to paying more than I need to for what might be only a slight improvement... Which might be the case when I go for 939 instead of 754 like Guatam.

 

[Silent Buddha]

Where do you find things out about vcore regulator quality? Never heard anything about it really.

Well I guess you find out since manufacturers don't really tell us. *cough* Asus A7N8X and P4C800 *cough*

 

[dumbfish]

Hehehe, as opposed to those who set out with vendettas to mame and murder their bioses? ...I don't think many bios deaths are a product of "voluntary chipslaughter". But anyways, I agree and wouldn't ever bother with looking for something that featured a dual bios offering... Of course if my bios one day kamikazied itself, I suppose I might think differently.

(dont do this) i set my ram timings all to 1111 .let me put it this way .i had to pop out my bios chip and order a new one.

 

[Speed_Mechanic2]

Here's a "personal experience" review of the Abit KV8 Pro (K8T800 Pro Chipset).

http://www.nickgoodall.org/kv8pro/review1.htm\

Review by NemesisNG - who purchased the board from a retail store in the UK.

http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45487

 

[c627627]

Speed_Mechanic2, where did you get this board??

 

[Speed_Mechanic2]

The review was just posted from a fella who purchased the board from a retail store somewhere in the UK.

Another edit,

http://www.gameve.com/gve/store/productdetails.aspx?sku=MB-ABIT-036 - $105 from GameVE

 

[c627627]

I'd like to see it go head to head with nForce3 250 to see if it beats it.

Will it have VIA Envy24HT PCI audio controller? (Eight-channel with support for the 192kHz/24bit mode, usually available in top-end audio solutions only.)

 

[Gautam]

I checked it last night and it doesn't have AGP nor PCI bus lock.

 

[Speed_Mechanic2]

I'd like to see it go head to head with nForce3 250 to see if it beats it.

Will it have VIA Envy24HT PCI audio controller? (Eight-channel with support for the 192kHz/24bit mode, usually available in top-end audio solutions only.)

The K8T800 was quite the performer at stock levels, and, depending whose benchmarks you follow, performed slightly better or slightly worse compared to the nF3 250 chipset. Here, the K8T800 Pro was shown to have a slight 3DMark01 improvement over the K8T800 by 262 points.

Abit advertises only 6-Channel audio, and the board isn't priced that high.

 

[c627627]

Originally posted by ABIT Marketing
I checked it last night and it doesn't have AGP nor PCI bus lock.

HUH

VIA K8T800 Pro (not K8T800) is supposed to have a PCI lock.


EDIT Frigging Abit called a K8T800 chipset mobo PRO.

It's not based on the PRO chipset at all.

VIA K8T800 Pro (not K8T800) will have a have a PCI lock.

 

[Shaitan]

From the review by NemisisNG

Clearly (the box) stating the new 2000Mhz Hyper Transport speed

Wow - certainly something I did not know or had not seen mentioned about the K8T800 Pro.