Nforce 2??

[Lombers]

Anyone happen to notice these over at the Leadtek Website??

http://www.leadtek.com.tw/www/Web_Le...D/k7ncr18d.asp

http://www.leadtek.com.tw/www/Web_Le...D/k7ncr18g.asp

Another weird thing I saw was in this month's APC, Rectron have a full page ad, with Leadtek video cards, but in the bottom right hand corner they were advertising the Leadtek Nforce 2 board. Surely they wouldn't do this if these boards weren't available??

Now all we have to wait for is someone to confirm this (maybe Chainbolt in Japan), and perhaps a review. From the specs, they sure look like they have some potential.

[Bravo]

The motherboard model is a hand full

Looks pretty good

[PappaSmurf]

Well spotted lombs, very interesting
Wish all the others (ABit and MSI in particular) would get their act together and get them out

Or mabey its all Nvidias fault (yeah, lets blame it on them )

[Acid]

That's how the smaller manufacturers grab market share. They don't care about breaking NDAs and nVidia won't care if Leadtek break their NDA either because they are such a small company. So, Leadtek release the first nForce2 boards and grab all the early buyers.

[PappaSmurf]

But why have an NDA on something which is ready to ship?

[Acid]

Originally posted by PappaSmurf
But why have an NDA on something which is ready to ship?

That's a question for nVidia... they could be still milking the nForce 1 for all it's worth, however, are they even onsale anymore!? And if so, who buys them?

[Lombers]

I like the fact that Nforce 2 supports DDR333/400. I was quite excited when I saw the ad in APC, I thought maybe they were available in Australia already. Leadtek seem to have put some nice features into this board, especially overclocking wise.

One thing that is a bit annoying with this board however is much like the original Nforce, it has dual channel DDR, which basically means to get the most performance out of it you will need to run two RAM sticks, one in either of the first two dimms, and another in the 3rd dimm. Last nforce board showed only very small improvement dual channel wise, unless you were using the integrated onboard video. Hopefully the chipset has been tweaked a bit more to provide some more bandwidth.

I'm looking forward to hearing more news on this board after the very lacklustre showing of the KT400 chipset. It is good to see Nvidia not hyping this chipset as much as their previous attempt, considering all the problems nforce 1 had, but it would be nice to see some reviews or hear some info on it every now and again.

[Acid]

Originally posted by Lombers
I like the fact that Nforce 2 supports DDR333/400. I was quite excited when I saw the ad in APC, I thought maybe they were available in Australia already. Leadtek seem to have put some nice features into this board, especially overclocking wise.

One thing that is a bit annoying with this board however is much like the original Nforce, it has dual channel DDR, which basically means to get the most performance out of it you will need to run two RAM sticks, one in either of the first two dimms, and another in the 3rd dimm. Last nforce board showed only very small improvement dual channel wise, unless you were using the integrated onboard video. Hopefully the chipset has been tweaked a bit more to provide some more bandwidth.

I'm looking forward to hearing more news on this board after the very lacklustre showing of the KT400 chipset. It is good to see Nvidia not hyping this chipset as much as their previous attempt, considering all the problems nforce 1 had, but it would be nice to see some reviews or hear some info on it every now and again.

You're totally forgetting the main reason why the KT400 and nForce 1 were lacklustre. The Athlon is crippled by a low bandwidth front side bus!! Dual channel, DDR333 and DDR400 memory won't make a difference if the processor can't send or receive data at more the 2.1GB/sec!!

[PappaSmurf]

Yeah, it would be nice to hear SOMETHING.. ANYTHING
Gah, going crazy from lack of hearage-about-NF2age

[HeXa]

Originally posted by Acid


You're totally forgetting the main reason why the KT400 and nForce 1 were lacklustre. The Athlon is crippled by a low bandwidth front side bus!! Dual channel, DDR333 and DDR400 memory won't make a difference if the processor can't send or receive data at more the 2.1GB/sec!!

which is why the Nforce2 also supports the 166MHz FSB...... perhaps Nvidia/board manufacturers are waiting for those CPUs to be released before bringing out retail Nforce2 boards. Reliable DDR400 memory is easily available now so that is no longer really a reason for the delay....... still waiting for a test board review instead of all that ancient paper launch stuff.

or perhaps Nvidia is more worried about getting the NV18/NV28/NV30 ready for release - maybe we might even see the Nforce2 lauched for real on Sept 25th along with the NV18/NV28

- HeXa

[Lombers]

Originally posted by Acid
You're totally forgetting the main reason why the KT400 and nForce 1 were lacklustre. The Athlon is crippled by a low bandwidth front side bus!! Dual channel, DDR333 and DDR400 memory won't make a difference if the processor can't send or receive data at more the 2.1GB/sec!!

That is not my point. My point is that the KT400 chipset has so far shown itself to perform worse than a KT333 or even KT266A chipset board. Regardless of what bandwidth the CPU can use, with a next generation chipset you expect improvements, even if they are only small. Not to mention that there is no 1/6th divider either, or should I say one that works and maintains stability. That is why I think the Nforce 2 will be an attractive board, not to mention it's extra features. Of course, these boards are just the apetizer. It's really the 166Mhz FSB AMD CPU's we are all waiting for.

[GreenBeret]

Leadtek seem to have put some nice features into this board, especially overclocking wise

NEVER EVER let Leadtek fool you, my friend Their Sis735 and nForce1 boards had tons of OCing features, but they didn't work

[Lombers]

Originally posted by GreenBeret
NEVER EVER let Leadtek fool you, my friend Their Sis735 and nForce1 boards had tons of OCing features, but they didn't work

LOL, Lemontek anyone??

[Acid]

Originally posted by Lombers


That is not my point. My point is that the KT400 chipset has so far shown itself to perform worse than a KT333 or even KT266A chipset board. Regardless of what bandwidth the CPU can use, with a next generation chipset you expect improvements, even if they are only small. Not to mention that there is no 1/6th divider either, or should I say one that works and maintains stability. That is why I think the Nforce 2 will be an attractive board, not to mention it's extra features. Of course, these boards are just the apetizer. It's really the 166Mhz FSB AMD CPU's we are all waiting for.

Do you think the reason why the KT400 is a low performer has ANYTHING to do with the chipset itself. It doesn't! Current DDR400 memory can't run fast memory timings. So comparing a CAS2.5 DDR400 module on a KT400 system that is bottlenecked by the Athlon's FSB anyway is going to be slower than a CAS2 DDR333 on a KT333 system.

Even if the bus is 166MHz, the extra bandwidth still won't be enough to take advantage of dual-channel or DDR400, just DDR333.

[Bravo]

Originally posted by Acid


Do you think the reason why the KT400 is a low performer has ANYTHING to do with the chipset itself. It doesn't! Current DDR400 memory can't run fast memory timings. So comparing a CAS2.5 DDR400 module on a KT400 system that is bottlenecked by the Athlon's FSB anyway is going to be slower than a CAS2 DDR333 on a KT333 system.

Even if the bus is 166MHz, the extra bandwidth still won't be enough to take advantage of dual-channel or DDR400, just DDR333.

Acid, it does. The KT400 operating at 133mhz bus speed yields less throughput and memory efficiency then a KT333 board.