nForce3 250 Chipset

[Rys]

We managed to grab hold of both reference and non-reference boards for this review. Is nForce3 all it's cracked up to be?

With NVIDIA giving the 250-series chips a feature upgrade, a 'fixed' HyperTransport implementation, some new disk based ability with the changed ATA and SATA controller, 1000Mbit/sec Ethernet capability to let marketroids tick a box, along with an all round spit and polish, nForce3 250 is rather good. The hardware firewall for example is a fine chipset level feature upgrade, scoring NVIDIA good brownie points

I think it is. Just. We simply await hardcore retail examples that lock AGP and PCI now.

Find it here.

[Platinum]

Im waiting to see what VIA has to offer, doesnt there next chipset offer 1000MHz Hypertransport?, Neeeeeed AGP / PCI Locks

[Swafe]

what did it get /10 ? i never saw it in the review

[DR]

It won't get a score out of 10 until we see more retail examples... This was a review of a NVIDIA Reference board, and a "Retail" board

[Rys]

We don't score chipsets unless wrapped in retail motherboard clothing. In general anyway

The Gigabyte sample was running a BETA BIOS and the NVIDIA CRB box was a daft hybrid design that won't ever make it to market.

Platinum is right, K8T800 Pro supports 1000MHz HyperTransport base frequency and AGP/PCI locking, like nForce3 250. The chipset isn't the issue for that now, it's board makers.

They need to correctly implement the locking otherwise it's useless.

Rys

[Platinum]

Its a waiting game as always it seems, I hope Abit bring out a uber clockable k8T800 PRO Mobo

[Rys]

My money is on ASUS. New K8V should rock.

Rys

[Mize]

Great article, but does the NF3-250 have locked AGP/PCI bus (per NF2)? This is, perhaps, the most critical feature for overclockers.

Mize

[Rys]

It does. The article states that in a couple of places and there's a post in this thread confirming it too. The chipset does, but it's now up to board makers to make sure it happens.

Rys

[Mize]

Oops. Missed that. Now that it's lunch and I can "legally" surf, rather than simply skim quickly, I catch the references.

Sorry.

Mize

[Stoo]

The new Chaintech ZNF3-250 looks interesting, it's got a "RadEX" heatpipe thing built in too..
No idea if it locks the pci/agp clocks though..

url: http://www.chaintech.com.tw/tw/eng/n...s_show0316.asp