PCA Forums

Hi people,

Just to stir the pot a bit. I just recently upgraded from an Epox 8K5A2+ (KT333) to an Epox 8RDA+ (nForce2) board. I was expecting to see a measurable difference in performance and so far I haven't...

1) my 3DMark2001SE score increased by 53 points

2) with the FSB/DDR at 166/166 my Sandra memory benches are pretty much identical (with the same ram timings)

3) Super PI 1M and 2M are within a few seconds of each other

I am just curious to know what everybody else thinks?

The 8RDA+ is a fine board, but I think the performance of nForce2 has been over-hyped a bit

i have one of those epox boards sitting on the shelf - i'll try to post some results when i have time to play with it - heatsink sure is pretty

Originally posted by wvjohn
i have one of those epox boards sitting on the shelf - i'll try to post some results when i have time to play with it - heatsink sure is pretty

LOL! It's the same heatsink on the Epox 8K5A2+, but it's almost twice as thick.

Not trying to flame but do you think that because it's identical hardware that maybe the hardware besides the mobo is limiting it and not the mobo itself?

Originally posted by Busby
Not trying to flame but do you think that because it's identical hardware that maybe the hardware besides the mobo is limiting it and not the mobo itself?

That's exactly my point. I have some pretty decent hardware, yet the nForce2 is hard pressed to squeeze an extra 1 or 2% out of it.

Play with your RAM latenicy settings alittle.

Originally posted by mrlayance
Play with your RAM latenicy settings alittle.

Been there, done that -- A LOT!

From what i've seen the Nforce2 don't perform much better than Kt333 does... has a lot more options and the dual channel ddr feature which is about worthless for AMD chips...

Yeah, the nforce2 is basically an nforce without the integrated video. It's not much of a difference...I think the nforce is good for OEMs who want to make low-cost/high performance PC, because basically all you need to do is add mem, CPU, HD and video and you have a system. Everything else is integrated.

I'm in the market for a new mb, and I am fairly certain I will stick with AMD. I might go for an Abit board with a KT333 chipset...as the KT400 only seems to offer additional cost.

The appeal of the nforce2 to me is the built ins but mainly the multiplier bios adjustment for the new B stepping cpu's.

Probably in a few months when more new B steppings are on the market is when I'll dive in.

Most of my big performance leaps came from memory types/settings & cpu clock speeds etc when upgrading since the BX days.

Marketing is critical as new motherboard/chipsets usually only have a 6 month to year window to make the r & d costs back so they need to pump up the hype for the latest mb before it becomes old news



*****Just picked up an epox 8k9a2+ and the local store has a good deal on B T'breds of 1800*****

but i like my 8rda+ a lot - it is very stable and the unlock on the tbred is a big help - i am currently running 12x200, 14x166 to try out different stuff on this mobo

i got my 1700 b bred to 1.8+ and my 2100 b bred to 2.4 with minimal hassle

I just ordered the 8RDA from newegg for 93 shipped... + model was OOS and i don't really need all that onboard stuff anyways... This 8K3A+ has been good to me but giving me problems lately with pulling the 5v rail down low. I have a 480W Antec TruBlue PSU and i'm gettinga 4.78 5v rail when overclocking heavy with this 2100+ its at 2166 right now cause i keep getting a damn bsod and random reboots with anything higher... I did getthis chip to post and boot into XP at 2.5 Gig but it took 2.1v's and i only have air cooling and i didn't like the 165F temp i seen in MBM lol but from what i'm seeing those 8RDA's are overclockin very well with a lower voltage than i'm using now... plus i'd like to run my corsair at 200 fsb so it would be nice to have the unlock feature... Also read a article at amdmb.com Opteron will be out april this yeah this is from AMD themselves while the Athlon 64 which is the destop hammer won't be out till september... figure i'll grab this board and wait till sept to get the A64... was hoping it would be out sooner cause i was gonna hold off on a mobo upgrade till then but 8 months is too long to wait for me LOL by then i'd have had this damn 8k3a+ for 16 months...

i think you'll like it - the second + i got was rev 1.1 which is supposed to be a little better - haven't used it b/c i had to build a puter for #1 son today - little ecs k7s5a/1600+gf2pro/64 win 2k 512 pc2100 - should be a nice little box for mr. honor roll : m- also they are releasing new bios every 2 weeks - check the epox forum at amdmb.com - they have an epox rep in the forum which is helpful

sis drivers are a bit odd, though, took a while

Originally posted by wvjohn
but i like my 8rda+ a lot - it is very stable and the unlock on the tbred is a big help - i am currently running 12x200, 14x166 to try out different stuff on this mobo

i got my 1700 b bred to 1.8+ and my 2100 b bred to 2.4 with minimal hassle

I can't run 100% stable with the FSB at 200Mhz.

I got mine to do neches, 3d mark, etc at 200 mhz but i think that the morthbridge gets too hot at over 200 i was getting some spontaneous reboots - i have to put a fan on the northbridge, it is hot to the touch, which is probably not good