is Nvidia Nforce stable ?

M

Mike

Hi
I want to build a new system with parts ordered
online from places such as Newegg, tigerdirect etc>

I am doing research on each part I think I might
like from places like AnandTech, Tomshardware,
Pc mag, etc. I am also looking at buyers comments
from newegg, and places like that, as well as reading
comments in discussion groups at Nvidia, Amd,
and places like that. In other words I am TRYING
to do my Homework.

When I first started to look for components,I
was sure It would be an Amd chip like the
A64 x2 4400, and a board like the Asus
A8n-sli. But I noticed the thousands. (yes thousands)
of problems of one kind or another. with Nvidia Nfocee 4
chipset. having problems getting along with certain
power supplies, hard drives, operating systems, drivers,
and things like that. Then came the problem of
whose fault is it. Its Nvidia, No its Maxtor, No its
Microsoft, No its Antech, No its Amd. And on and on.
I know a new chipset like the Nvidia nforce 4 needs
time to mature..

I don't want to pay a ton of money for a new system,
just to have to be a pc mechanic everyday. I want to
(set it and forget it) I know a lot of folks here look forward to
the challenge of fixing problems and conflicts. (Even if they
appear to be upset that something isn't working)
Even if I could fix all the problems that MIGHT come up,
when I am gone my other family members may not be able to.

I know what you may be thinking. If I don't want any problems,
just buy a Mac, and don't bother this group with your unwanted
observations. But I post this here because of your knowledge,
experience, and your willingness to help others We all thank you for that.

I don't need SLI Just one pcie x16 slot plus sata 2
I also don't have any need to overclock.
I am looking for a good balance between performance
and stability.
Would I be better off with an Intel Based system,
Like the Intel chipsets, and Intel Pentium D processor ?
I know the performance is not as
Fast as an Amd/Nvidia nforce setup, But I know (and
you know) that the are rock solid and extremely stable

Can I please have your comments, so I can make a decision ?
I really wanted the faster Amd setup, but I need stability as well

Thanks for your help
Mike
 
C

Chris Hill

Hi
I want to build a new system with parts ordered
online from places such as Newegg, tigerdirect etc>

I am doing research on each part I think I might
like from places like AnandTech, Tomshardware,
Pc mag, etc. I am also looking at buyers comments
from newegg, and places like that, as well as reading
comments in discussion groups at Nvidia, Amd,
and places like that. In other words I am TRYING
to do my Homework.

When I first started to look for components,I
was sure It would be an Amd chip like the
A64 x2 4400, and a board like the Asus
A8n-sli. But I noticed the thousands. (yes thousands)
of problems of one kind or another. with Nvidia Nfocee 4
chipset. having problems getting along with certain
power supplies, hard drives, operating systems, drivers,
and things like that. Then came the problem of
whose fault is it. Its Nvidia, No its Maxtor, No its
Microsoft, No its Antech, No its Amd. And on and on.
I know a new chipset like the Nvidia nforce 4 needs
time to mature..

I don't want to pay a ton of money for a new system,
just to have to be a pc mechanic everyday. I want to
(set it and forget it) I know a lot of folks here look forward to
the challenge of fixing problems and conflicts. (Even if they
appear to be upset that something isn't working)
Even if I could fix all the problems that MIGHT come up,
when I am gone my other family members may not be able to.

That chipset isn't exactly new. I'm sure there are some
incompatabilities, but I suspect there will always be something. If
you want something that works out of the box and you can swap it for
another or get your money back if it doesn't Sam's or Costco is likely
in your neighborhood.
 
W

Will Dormann

Mike said:
Can I please have your comments, so I can make a decision ?
I really wanted the faster Amd setup, but I need stability as well

I'm quite happy with my A8N-E board. (the non-SLI version of the
A8N-SLI, I believe). No stability problems at all. Just don't
install the Nvidia IDE drivers. (They hang WinXP on shutdown)

The only issue I have with it is that the ECC option in the BIOS
apparently only enables error detection rather than correction.


-WD
 
D

Dude

Mike said:
Thanks for your help
Mike

i have a nvidia gforce, i haven't had any problems
if that says anything about the quality of nvidia

i've been using it for about 2 years now.

my favorite thing to do is "throw windows"

just a little nudge and off they go onto the other monitor
(rather than carry them over there and set them down)
 
L

l e o

Mike said:
Hi
I want to build a new system with parts ordered
online from places such as Newegg, tigerdirect etc>

I am doing research on each part I think I might
like from places like AnandTech, Tomshardware,
Pc mag, etc. I am also looking at buyers comments
from newegg, and places like that, as well as reading
comments in discussion groups at Nvidia, Amd,
and places like that. In other words I am TRYING
to do my Homework.

When I first started to look for components,I
was sure It would be an Amd chip like the
A64 x2 4400, and a board like the Asus
A8n-sli. But I noticed the thousands. (yes thousands)
of problems of one kind or another. with Nvidia Nfocee 4
chipset. having problems getting along with certain
power supplies, hard drives, operating systems, drivers,
and things like that. Then came the problem of
whose fault is it. Its Nvidia, No its Maxtor, No its
Microsoft, No its Antech, No its Amd. And on and on.
I know a new chipset like the Nvidia nforce 4 needs
time to mature..

I don't want to pay a ton of money for a new system,
just to have to be a pc mechanic everyday. I want to
(set it and forget it) I know a lot of folks here look forward to
the challenge of fixing problems and conflicts. (Even if they
appear to be upset that something isn't working)
Even if I could fix all the problems that MIGHT come up,
when I am gone my other family members may not be able to.

I know what you may be thinking. If I don't want any problems,
just buy a Mac, and don't bother this group with your unwanted
observations. But I post this here because of your knowledge,
experience, and your willingness to help others We all thank you for that.

I don't need SLI Just one pcie x16 slot plus sata 2
I also don't have any need to overclock.
I am looking for a good balance between performance
and stability.
Would I be better off with an Intel Based system,
Like the Intel chipsets, and Intel Pentium D processor ?
I know the performance is not as
Fast as an Amd/Nvidia nforce setup, But I know (and
you know) that the are rock solid and extremely stable

Can I please have your comments, so I can make a decision ?
I really wanted the faster Amd setup, but I need stability as well

Thanks for your help
Mike


I have the nForce 4 Premium since the beginning of last year. It was
extrememly unstable. I believe it's the IDE driver. The problem I have
is I was not able to install any OS (WinXP and even WinXP x64) without
the IDE/SATA driver because I am using a SATA HD. The lastest driver is
finally stable. Also, the hardware firewall was also problematic. I
didn't install the latest version so I can't tell if they have finally
fix the problem or not. Also, I cannot use GigaStudio 3, the system
seems to hang, with the HD lights flickering intermittently. nForce 4 is
stable for general use but there are still flaws.
 
B

Bob Knowlden

Just remember that most people don't go out of their way to post that their
PC is running smoothly. A lot of posted problems may indicate a fundamental
flaw, or they may simply suggest a normal problem rate with a popular
product.

The nForce 4 is hardly a new chipset. I've had an A8N-SLI for a few weeks,
and I've had no trouble with it. The original BIOS for it is from late 2004.

My only buyer's remorse is that I went for the vanilla model rather than the
Premium. It appears that the chipset fan on my mainboard may have a limited
life. The Premium has no fan; it uses a heatpipe solution, that uses airflow
from the CPU fan. (Otherwise, I have no use for the extra SATA controller
and Ethernet port of the Premium.) My chipset fan is a newer, lower RPM
model than the problem one; if it lasts as long as the graphics card fans
I've had, I should be OK.

My previous board was an Asus A8V Deluxe. It uses the Via K8T800 Pro
chipset. You may have read how poor Via chipsets are. I ran that board for
over a year with no difficulty. (I'd be inclined to rant about a major
problem with some beta IDE drivers from Via, but that was readily solved by
a clean reinstall of XP. !@#$%^&.)

Incidentally, my system is running smoothly. That's with the bus overclocked
to 220 MHz, running an A64 4400+ at 2.42 GHz. (Thermalright XP-120
heatsink.) I'll be trying to get a bit more out of it when my faster RAM
arrives. (I'd like it to compete with a non-overclocked FX60, but that may
be a bit much to expect.) Overclocking is not recommended, but the ability
to do it reliably seems like an indicator of a stable system.


Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.
 
J

johns

The nForce chipsets are unstable only when using an
nVidia video card. If you use an ATI video card, the optimum
chipset is the nForce 4, and you will have a nice stable
.... and fast .. system. The problem is due to the fact that
nVidia allows anybody to build their products, and you
will almost never be able to identify which manufacturers
are doing a good job. If you put a generic nVidia 6800
on an nForce 3 chipset, your games, esp Far Cry, will
stutter. Switch to an ATI 9800 Pro, and all of that will
clean right up, and your games .. even the newer ones ..
will run fine.

johns
 
F

FaxCap

When I first started to look for components,I
was sure It would be an Amd chip like the
A64 x2 4400, and a board like the Asus
A8n-sli. But I noticed the thousands. (yes thousands)
of problems of one kind or another. with Nvidia Nfocee 4
chipset. having problems getting along with certain
power supplies, hard drives, operating systems, drivers,
and things like that. Then came the problem of
whose fault is it. Its Nvidia, No its Maxtor, No its
Microsoft, No its Antech, No its Amd. And on and on.
I know a new chipset like the Nvidia nforce 4 needs
time to mature..

I don't want to pay a ton of money for a new system,
just to have to be a pc mechanic everyday.
Thanks for your help
Mike

Mike, the reason you see so many problems listed on the A8n-SLI is the
fact they have sold a TON of them!!! PLus there are so many features
on this board and in it's BIOS.

I just built myself a new hotrod pc 3 weeks ago.

A8N32-SLI - Athlon64 4000+

If I was in your spot I would go A8N-E. I had ZERO problems
using a new WD2500KS SATA2 drive and a new copy of WinXP with SP2.
I did install the Nvidia SATA drivers. Only difference I noticed was
using the M$ XP drivers there was no "removable device" icon on the
system tray...when I installed the Nvidia SATA drivers the logo
appears. No big deal.....just watch what you do when STOPPING a
removable USB device! :)

Here's one problem I did run into....I'm one of those people who were
getting corruption on large files downloads. It appears to be the
Nvidia Firewall. I tweaked the settings and it's fine now but I may
turn it off someday and go back to ZoneAlarm. I'll keep an eye on it
for a while. I have downloaded some massive files in the last week or
so and they were fine so I think I have it working.

I just want to point something out to you, Mike...if you are building
this pc as a game playing pc be aware the Athlon64 X2's will run most
games slightly slower than a single core Athlon64 until M$ releases a
tweak with Service Pack #3 for WinXP. And it won't be out until AFTER
Vista is released!!! :-(

That's why I went Athlon64 4000+ for now....when SP3 is released I
will buy the fastest clocked X2 I can afford and sell the 4000+ to one
of my buddies. The A8N32-SLI should be supported by Asus for quite a
long while. Asus is excellent that way. Frequent BIOS updates and long
support. I had an OLD Asus P5 board which got a BIOS update when the
board was a good 5 years old!

Also, if you are NOT going to use RAID remember to turn it off in the
BIOS the very 1st time you start the pc! My A8N32-SLI had RAID on by
default....caused me some troubles in the 1st day or so until I
realized it was Enabled by default in the BIOS.

FaxCap
 
W

Will Dormann

l said:
Also, the hardware firewall was also problematic.

Ah, yes... I forgot about that part. Yeah, I had to remove the
Nvidia firewall as it was silently corrupting downloads.

So basically the Nvidia board is quite nice, but the software is lacking.



-WD
 

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