Six nForce2 SPP Motherboards Reviewed @ ExtremeTech

ABIT NF7-S, ASUS A7N8X Deluxe, Chaintech 7NJS, EPoX 8RDA+, Leadtek K7NCR18D-Pro and MSI K7N2 don lycra leotards for ExtremeTech’s six-way ‘nForce2 Motherboard Smackdown’.

Benchmark comparisons of all the boards, all discrete versions (SPP); also reviewed individually:

“Easy installation was one of the most impressive things about installing and running all these Nforce2 boards. If you’ve ever installed other AMD-based motherboards, you’ve had to tweak settings one way to install the operating system, then re-tweak to get the best performance. Or you may have run into compatibility issues that require installing the motherboard driver-of-the-week.

That wasn’t the case with the Nforce2 boards — although if you’re a Windows XP user, you do have to install Service Pack 1. Linux users can rejoice, too, as Nvidia is offering a full suite of Linux drivers for Nforce2. The point here is that the boards just run. It’s very reminiscent of installing motherboards with Intel core logic. You install them, set up the BIOS once, and go. The boards are stable, fast and we never witnessed any serious system crashes. And while Via is readying a performance-oriented response to Nforce2, they have a lot of user frustration with past Via products to overcome. As one system OEM put it, “Via is the nicest company we’ve never done business with”.

Full review: Nforce2 Motherboard Smackdown @ beyond3d.com

source: email - Entr_opy