Nfarce!!!!

[RedRed]

Hello All

Well I saved up my pennies and decided to build a new PC. Cash was a bit limited (I have a new baby due end Dec), but I fancied a new Athlon....

I bought an MSI Nfarce motherboard, case, 256 Mb DDR, hd, 1700 Athlon XP.

The Lot was about £400......


The machine looks cool.

Runs Fast (as long as you dont run any apps!!!)

I have never seen a PC as bloody minded about running games! Work once, dont work next, run at about 2 FPS the third!!!

I asume its going to be driveritis..... (the system drivers have gone from 1.08 on the CD to 2.x on the web, and the MOBO was only assembled in October!!!!!!

The AGP looks weird though. It has a retaining clip at the back and seems further into the board (My g400 on the dual system wont fit)

I must say that so far the 2D image quality is absolutely spot on!!!
I only run in 1024X768, and at tis res, there are NO major drops in graphics performance. This integrated video does not appear as bad as my mates gf card

I will let you all know how it gets on in the future....


Regards
RedRed

[Kosh Naranek]

My EPOX 8KHA+ (KT266A) also have a retaining clip at the back of the AGP slot ... works great and keeps the card stable and enables you to apply some serious cooling to your GFX card without it tilting out of the AGP slot !

[Guru]

msi (and intel)has used the clip for years!

[RedRed]

thats cool..... I have only used Abit & QDI boards for some time.... I didnt know they were common....


One thig I have noticed now about this nforce is the 2d speed.

OH MY GOD!!!! Its is pants.

you would think that 2D speed doesnt really make much difference these days.... with a scroll on a side bar you see a definate tearing over the g400

Ill say it again though.... I have now set up both PC's side by side... both have sony trinitron 15sf monitors... 2D static quality is almost identical!... there does appear to be the tinyest drop in quality, but it might just be me...... Heck though in 3 Deee it does go MUCH better (tough the G400 is in a dual celeron 525, the athlon xp is a 1700!!!!)

regards
REDRED

[Gurm]

Well, to answer your first question - yes, it's the drivers. I kept saying, over and over, to anyone who would listen, that the nFarce would have shit for drivers for a year after its release.

But you had to buy one... despite it turning in lower numbers than a comparable VIA or AMD chipset. *shrug*

It's your hair (that you'll pull out over this).

- Gurm

[RedRed]

Hello Gurm

The reason I bought an Nfarce was 2 fold.

1: It was 'cheap'. Can you tell me of a better interim board with decent sound (dolby 5.1) spdif(though i have no use for that at the moment), 10/100 network card, reasonable graphics, 6 usb ports (which I do have use for). All I bought for this machine was a processor, heatsink, ram, Mobo & case!!! This is the first PC I have bought with NO addon cards inside it!!!

2: It will mature. I agree with you, the drivers are not polished yet. I think it will still be a while before it gets fully rounded. (moving from the drivers on CD to the latest Nvidia drivers jumped 25%!!!!!!!! in winbench). My cycle of upgrading left me with little choice of what to upgrade to....

I will give it time...... if its not better by Christmas, I will start to feel a bit sh*t, and retire it for a while to be a media server... (regular apps seem fine)

regards
John J