MSI K8N Neo Platinum: First nForce3-250Gb
by Wesley Fink on April 26, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
3400+/5950U: Workstation Performance
It is pretty amazing that the 250 Reference Board stands out so clearly in Workstation Performance. Here, you will see the flip-flop that we talked about in our tests with the ATI 9800 Pro on the K8N. The Reference Board favors nVidia graphics heavily in Workstation benchmarks, yet the 250 Reference was rather below average when Workstation benchmarks were run using an ATI 9800 Pro. The MSI is competitive with other Athlon 64 boards running nVidia graphics, but it is not the standout that we saw with the 250 Reference Board.
Conversely, the K8N performs very well running an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro compared to other Athlon 64 boards. These comparisons just point out some of the performance differences that can be achieved in tweaking for certain tasks or benchmark tests. One method is no more correct than the other here; they just represent different approaches to tweaking the chipset.
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Starstream - Thursday, September 16, 2004 - link
Well, I currently have an MSI board and, frankly, I would have to really have my arm twisted before I bought another. Zillions of issues with their support and documentation. I don't know...this is impressive. The "cross mount" memory slots are an interesting twist.ksherman - Sunday, August 22, 2004 - link
this is probably a dump question, but here goes:since the 3200 OCs to the level of the 3800, does that mean i am essentially (if i can reach those speeds of course) getting a 3800 in term of performance? the 3800 are clocked at 2.4GHz, and the only real difference in the processors is the clock speed correct? so a $600+ card for around $200+ seemd like a good deal to me...
Klaasman - Saturday, May 8, 2004 - link
When are these due to be available in the USA for purchase??l3ored - Saturday, May 1, 2004 - link
i'd really like to know weather the 300fsb outperformed the max oc, then i can make memory purchase decisions, perhaps a follow up review is in order?MadAd - Wednesday, April 28, 2004 - link
Raid Questions: a) I run a fasttrack tx2000 with 4 IDE drives and am wondering would I be able to use the 2 IDE channels for raid 0+1 and get a SATA to IDE converter to run an optical drive or two?b) The last raid review at AT was Jun 2001. With new provison for raid in nf250 plus older high end boards offering variations of highpoint and promise on board plus sata raid vs ide becoming a factor, wouldnt this be a good time for another one?
AtaStrumf - Tuesday, April 27, 2004 - link
Same as ATi X800Pro. Well, well don't we have a lot of 8's on the 6th. Too bad I got an exam on that very same day. Hope I get an 8 as well :)Wesley Fink - Tuesday, April 27, 2004 - link
#19 -Several nF3-250 boards are expected at Anandtech in the next couple of weeks. They are starting to show up from many manufacturers.
Also, VIA's update to the K8T800 Pro will launch on May 6.
hifisoftware - Tuesday, April 27, 2004 - link
Very, very nice review.OC bench would not hurt, but otherwise OC is very well covered.
I belive RAID was covered in the chipset review.
One thing that I would've really liked is to know when other mobos are coming out. It would seem that even without overclocking this chipset should not be slower then previous. So maybe another motherboard is gogin to be a bit faster.
mikeymasta - Tuesday, April 27, 2004 - link
Also how 'real' is the hardware raid on the nforce3?I mean can I setup a simple 2 hd based mirror raid have install FreeBSD 5.2.1 and expect it to see only 1 drive like 'true' hardware based raid or is this just software based crap that boil down to just extra IDE ports that only do so called 'raid' by software drivers?
Personally if I was in charge of making standards I would make rule #1 of the standard of raid being that you cant put the word 'raid' on your software product unless its true hardware based raid!
Bit like the true standard of PC133 ram where it couldn't be classed as 'PC133' memory unless it had a clearly printed label on it with letters 'PC133' for a start, (I remember anand pointing that out a long time ago)
AtaStrumf - Tuesday, April 27, 2004 - link
Yep, we want OC benchies!