nforce2 vs. KT400

[Cosmin]

I've decided to upgrade my actual mobo ( ECS - K7S5A ) ..
Also decided on Epox mobo's cause I've heard only from "good" from them ..

And I've took in the test these 2 :
Epox 8RDA+ [ by nforce2]
Epox 8K9A [ by KT400 ]


I. EPOX 8RDA+

Specifications
Processor AMD Athlon, Athlon XP, Duron
Core Logic nforce2 Platform Processor Chipset
BIOS Award/Phoenix BIOS v6.0
Max. FSB 333MHz
Memory 3 x DDR SDRAM PC3200, 3GB max.
Form Factor ATX

Expansion Slots
AGP 1, 8x
PCI 6, 32-bit

Ports
PS/2 1 mouse, 1 keyboard.
Serial 2
Parallel 1
USB 4 onboard, 2 optional. USB 2.0
Network 1 x Realtek RTL8201 PHY
Floppy 2 drives max.
IDE 2 x E/IDE Ultra DMA/133, 4 drives max.

Controllers
Sound Realtek ALC650E 6-channel full-duplex integrated sound
Option IEEE1394 Firewire interface

Special Features
Hardware Monitoring Function provided by Winbond
Keyboard Power On (KBPO)
Suspend To RAM (STR)
CPU clock settings are adjustable by BIOS
CPU V-core settings are adjustable by BIOS
Memory voltage settings are adjustable by BIOS
AGP voltage settings are adjustable by BIOS
Wake On Lan (WOL)
P80P Diagnostic LED

Price = 109.2$ [here]




II. Epox 8K9A


Specifications
Processor AMD Athlon, Athlon XP, Duron
Core Logic VIA Apollo KT400 Chipset + VIA VT8235
BIOS Award/Phoenix BIOS v6.0
Max. FSB 266MHz
Memory 3 x DDR SDRAM PC2700, 3GB max.
Form Factor ATX

Expansion Slots
AGP 1, 8x
PCI 5, 32-bit

Ports
PS/2 1 mouse, 1 keyboard.
Serial 2
Parallel 1
USB 4 onboard, 2 optional. USB 2.0
Floppy 2 drives max.
IDE 2 x E/IDE Ultra DMA/133, 4 drives max.

Controllers
Sound Realtek ALC650 6-channel full-duplex integrated sound

Special Features
Hardware Monitoring Function provided by Winbond
Keyboard Power On (KBPO)
Suspend To RAM (STR)
CPU clock settings are adjustable by BIOS
CPU multiplier settings are adjustable by BIOS
CPU V-core settings are adjustable by BIOS
AGP voltage settings are adjustable by BIOS
Memory voltage settings are adjustable by BIOS
Wake On Lan (WOL)


Price = 100.9$ [ here]



FINAL QUESTION
What should be .. ?



In tests nforce2 was a bit better but don't know much more about stability ...

 

[Nick M]

KT400 Go for it

 

[Sazar]

nforce2 is faster with its dual channel and also has more bandwidth...

 

[Zedric]

nForce2.

Dual DDR. Yummy.

 

[gonaads]

I'd go with the nforce2.

 

[Taurus]

nforce2 all the way. dual-ddr, thx-certified sound, tons of other features. benches higher than the kt400, too.