Author Topic: Opinions on the nForce 420D Chipset (Read 457 times)

CavemanJ · « **on:** February 07, 2002, 10:41:04 PM »

So who has opinions on this chipset?

Anyone built a box on one of these boards yet? Or am I gonna be the first around here to boldly go where none have gone before?

I got the K7N420Pro board from MSI and an Athlon XP 1600+ (1.4g) to slap together. I let a friend talk me into this one after I had read a few reviews of the board and chipset. He ordered 2 of the boards the same day I ordered mine. We're gonna camp out at his place this weekend to put the boxes together after we send the women folk out shopping

DES · « **Reply #1 on:** February 07, 2002, 10:55:57 PM »

Just put one together for a friend 2 weeks ago. Download the online manual and use the one that came with it to clean the tables it has missing items and some diagrams are upside down, especially of note is the clear cmos jumper which caused me no end of grief for 1/2 hour. I used the onboard sound and video, disabled the onboard lan as he didn't need it, and added a modem. First setup I used windows 98se and had wierd mouse pointer problems where the pointer would disappear and run around the edges of the screen. I also had trouble with the clock running as much as 1 1/2 hours fast in 10 minutes time. After visiting their forums at:
http://cweb.msi.com.tw/eforum/?target=topic&fid=9&order=
I was told that the board doesn't like any OS below W2000 so I loaded XP Pro and it's been running fine now for a couple days. The guy that has doesn't play AH but he does play N4 which is a far more system demanding game and it runs very well in 16 bit color. I didn't try 32 bit so I can't say on that.
DES

Wotan · « **Reply #2 on:** February 07, 2002, 10:58:17 PM »

im gonna build a similiar system but instead of the 420d which includes a gf2 onboard i will get the 415d which is a bit cheaper and doesn't include the gf2.

They both include onboard sound and the d is for dolby digitable.

I heard the sound quality is real good.

instead of the xp1600+ I will get the 1800+ (the boards are rated for 1600mghz)

I haven't ordered my stuff yet I was waiting for a few more boards to be released right now asus and msi are the only 2 I've found.

the asus cost more and on the msi board it comes with fast ethernet onboard as well.

Do a search bloom put a similiar system together like yours a month or so ago.

CavemanJ · « **Reply #3 on:** February 08, 2002, 07:52:49 AM »

Des thanks for that link, I'm sure it'll come in handy as this is the first one I've built from scratch.

Wotan I went with the 420d to use the onboard gf2 for a few months til gf3 prices come down some. It's better than the tnt2 ultra I'm running right now anyway

keyapaha · « **Reply #4 on:** February 08, 2002, 09:11:19 AM »

i'm currently useing that same set up with an athlon 1.3 and win98se also using onboard sound and video both are great so far.

CavemanJ · « **Reply #5 on:** February 08, 2002, 09:57:21 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by keyapaha
i'm currently useing that same set up with an athlon 1.3 and win98se also using onboard sound and video both are great so far.

Did you have any problems getting 98se setup and running? On that forum DES linked to I was reading about alot of folks having problems with 98se, and that the board is really for 2k and newer systems.

keyapaha · « **Reply #6 on:** February 08, 2002, 01:46:27 PM »

been running for a month so far so good i did have a problem with the cnr card i think it was conflecting with the sound card and was makeing my screen freeze for a sec or two but i pulled it out and every thing running fine for now. but in the near future i will be using win2000. btw i with ya in the twins thing got a set of 4yr olds

bloom25 · « **Reply #7 on:** February 09, 2002, 12:01:18 PM »

Cave, I built an nForce system in December. I'd suggest putting Win 2000 or XP on it. (ME will work if you have NOTHING else.)

The guy I built it for hasn't had any problems with it that I know of.

I really liked the board itself. Look for my thread on about December 20 called "I'm about to build an nForce system."

I posted a lot of info there.

My only complaint is that the manual is pretty bad about showing jumper and connector locations for things like the power switch etc. (The USB header looks almost like the connector the power switch, HDD led, etc hook to.)

CavemanJ · « **Reply #8 on:** February 14, 2002, 06:48:12 PM »

Ok, the box has been built and running for almost a week now. The night we put the OS on it we had a few random BSODs after installing win98se when we'd restart after installing a driver, sometimes on shutdown sometimes on boot. Just a few though.

Went to win2k pro after the live update wouldna work (and I didna feel like the hassle of installing all the drivers manually

)

I'm using the onboard gf2 and sound and so far no real complaints. I'm real happy with it, it's nice and solid. now that I've gotten the pots cleaned on my sticks it's time to break it in right

bloom25 · « **Reply #9 on:** February 15, 2002, 03:56:58 AM »

I never even tried win98 on the system I built, I just put win2k on there. My experience was very positive. My only complaint is that the video quality from the onboard GF2 Mx is slightly blurry in the corners at higher resolutions.