If you find other previews or reviews, tell me, I will add them to this list.

PREVIEW/REVIEW LIST :
<font color=red>NEW!</font color=red> <A HREF="http://www.ocworkbench.com/2004/epox/8kda3+/8kda3+-1.htm" target="_new">ocWorkBench - EPoX 8KDA3+ nForce3-250Gb Socket 754</A>
<font color=red>NEW!</font color=red> <A HREF="http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews/review.php?dXJsX3Jldmlld19JRD03NTc" target="_new">hexus.net - EPoX 8KDA3+ nForce3 250Gb</A>
<A HREF="http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/article.php?id=297" target="_new">tbreak - Gigabyte K8NSNXP (nF3-250Gb) review</A>
<A HREF="http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=15566" target="_new">Inquirer - Epox 8KDA3+ Nforce 3 250Gb reviewed</A>
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=2036" target="_new">AnandTech - MSI K8N Neo Platinum: First nForce3-250Gb </A>
<A HREF="http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews/review.php?dXJsX3Jldmlld19JRD03NTE" target="_new">heXus - nForce3 250 Chipset Overclocking</A>
<A HREF="http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040420/index.html" target="_new">NVIDIA's "New and Improved" nForce3 250 GB Chipset</A>
<A HREF="http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/article.php?cat=mobos&id=290&pagenumber=1" target="_new">tbreak - MSI K8N Neo Platinum review</A>
<A HREF="http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/chipsets/display/nforce3-250.html" target="_new">X-bit Labs - First Mass Mainboard on NVIDIA nForce3 250</A>
<A HREF="http://techreport.com/reviews/2004q2/nforce3-250gb/index.x?pg=1" target="_new">TechReport - Upping the ante for Athlon 64</A>
<A HREF="http://www.gamers-depot.com/hardware/motherboards/nf3/n250/001.htm" target="_new">Gamer's Depot preview</A>
<A HREF="http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Features/nforce3250preview/" target="_new">NeoSeeker</A>
<A HREF="http://firingsquad.com/hardware/nforce3_250gb/default.asp" target="_new">Firing Squad</A>
<A HREF="http://www.short-media.com/article.php?142.0" target="_new">Short-Media</A>
<A HREF="http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/urltrurl?url=http://www.computerbase.de/news/hardware/prozessoren/amd/2004/maerz/a64_3400_sockel_939_sandrabenchmarks/&lp=de_en&tt=url" target="_new">Computer base "sneak peek" Translated from German</A> (Thanks to <A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=174050#174050" target="_new">Schmide</A> )
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/chipsets/showdoc.html?i=2004" target="_new">AnandTech Preview - Part 1</A>
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/chipsets/showdoc.html?i=2009" target="_new">AnandTech Preview - Part 2</A>
<A HREF="http://www.hardware.fr/articles/490/page1.html" target="_new">Hardware.fr (French)</A> <A HREF="http://216.239.37.104/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&langpair=fr%7Cen&u=http://www.hardware.fr/articles/490/page1.html&prev=/language_tools" target="_new">(Translated in english)</A>
<A HREF="http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14952" target="_new">Inquirer provide some benchmarks</A> OPTERON
<A HREF="http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=15144" target="_new">Inquirer - Nforce3 Pro 250 2 processor pics revealed </A> OPTERON

The SHORT-MEDIA preview gives a lot of infos/screenshots about the "nvSystemUtility" and "nvRAID" application. And it looks promising. VIA will have to do major upgrades in both fonctionnality and software support to stay competitive with this new nVidia chipset.

Performance are on par with VIA chipset. The nForce3 have a couple of great features : hardware firewall, full-speed GigE interface, dual cpu support and an integrated SATA controller that use less CPU than the VIA. We will only miss the nForce2 great APU. nForce3 only support AC97 and it's lags in audio performance in comparison with the VIA solution. So, if you plan to buy an nForce3 250Gb MB, you will surely buy an add-in audio card if you plan to play games or have top-notch audio features.

This chipset will put a pressure on Intel/VIA/SiS to offer as much feature in their chipsets. Because the nForce3 250Gb could be to decisive choice for a SysAdmin to jump to the Opteron. Because every SysAdmin knows that security and Ethernet performance are very important in servers.

With this chipset nVidia wants to show to the Industry that they are ready for the data centers. And this nVidia chipset can only be good for AMD sales.

nVidia wins over VIA not because of performance, but because it has more features. For overclockers, nForce3 250 MB will offer the best performance/stability, since VIA chipset is not stable when it's highly overclocked.

<b>UPDATES :</b>
2004-05-07: Added ocWorkBench/Hexus reviews of EPoX 8KDA3+, I updated my comments too.
2004-05-03: Added tbreak K8NSNXP review.
2004-04-28: Added Inquirer review.
2004-04-26: Added AnandTech MSI K8N review.
2004-04-20: Added THG review and Hexus.net overclocking article
2004-04-14: Added tbreak review.
2004-04-09: Added first official nForce250 review from XbitLabs
2004-04-08: Added TechReport review/preview and another Inquirer link. I updated my comments based on the TechReport article.
2004-04-07: Gamer's Depot preview
2004-04-01: NeoSeeker Preview added.
2004-03-29: AnandTech Part 2 added.
2004-03-25: Added Inquirer benchmark link.

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Would you buy a potato powered chipset?<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by TheRod on 05/07/04 08:22 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

Jsut added the AnantTech Part 2 article, I can't wait to read it!

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Would you buy a potato powered chipset?

Thanks for the compilation, I cant wait for the boards...

Anxiously awaiting grantsdale...

VIA better not come close to catching up.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

I just revisited Tom's review of the A64 chipsets. I went through each benchmark and gave points for performance. I gave 4 points for first, 3 for second, 2 for third and 1 for last. The Nforce3 150 beat out the others badly. It got 76 points. The sis chipset was second with 54, while the via, in third got only 48, and ali,36.
The Nforce beat Via by 50%.<A HREF="http:// http://www6.tomshardware.com/mothe [...] 64-06.html " target="_new">http:// http://www6.tomshardware.com/mothe [...] 64-06.html </A> Just check the benches, dont read the bs. It looks like we have all been sold the Via line and bought it hook and sinker.
One other point I would like to make. The Nforce3 150 is a single chip chipset. This should allow for a cooler board temp, which will give a much cooler chip. The Nforce3 150 is already a killer chipset.

Did you count synthetic benchmarks? You should separate the results 3 category : games, applications and synthetic benchs.

I think VIA deserved to be the winner, if you consider performance in real world applications and games. nForce3 150 shines in synthetic benchmark, but no ne use these applications!

Can you recompile your DATA in the 3 categories I mentioned?

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Would you buy a potato powered chipset?

With only 5 games, it is hard to draw conclusions. The via does well in Quake 3, while the nforce does well in Dx8 and 9. You will excuse me if I say that Quake 3 is not a valid test for an Amd system.
While the synthetic benches are less than wonderful for comparing Amd and Intel, they are pretty good for same chip comparisons.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by endyen on 03/31/04 01:38 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

I toally agree with you. In fact, Quake 3 is not good anymore since it's an old game. Who still play this game anyway?

Still, you should give us the result for the nechmarks category :

GAMES : VIA X / nForce Y
APPS : VIA X / nForce Y
Synth : VIA X / nForce Y

OVERALL : VIA X / nForce Y



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Would you buy a potato powered chipset?

Bump to the top! Added NeoSeeker Preview. Not much in this short preview!

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Would you buy a potato powered chipset?

Bump to the top!

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Would you buy a potato powered chipset?

The inquirer benchmarks are for the 3 250-G dual opteron board.

*Dual PIII-800 @900 i440BX and Tualeron 1.2 @1.7 i815*

Good precision!
By the way, my list is not intended for a specific nForce3 250Gb platform. I try to add article regardless of Socket support, etc... It's only a ocmpilation of hanful articles on this promising chipset for the AMD64

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Would you buy a potato powered chipset?

I added the review of the Chaintech Zenith ZNF3-250 from XbitLabs... And this board will disapoint you. Some overclockers features are not working and Cool&Quiet is not owrking either.

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Would you buy a potato powered chipset?

Added tbreak review.

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Would you buy a potato powered chipset?