NVIDIA WAS SUPPOSED to take the Socket A chipset market by storm with its nForce chipset, but it didn't happen. Despite offering two channels of DDR memory and a host of compelling features, nForce's performance wasn't anything to write home about, and motherboard buyers looked elsewhere. NVIDIA's second effort at core-logic chipsets, however, has been much more successful. A reworked memory controller has given the nForce line a new lease on life. The nForce2 arrived a few months ago, and it's fast. Really fast—easily faster than the incumbent Socket A champ, VIA's KT400.

But VIA knows something about second efforts, too. Its second-revision chipsets, like KT133A and KT266A, have traditionally been notable improvements over the first revs. In fact, VIA's KT266A salvaged VIA's Socket A chipset line-up and helped seal the original nForce's fate.

Now that NVIDIA has been sitting on top for a few months, VIA is back with a new revision of the KT400 dubbed—you guessed it—KT400A. Created by the same lead engineer who designed the KT266A, this new chipset is intended as an nForce2 killer. But NVIDIA's challenge looks tougher this time around. Can VIA really match up with the nForce2? Is there room in the Socket A platform for VIA to squeeze out much more performance? Read on for the answers.