For those of us still running the AthlonXP on a nforce2 system, the loss of soundstorm is a step down.

You want useless features here is a list:

SLI? I don't have money to buy mid-high end card, why would i want two. Sure it has buzz, but nvidia is only trying to push its graphics card

Hardware firewall. I have a firewall in winXP pro, i have norton internet security, my router at work has a firewall.

RAID, disc span -- i am still trying to fill my 200Gb harddrive with p0rn

The only practical feature i'd would have used is soundstorm. Now its gone. I suspect soundstorm was the only feature that mattered to the average guy.

I'll be seriously looking at VIA

There is a petition you can sign to bring back soundstorm:
http://www.petitiononline.com/NVAPU/petition.html

hardware firewall? ... sounds cool, what about linux support? (for those of us that have a future Althon64 linux home file server/network gateway/firewall in mind) .. oh, you mean it'll more than likely be like the nv ethernet driver saga all over again*. Ugh.

I'm not a fan of nvidia closed source linux drivers - which then become unmaintained. I guess for those with a single windows box it'll be alright.

It'll be KT800Pro for me more than likely.

* the saga was that the nv ethernet driver was not maintained and then it had to be reverse engineered (became the 'forcedeth' project).

Lets get to the bones of this; how are the drivers for nVidia's motherboards these days? Ever since Diamond made video cards, it has been a neon flashing lesson in my brain that the hottest looking hardware does NOT make for a happy hardware enthusiast. Crappy drivers can kill the joy.

Are nVidia's motherboard drivers up to snuff these days?

(I tried VIA's 4-in-1 drivers a couple years ago and just hated the experience, so I've avoided VIA ever since. In fact, I consider Intel's chipset drivers once of the strongest arguments for Intel-based computers right now.)

#2, Nobody likes the missing Soundstorm.
But the reason it's missing is simply $.. the Dolby license costs too much. Users/OEMs really really don't want to pay an extra $5 (or more?) for the Dolby license. You and I scream "Sure! $5 is nothing! I'll pay! I'll pay!" but we're exceptions.. the vast majority of box builders are under fierce competition and those Dolby $'s come out of their profit. Now I said $5 for the license, but that's my guess. What if it's $20?

This is just NV shooting for maximum volume, minimum cost. NF3/4 looks like it targets a whole different market segment than the old NF2. They aren't targetting us, they are targetting OEMs.....though the folks at NV must be retarded not to notice that Dell sells mostly systems using integrated video....so, uhh, they seriously missed the target. Hell even I, super-enthusiast, built a NF2 IGP board for a friend's mother! It's all most people need!

Maybe it's just totally mis-targetted and no one will buy it! :) Hell if I see a reason to buy it. My NF2 system still runs everything and will for the forseeable future. Video card performance matters a lot more for these pixel shaded games coming up.

Actually, considering that Athlon64 boards rarely vary much in CPU performance because they can't f-up the memory controller anymore, you'd think these chipset makers would be all about snazzy features. This thing has a firewall that most users will ignore or just use XPsp2's, SATA II support when there are few people even using SATA I, RAID morphing right after we've all seen that RAID 0 makes everything but video editing slower (you see mom and pop using RAID 1, I don't think so), nTune (a feature that has never been supported worth anything), and ultra-cheap AC97 scheisse audio.....WOW!

This is for socket 940 too, right? I'd really like to know what sort of boost (if any) this will give Opteron performance v. the almost 2 year old AMD 8xxx series.

Will Tyan have an nForce4 board?
If so, when?

To all the people hoping SStorm is coming back in some way, shape, or form I hate to burst your bubble.

PC Perspective put it in black and white for everyone to hear. The audio group is disbanded. I was there and heard it myself as well.

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=81&type=expert&pid=6

(The) SoundStorm team has been killed at NVIDIA -- no more development is going to happen in the near future. NVIDIA said that simply not enough motherboard manufacturers were putting it on their boards and utilizing the technology that was so expensive to continue to develop.

It seems like nForce 4 is a bugged implementation of questionable features - AC97 in 2004, SATA II that noone needs and a slow HT interface. Hats off!

And gosh, their SLI "solution" seems like an ugly hack - Multiple PCI Express connectores with a riser card? How's that supposed to work in the confined space of an ATX tower?

So, lets see what the other companies can do.

the current supermicro for dual nocona has a x16 and a x4 for sli video cards

physically, both have the x16 slot but the second one only has 4 lanes since the chipset only has 20 lines total

Well, since I'm an addict to the Shuttle SFF systems, and I just can't see an SLI system in that kind of form factor, I guess plain vanilla PCI-E for AMD CPUs is what I'm cheering for... which means I'm probably looking at the plain vanilla version?!?

And since I want the latest EAX support for gaming, I'll probably have to buy a soundcard to go with it? Please, please, someone, don't make me tithe to Creative Labs again. I'm begging you. Give me any reasonable alternative...

(Review idea: Hot Gaming Rig in the SFF... which would include a 'thin' video card and a [grumble] sound card pairing).

This offers me nothing compelling to consider an upgrade from my NF3 250 board. My Folding boxes go through a router, and I use Sygate on my main rig, so I have no need for the firewall (which my board does have). I still haven't seen a PCI-Express video card under $200 that would make me want to ditch my 9700 Pro. I doubt it really offers anything to make current Nforce 3 owners ditch their boards.

An AC97, for crying out loud?!? Does Nvidia not notice the "97" in AC97? Get with the times already! Hell, will this still be around in 20 years like the sloppy drive, I wonder...

Why no integrated video with these? I guess selling vanilla 5200's are more profitable.

Most ethuasist still fail to face the fact that Soundstorm 1 was highly overrated for the most part. Only a tiny percentage of the computer audio market had the digital speakers and outputs necessary to take full advanage of the Soundstorm's Dolby Digital decoder. Overwise, you were stuck with the far inferior Realtek or AC97 analog codec.

The reason why KT600 flopped was that it came into the AXP game far too late not so much for Nforce2's Soundstorm but, for the Nforce2's other features. The Nforce 2 had already penerated the whole ethuisast segment of the AXP market.

You know, a two-socket mobo sporting SATA II, on-the-fly RAID reconfiguring, and (maybe) the hardware firewall might be really interesting for server vendors... except, no integrated video. Ooops.

The chipset obviously isn't ready to go yet, since NVIDIA couldn't get us even a reference board for testing,

Guess again. Boi Wonder had a reference board to test.. I'm guessing that you didn't kiss Nvidias butt enough or Nvidia are communists.

NVIDIA keeps pushing board makers to support its chipset utility software. Perhaps nForce4 will have more success on that front than past attempts.

Did N System Utility come out after a bunch of MB's had already been released?

This article has been edited a couple of times to reflect NVIDIA's multiple clarifications on HyperTransport speeds. I believe we have all the right info now, unless we don't.

Isn't even out yet and I am half disappointed. The HT link speeds usually don't matter but still... Before I get into the rest; having certain key features brings in the enthusiasts. In return there are more sales, and usually a popular chipset gets many different boards being made. The nf2 is in most of the enthusiasts xp systems. Where's the kt600? Exactly. Popularity counts.

One of those key features was soundstorm. I own a audigy 2 so I wont bat a eye, it still hurts its popularity though. Integrated video was a Huge mistake. Not a lot of us (hopefully) will use it but it has its purpose, especially for oems. Even if it was the geforce mx series again it would still be popular.

So they cut the soundstorm to please oems except they cut the integrated video? Nvidia really knows how to trip over its own feet I swear. Nf1 = miss, nf2 = hit, nf3 150 = miss, nf3 250 = hit, nf4 first incarnation = miss. Have to admit though, they sure are consistent.

So the only thing I am excited about is the sli part. If Via ends up pulling off sli then sorry nvidia.

SLI will most likely not be affordable enough for an end user (or practical, given the power consumption) to be considered.

That and the lack of Soundstorm and Azalia :(

Go go Via? Go go ATI. Competition is good.