Arguably, the nForce2 is the best chipset for the 32-bit generation of AMD Athlon processors with excellent performance and features like a dual-channel memory mode, an AGP/PCI lock, Firewire and SoundStorm technology. For this particular reason, the nForce3 was disappointing on its debut. It didn’t feature new technologies like Serial-ATA or Gigabit LAN and lacked the performance due to its 8-bit/600MHz HyperTransport bus implementation. nVidia defended itself by announcing that the nF3-150 chipset should be considered as an interim chipset and we should wait for the nForce3-250 before writing it off.

That time has come and over the next few weeks, we shall see motherboards based on the nForce3-250 chipset popping up on retail shelves. We take a look at one of the first such boards- the MSI K8N Neo Platinum Edition and that shouldn’t come as a big surprise as MSI is one of the biggest nVidia customers. Before we get on with the review of the K8N Neo Platinum Edition, let’s take a brief look at some of the advancements that the new nVidia chipset brings to the table.