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MicronPC has announced its Millennia XP+ PC, notable because it's the first system to ship using NVidia's long-awaited, high-performance NForce chip set.

The PC goes on sale at MicronPC.com on November 12, and begins shipping two weeks later. The XP + pairs the NForce chip set with Advanced Micro Device's new Athlon XP chip. And the results should excite performance-hungry buyers, says Clint Burgess, a MicronPC spokesperson

"This chip set's performance is leading edge," Burgess says. "These systems are blowing our benchmarks out of the water." Preliminary PC World tests on an NVidia reference PC with a non-XP 1200-MHz Athlon also showed promise--nearly matching the averaged WorldBench 2000 score of six faster, 1333-MHz Athlon PCs. PC World has not yet tested a vendor system using the NForce and the new Athlon XP chip.

MicronPC is happy to have the first NForce PC, and NVidia is equally happy to have MicronPC as its first US customer to launch a system with the chip set.

"We've been working very closely with Micron," says Michael Lim, product manager for NForce. "They're best known for high-performance PCs." That reputation should help cement the NForce's appeal to high-end buyers, he says.

MicronPC is offering the XP+ system in a variety of flavors under three basic labels: Professional for business users, Creative Studio for home users, and Extreme for enthusiasts, says Burgess.

All systems are configurable, but MicronPC's sample configuration is from the Creative Studio segment and priced at $1997. It includes the AMD Athlon XP 1900+ chip, 256MB of PC2100 DDR memory, a 100GB hard drive, a DVD-R/CDRW Combo Drive, a 19-inch display, Altec Lansing AVS200 Speakers, a modem, Microsoft Works, and Windows XP home.

Integrated Graphics, Sound

MicronPC's sample configuration uses the NForce's integrated graphics for video, as well as its integrated audio capabilities for sound. Other configurations--specifically those geared toward enthusiasts--will add a GeForce 3 graphics card to the mix

It's the NForce's capability to offer good integrated graphics through its unique architecture that will attract more mainstream and budget-minded PC vendors to try the chip set, says NVidia's Lim. The company claims to offer the most powerful integrated graphics on the market.

The NForce integrates a GeForce 2 graphics chip, and then dynamically allocates up to 32MB of system memory for graphics. The results are a graphics system comparable to many standalone graphics cards, and much better than integrated offerings from other companies, he says. Plus, if you want to upgrade later you just plug in a new graphics card.

Nvidia says the unit's integrated sound is actually better than standalone sound cards, he says. "It's like a Soundblaster Live on steroids," Lim says. Because the chip set's Media and Communications Processor offloads most of the audio work from the CPU, it can actually help your PC run faster. A typical sound card needs as much as 30 percent of a CPU's overhead when doing intense audio work, while NForce only uses about 1 percent, he says.

More NForce PCs On The Way

While MicronPC is the first U.S. vendor to announce an NForce system, plenty more are in the pipeline, Lim says.

NVidia itself actually took longer to finish NForce than many industry watchers expected, says Kevin Krewell, analyst with Microprocessor Design Resources.

"I think it turned out to be a more complex job than NVidia anticipated," he says. (An NVidia spokesperson notes the company promised to deliver NForce in the fourth quarter, and has done so.)

Krewell says it's too early to tell if the wait for NForce was worthwhile, but industry buzz definitely surrounds the chip set.

"It will be exciting product, and it will be interesting to see how much performance you get out of it," he says.

Krewell also expects numerous PC vendors to take a close look at the NForce--particularly those that want to offer the Athlon XP, but who tend to shy away from using AMD or Via Technologies' chip sets.

AMD's chip sets are solid, but are not always cutting edge, he says. And the rap against Via is that it usually releases a chip set, works out the bugs, then releases an improved version six months later. That's fine for some customers, but mainstream vendors want more stability, he says. Nvidia's decision to work out all the bugs before rolling out the NForce should be a good sign to vendors, he says.

Intel Avoids NForce

While the NForce will likely appear in a list of Athon-based PCs, you will not soon see an Intel-based PCs sporting the chip set. That's because NVidia doesn't have a license to the Pentium 4's front side bus, and with Intel a major player itself in the chip set market, that license is not likely forthcoming.

Intel's chip set business helps the company use all of its plant capacity, and the company sells a lot of chip sets, Krewell says. It's unlikely to grant a license when the NForce is potentially a superior product to Intel's, he says.

Unlike Via, which launched its own chip set without a license (prompting legal action from Intel), NVidia is likely to steer clear of such actions, says NVidia's Lim.

"It's a little more complicated than that," he says. "We're working with Intel on other stuff. That would be a bit more tricky for us."

In the meantime, NVidia is happy to partner with AMD, estimating the chip maker will ship up to 40 million CPUs in 2002, Lim says.

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