Recommend an nForce2 Mobo

[GNEP]

It looks like I might have an opportunity to upgrade. I want to pass on my current trusty MSI 745 Ultra to my brother, and my Athlon 2000+ to my housemate who will give me back my Duron 900 that he's using at the moment which will then go on to my brother (I am trying to build a system for my little brother using up as many of the spare parts (case, PSU, HDD, other drives, G450...) I have as possible - he has a 2nd hand IBM P2 350 or similar at the moment so anything is an upgrade! - also an easy upgrade path is a bonus for him).

So I reckon I might get myself an AthlonXP 2500+ (Barton) and couple it with an NForce2 mobo. The question is which. I intend to overclock as much as is 100% stable (watercooled; memory I am confident buying).

I need onboard LAN and would like to use the onboard sound to replace my Audigy 1 as then I don't have to worry about creative drivers anymore. No need for RAID, and SATA is a "nice to have" but not something I'd necessarily pay a lot extra for. Dual channel mem is an good (I know Wombat will say otherwise, but hey!).

Options:

- Asus A7N8X Deluxe Rev. 2.0 - £79.90
- Epox 8RDA+ Rev. 2.1 - £61.08
- Abit NF7-S Rev. 2.0 - 77.43
- Others?

Questions:
1) All of the above boards have been recommended around here. Is there any reason I shouldn't go for the Epox as it's significantly cheaper? (It's a big enough price difference to not be bothered by the lack of SATA)
2) Any other boards (or even chipsets) I should be considering? If so, why?
3) What would be the chances of me taking a brand new Barton 2500+ (no real way of guaranteeing stepping or week number etc) from stock 166FSB to a 200FSB without changing the multiplier (using decent RAM of course) thus getting a 2.2GHz chip on the cheap using the above boards/any others suggested?

TIA

Gnep

[Fat Tone]

GNEP

I have the Epox, my mate has the Asus (2 infact). Get the Asus. Its extra features and performance are worth the money imo. More details later if needed - me v. busy now.

T.

[GNEP]

Cheers Tony - wouldn't mind hearing your more detailed opinions when you're less busy (no rush)

G

[Belwarrior]

Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro

I just got this board and assembled it.. still playing around with it.. not sure of the price at your place.. but if you can afford it..you might want to try it as it can give the Asus a run for the money

See the conclusion of this anandtech review

[GNEP]

Hmmm the Gigabyte 7N400 Pro doesn't seem to have that great availability in the UK - but where it does show it's around £90 so another step up from the others again. Therefore probably not. Thanks for the suggestion though Belwarrior.

[TransformX]

I think the Abit AN7 is more interesting than the NF7-S

[spadnos]

To go along with Belwarrior, the GigaByte GA-7NNXP is also an excellent (though more expensive) alternative.

Be careful when ordering the 7N400 - you want the 7N400-Pro 2 (that's the one that is closest to the 7NNXP). Don't get any models that end in V (they use the NForce chipset video controller)

- Steve

[GNEP]

The 90 quid was for the 7N400 Pro-2 - don't worry I checked . So what exactly is it exactly that makes this one worth a tenner more than the Asus?

The AN7 is £82.07 btw but I haven't read much about it yet...

[Tjalfe]

I am using the A7N8X Deluxe at home, and the A7N8X-X at work.. both work fine. only problem I have is the parallel port does not want to work with my Xilinx Parallel cable in high speed mode.. not something I would think you will have much of a problem with

[Fat Tone]

Originally posted by GNEP
Cheers Tony - wouldn't mind hearing your more detailed opinions when you're less busy (no rush)

G

The Asus has Q-FAN technology, which could be useful to you, has more tweakable voltages than mine (although that may have changed with 2.1?), is a little more tolerant of memory types, has the extra SATA & RAID interfaces, and has dual-lan.

I'm getting a A7N8X-X later this week, which is £57.48 from ebuyer - I'll let you know how the feature set and performance compare. I'll be sticking a XP2500+ on it, and although it will be running in single-channel, I can test it in dual-channel with 2*256 Twinmos/Winbond before it goes out.

Your chances of getting an XP2500+ working at 2800,3000 or even 3200+ speeds are rather good

HTH

T.

[GNEP]

Thanks Tony. Very useful stuff. Since I'm now watercooled, Q-Fan is of no real interest - besides which I have a separate fan switch which I use for day/night operation on the case fans .

The A7N8X-X - isn't this the single-channel version? Also does this have the same decent (-ish) 5.1 sound? Might well be a worthwhile option for me as I have a single stick of 512MB PC2700 that I will probably re-use to begin with anyway before moving it down a machine and sticking a gig in there of PC3200 or higher-specced RAM.

Oh and it's 54.99 from Komplett (thinking of giving them a try rather than EBuyer as usual - and they seem to have consistently the cheapest prices except on small things like wires and HSFs). Only problem is they are waiting on stock of 2500+'s at the moment and no doubt their prices will change as soon as they are in

[Fat Tone]

QFAN - oops, I forgot!

Single channel - Oops - didn't realise (but not a problem for this customer anyway) Sound - yes, I hope so!

Komplett - I find there prices are good for the stock they actually have, but they never have everything in when I'm buying a complete system.

T.

[Kooldino]

I have an original A7N8x deluxe. It's a nice board.

[Indiana]

The old EPoX 8RDA(+) is a nice and extremely stable / trouble-free board - but it lacks FSB200 support in the older revisions.
The follow-up board of EPoX, the 8RDA3, has quite some problem reports, though.

[GNEP]

Hmmm cheers guys. I think I'm feeling rash and might just shell out for the Asus A7N8X Deluxe rev. 2. It might be worth the hassle in the future of having SATA onboard.

Any final objections?

Gnep