Would this be a good upgrade to my system?

Kemal · Feb 11, 2003, 04:35 AM

Current system:
ASUS A7V-133 1010-C Beta Bios
Radeon 9700 Pro
Sound Blaster Audigy 2
768mb SDRam
Win XP
Athlon XP 2100+
~~~~
Im thinking of getting the following-
ASUS A7V8X
http://usa.asus.com/mb/socketa/a7v8x/overview.htm (I chose this after reading a review in a shootout of 9 or so KT400 boards, this one came out on top)
Kingston DDR PC2700 512mb ram
http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/conf...&submit=Search
(I chose this as it was the most affordable and best reviewed i could find, I wanted to go for a PC3200, but money does not allow right now.)
~~~~
So with Newegg's killer prices im running about 120$ or so for the mobo and 80$ or so for the ram. (or somewhere around there, cant remember the prices)
Would I see a significant improvement to my system preformance?

ToshiroOC · Feb 11, 2003, 05:28 AM

What would be the main applications you would need the improvement in memory bandwidth for?

Matth · Feb 11, 2003, 04:02 PM

Presumably, you're taking the 9700Pro, XP2100+ and Audigy2 from the old system?
Or refitting the old case?

You could look into building in a new case, and throwing a cheap card and CPU into the old one to sell it - though it'd be a struggle to make it good enough to be attractive, and cheap enough to do any good out of.

If your old one is running interleave mode, the boost from DDR may not be as big as you'd hope for - The Athlon is a memory-bandwith economical CPU.

Unless/until you plan to upgrade to a 166 FSB T'bred (native or unlocked to), it might not really be worth doing.

PS. Depending on the maximum spec of your hard disk, you MAY benefit from a higher ATA mode and better disk controller, but otherwise, if the only thing you change is the motherboard and RAM to DDR, the only thing you are improving is the memory bandwidth - though if games are the reason, the AGP mode will probably be higher, and that COULD make a difference - do the card and new motherboard both support 8x AGP?

RIV@NVX · Feb 11, 2003, 04:30 PM

I would prefer NForce2 board over KT400.

DriveEuro · Feb 11, 2003, 06:24 PM

KT400 blows compared to the nForce 2. I ran a Gigabyte 7VAX.... EWW. Besides you get like CRAP for dividers in the KT400. Don't bothers.

Kemal · Feb 11, 2003, 09:43 PM

Yes, the audigy 2, 9700 pro, and Athlon 2100 are coming with. Yes, the board and the card support AGP 8X. DriveEuro, I chose that board after reading several reviews loving it. If you could post some links to some nForce 2 board reviews id be more than happy to change my mind and take a look at them. Games and system stability is the only reason id be upgrading.

Kemal · Feb 11, 2003, 09:45 PM

Oh, and DE, im in Bourbonnais, IL.

DriveEuro · Feb 12, 2003, 12:02 AM

Dude, look at it this way. With the nForce2 you can set AGP & PCI to 66, and 33. Lock it no matter what. You can run a 200mhz CPU clock and DRAM synced, can't do that with KT400. That's simply the best reason to have nForce2 (my opinion)

Kemal · Feb 12, 2003, 12:28 AM

I looked some stuff up on an ASUS nForce2 board.. the A7N8X. After reading its review over at Hard OCP and seeing how it completly beat out the other nForce boards (as the kt400 asus mobo did, go asus!) I may change my mind to this board.
Spec Sheet-
http://www.asus.com/products/mb/sock...x/overview.htm
http://www.newegg.com/app/chipset.as...th=53&sourth=1
Review-
http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=Mzk0

DriveEuro · Feb 12, 2003, 12:34 AM

Another satisfied nForce user.

hasher · Mar 1, 2003, 04:03 AM

thinking of getting nforce2 board abit nf7-s and corsair cmx-3500 2 512 and a 2500 xp barton what u think also a case and power supply also a slk 900 heat sink with the vantec tornado . Thermaltake Xaser III V2000A Aluminum Tower Case - Silver and Enermax 550W (Peak 650w) EG651P-VE Power Supply . and a new Tyan Tachyon G 9700 PRO-m . who well u think this will work compared to my old 1400 266 athon with 768 pc 133 . or any suggestions and why ?

DriveEuro · Mar 1, 2003, 04:18 AM

Don't sped the money for that Enermax. Go with the TTGI 520w. It's less than 80$ and has adjustable rails. If your voltage goes low you just turn a pot a little and you get your voltage higher

DaSnIpE · Mar 1, 2003, 06:54 AM

nforce2 owns, get the abit one, it has beter voltages, or the epox, or the asus if u don't oc, hehe

Feb 11, 2003, 04:35 AM	#1
Kemal DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 166 Rep Power: 0	Would this be a good upgrade to my system? Current system: ASUS A7V-133 1010-C Beta Bios Radeon 9700 Pro Sound Blaster Audigy 2 768mb SDRam Win XP Athlon XP 2100+ ~~~~ Im thinking of getting the following- ASUS A7V8X http://usa.asus.com/mb/socketa/a7v8x/overview.htm (I chose this after reading a review in a shootout of 9 or so KT400 boards, this one came out on top) Kingston DDR PC2700 512mb ram http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/conf...&submit=Search (I chose this as it was the most affordable and best reviewed i could find, I wanted to go for a PC3200, but money does not allow right now.) ~~~~ So with Newegg's killer prices im running about 120$ or so for the mobo and 80$ or so for the ram. (or somewhere around there, cant remember the prices) Would I see a significant improvement to my system preformance?

Feb 11, 2003, 05:28 AM	#2
ToshiroOC Unbiased. Join Date: Jun 2002 Posts: 4,812 Rep Power: 0	What would be the main applications you would need the improvement in memory bandwidth for? __________________ [img][/img] [color=White]Peace be with you, Joe.[/color] Driverheaven Staff Member (Supermoderator)

Feb 11, 2003, 04:30 PM	#4
RIV@NVX Freedom is a feature. Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Croatia, Rijeka Posts: 4,476 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	I would prefer NForce2 board over KT400. __________________ -- Vedran

Feb 11, 2003, 06:24 PM	#5
DriveEuro HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Gurnee Illinois Posts: 4,677 Rep Power: 0	KT400 blows compared to the nForce 2. I ran a Gigabyte 7VAX.... EWW. Besides you get like CRAP for dividers in the KT400. Don't bothers. __________________ [color=orange]ASUS P4P800 Deluxe [color=black]-[/color] 2.4C --> 3300mhz [color=black]-[/color] Mushkin PC3200 at 220 5-2-2-2 (cpu limited) [color=black]-[/color] BBAti 9800Pro at 430/375 [/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]01[/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]03[/color] 16001200 12801024

Feb 11, 2003, 09:43 PM	Thread Starter #6
Kemal DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 166 Rep Power: 0	Yes, the audigy 2, 9700 pro, and Athlon 2100 are coming with. Yes, the board and the card support AGP 8X. DriveEuro, I chose that board after reading several reviews loving it. If you could post some links to some nForce 2 board reviews id be more than happy to change my mind and take a look at them. Games and system stability is the only reason id be upgrading. __________________ ASUS A7N8X Rev 2.0 AMD Athlon XP 3000+ 1gb PC3200 DDR (512mb PC3200x2) + 256mb Radeon X800 Pro Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Windows XP SP 2

Feb 11, 2003, 04:02 PM	#3
Matth Flash Banner Hater Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: UK Posts: 3,426 Rep Power: 93 System Specs	Presumably, you're taking the 9700Pro, XP2100+ and Audigy2 from the old system? Or refitting the old case? You could look into building in a new case, and throwing a cheap card and CPU into the old one to sell it - though it'd be a struggle to make it good enough to be attractive, and cheap enough to do any good out of. If your old one is running interleave mode, the boost from DDR may not be as big as you'd hope for - The Athlon is a memory-bandwith economical CPU. Unless/until you plan to upgrade to a 166 FSB T'bred (native or unlocked to), it might not really be worth doing. PS. Depending on the maximum spec of your hard disk, you MAY benefit from a higher ATA mode and better disk controller, but otherwise, if the only thing you change is the motherboard and RAM to DDR, the only thing you are improving is the memory bandwidth - though if games are the reason, the AGP mode will probably be higher, and that COULD make a difference - do the card and new motherboard both support 8x AGP?

Feb 11, 2003, 09:45 PM	Thread Starter #7
Kemal DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 166 Rep Power: 0	Oh, and DE, im in Bourbonnais, IL. __________________ ASUS A7N8X Rev 2.0 AMD Athlon XP 3000+ 1gb PC3200 DDR (512mb PC3200x2) + 256mb Radeon X800 Pro Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Windows XP SP 2

Feb 12, 2003, 12:02 AM	#8
DriveEuro HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Gurnee Illinois Posts: 4,677 Rep Power: 0	Dude, look at it this way. With the nForce2 you can set AGP & PCI to 66, and 33. Lock it no matter what. You can run a 200mhz CPU clock and DRAM synced, can't do that with KT400. That's simply the best reason to have nForce2 (my opinion) __________________ [color=orange]ASUS P4P800 Deluxe [color=black]-[/color] 2.4C --> 3300mhz [color=black]-[/color] Mushkin PC3200 at 220 5-2-2-2 (cpu limited) [color=black]-[/color] BBAti 9800Pro at 430/375 [/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]01[/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]03[/color] 16001200 12801024

Feb 12, 2003, 12:28 AM	Thread Starter #9
Kemal DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 166 Rep Power: 0	I looked some stuff up on an ASUS nForce2 board.. the A7N8X. After reading its review over at Hard OCP and seeing how it completly beat out the other nForce boards (as the kt400 asus mobo did, go asus!) I may change my mind to this board. Spec Sheet- http://www.asus.com/products/mb/sock...x/overview.htm http://www.newegg.com/app/chipset.as...th=53&sourth=1 Review- http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=Mzk0

Feb 12, 2003, 12:34 AM	#10
DriveEuro HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Gurnee Illinois Posts: 4,677 Rep Power: 0	Another satisfied nForce user. __________________ [color=orange]ASUS P4P800 Deluxe [color=black]-[/color] 2.4C --> 3300mhz [color=black]-[/color] Mushkin PC3200 at 220 5-2-2-2 (cpu limited) [color=black]-[/color] BBAti 9800Pro at 430/375 [/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]01[/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]03[/color] 16001200 12801024

Mar 1, 2003, 04:03 AM	#11
hasher if u got some ,pass it around Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 96 Rep Power: 0	thinking of getting nforce2 board abit nf7-s and corsair cmx-3500 2 512 and a 2500 xp barton what u think also a case and power supply also a slk 900 heat sink with the vantec tornado . Thermaltake Xaser III V2000A Aluminum Tower Case - Silver and Enermax 550W (Peak 650w) EG651P-VE Power Supply . and a new Tyan Tachyon G 9700 PRO-m . who well u think this will work compared to my old 1400 266 athon with 768 pc 133 . or any suggestions and why ?

Mar 1, 2003, 04:18 AM	#12
DriveEuro HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Gurnee Illinois Posts: 4,677 Rep Power: 0	Don't sped the money for that Enermax. Go with the TTGI 520w. It's less than 80$ and has adjustable rails. If your voltage goes low you just turn a pot a little and you get your voltage higher __________________ [color=orange]ASUS P4P800 Deluxe [color=black]-[/color] 2.4C --> 3300mhz [color=black]-[/color] Mushkin PC3200 at 220 5-2-2-2 (cpu limited) [color=black]-[/color] BBAti 9800Pro at 430/375 [/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]01[/color] [color=black]3[/color][color=gray]D[/color]M[color=black]a[/color][color=gray]r[/color]k[color=yellow]03[/color] 16001200 12801024

Mar 1, 2003, 06:54 AM	#13
DaSnIpE Driverage Snipe Join Date: May 2002 Location: Montreal, Canada or NYC, USA Posts: 372 Rep Power: 0	nforce2 owns, get the abit one, it has beter voltages, or the epox, or the asus if u don't oc, hehe __________________ Antec SX1030 Case - Enermax 431 W Whisper PS - 4 Case Fans -ThermalRight AX-7 With Panaflo Ultra Fan - Sb Audigy / Logitech Z-560 Speakers / Sennheiser HD497 Headphones WD 80GB 7200 rpm HD - Samsung SyncMaster 955DF - LG 16x10x40x Burner / Pionner 16x Slot DVD View my rig http://nl.dodhq.net/Rig/