[MSX]

AS simple as it is I have seemingly not been able to purchase a decent MB. Its true. After two lemons in a row I'm up for a winner. (see rant bor backround)

The choices seem obvious.[list=1][*]VIA - Fast and they've been around, but still have a broken chipset they keep pushing... It works though. It works good![*]NForce - Somewhat new to the market, ddr400 support, attractive features/overclocking options[*]SiS - Solid bus, known for stability... yet my current board seems to be of cheap version according to some. So finding a reseller that makes the board well is different.[/list=1]

ASide from that. Who do I buy from? I like MSI simply because they all have that shiny red pcb and hey it matches my Radeon 9700 pro. Just for vanity's sake. Though form what I hear they do not unlock the T bird... So. There is so many choices out there for just three boards. Really. Which makes it frustrating.

Any feedback appreciated. I'm researching much more heavily for my next board as good companies can make crap, and good chipsets can be made into crap. (see rant)

/rant
My first board, was insidently the first computer I built. It was an abit board running a celeron 300mhz(which easily was clocked to 500 which was impressive). Being that board was so good I bought another abit board the bh6, which was ok. There was many more problems with it in general. Nothing major though.

Then time wore on and I upgraded. I bought a geforce 2 MX chipset. Then the suckage began, because not just did it have issue with the VIA chipset. There was also a conflict in the way the specific board handles power. So I was screwed basically. So I traded with a buddy nd got a voodoo 5500. Which worked alright, but the card had issues of its own but they were only graphical.

Then I bought a Audigy card. 2 months later I bought a new board because the headache of all that made me want to die... I decided to give via a break. My new board the Asus sis 333 mb... Which doesent actually run stable at 333, nor does it have any software voltage mod... IT has virturally no support and asus has pretty much given up on it.

I understand why. So I think I'm just going to overclock this baby(FSB) as far as it can go because if its going to crash randomly I might as well have it boot up twice as fast.
/rant

[The_Neon_Cowboy]

asus a7n8x

[DriveEuro]

nForce can do more than DDR400.... Hell, OPPAINTER got his NF7-S 1.2 up to 251mhz (502DDR) with just Kingston HyperX PC3500. Not because I own an nForce, but DAMN, that's the only way to go now.

[Calinerti]

Nforce2 benches fastest at the moment, but they have not been without their hassles. Check out www.nforcershq.com for feedback from nf2 users. Looks like the KT400a (despite having 400 in the name AGAIN, does not offically support the 200mhz FSB of the next Bartons). Not that I have a problem with via, I have an Albatron kx400+ Pro (kt333) I am more than happy with.

Neon and Drive are right to point you in the direction of the nforce2 boards... but avoid IGP northbridges if you have a decent AGP card (they terrify me http://www.hardwareheaven.com/showthre...threadid=11097 as I have too many questions unanswered).....

[DriveEuro]

the NF7 series is IGP I believe.

[Calinerti]

The NF7-M is IGP, but the NF7-S (the one you have) is SPP. Perhaps I am wrong to say "avoid IGP northbridges" but you cannot use DDR400 while using the IGP, and it borrows system RAM (limiting timings and o/cing) and its not exactly what "gamers" would be buying now anyway. Besides, as I said "f you have a decent AGP card" then why spend more for the IGP?

[Dom]

Asus A7N8X has the most features...

Abit NF7 is the best value..

EPoX 8RDA is the best overclocker.

[Dom]

Model Chipset Features
NF7-S nForce2 SPP + MCP2-T SATA, IEEE1394
NF7 nForce2 SPP + MCP2
NF7-M nForce2 IGP + MCP2 Integrated GeForce4 MX

[dipstick]

Definitely go with the nForce2. Not a single reason to look at anything else at the moment...not even pricewise.

[DriveEuro]

Dom, I guess you haven't been around in the last day. The Epox is no longer the best overclocker. Since bios 16 came out two days ago the NF7 series is now the best. OPPAINTER has reach 251mhz (502DDR) with his board. That's the board's limit.

[dipstick]

hehe, that was already done afew months ago by an Epox board I'm up to 220, anyone got some better ram??

[DriveEuro]

Didn't know that all the boards were that far ahead.

[Necrosis]

Definitely an nforce2 board

Abit..Epox...Asus..Chaintech

AMD is now using the nforce2 chipset as their test setups for K7's. How I know this is from Bit-tech and their overclocking forum which a Mr. Zapwizards visits (AMD Tech). I've been very, very happy with my board. However, it's important you read around and know all the "characteristics" of each board. You will save yourself a lot of pain by doing so.

[WyreTheWolf]

The new nForce2 revision 2 motherboard from MSI... it has been slaughtering every motherboard out there... including the Granite Bay from Intel!

[DriveEuro]

Huh? The MSI has some crappy voltages though........?

[MSX]

Well, that narrows it down, yes... I'm looking for something stable with not too many features driving the price up. Though I still want a solid board. I have firewire, lan, sound, and video already and there is not any reason to have to pay for it if I dont have to right?

Looks like I cant get away with anything that does not have some sort of onboard audio so that's ok. Since the major sound board makers are Creative and, hercules which doesent even have its own sound api....

Ok, I think I'm going to narrow it down to MSI and abit... Mostly being me and my buddies Epox have been battling eachother constantly and he's had to replace his mb fan twice. Could just be bad luck, but considering my luck with MB's I dont want to push it. Even though I am looking for stability dom.

I'm going to drop Asus this time, because they have the most features I dont need which makes the board unnecessarily expensive. Also getting burned by them twice in a row might make me not want to buy from them ever again.

Abit NF7 ranges $105 to $135 USD($154.32 CDN, 65.55 GBP) on newegg, being there is no reseller in my area with this board.

MSI K7N2-L is $95 USD ($139.55 CDN, 59.32 GBP) off newegg from a reseller that only offer's exchanges on the exact same board. Thee is also a local reseller in my area that offers the board for $172 CDN ($117.10 USD, 73.12 GBP) they offer a full refund, but only for 7 days.

Epox EP-8RDA(for kicks) $88, $112 USD ($129.23 CDN, 54.97 GBP) off newegg.

So price is definatly a factor. I have to tack on an extra $5 USD or so off new egg. So is avalability. In which also off newegg I'd be waiting for the board. MSI boards's can be bought locally. Though everything else on the list has to be shipped.

Would it be worth waiting an extra few weeks for the abit or EPox boards?

[DriveEuro]

abit 1.2 or the epox. No one talks about the MSI, so obviously it's not as nice of a board. No one talks about the ASUS, must not be that nice either.

[Calinerti]

I have 2 buddies using the nforce2 MSI boards, one with the IGP, SATA, IEEE and all the bells and whistles... the IGP+MCP-T.. he runs a 2400+ @166/166 (he owns PC3200 and still chooses to run sync as he gets better performance this way).. hes not much for o/cing, his multiplier was lowered to 12.5 to allow the 166 FSB. He loves that board.

I have another buddy using MSI - SPP+MCP... he runs a 1700+ with PC2700 memory. He too chooses to run sync @ 166/166 (multiplier 12.5), although he has pushed it higher. He too, loves that board.

I hope that I will soon love that board as I plan to build a new rig at the end of April, although I would like to see some reviews of the Albatron nf2 which should be released by then, I heard they are to have SPP+MCP-T... and I love my Albatron (it was cheap!)...

WyreTheWolf makes a good point, and you can't beat those prices. I wish MSI had a SPP+MCP-T though...

[dipstick]

I might be wrong but I haven't seen any MSI reviews where they say that the PCI bus is locked at 33MHz neither is it listed on their website. Definitely something to look into when choosing the MSI and want to OC much past 166.

[Necrosis]

Originally posted by DriveEuro
abit 1.2 or the epox. No one talks about the MSI, so obviously it's not as nice of a board. No one talks about the ASUS, must not be that nice either.

Um..plenty of people talk about the Asus board. It's one of the most popular nforce2 boards out there. Just look a the forums at Bit-tech and it's the only board really talked about. It's a very nice board and I haven't had one single problem with it other than the audio connection issue which is now fixed.

[MSX]

Well, yeah popularity is a big thing. The more boards out there the more a company will back it. Just the way it works.

What do you mean about the abit 1.2 DriveEuro? That a revision of the base NF7 board? (Looking at the SPP version.)

[DriveEuro]

Revision 1.2 ...more voltages, 4 mouting holes, onboard audio fixed.

[MSX]

Ah, yeah abit does that quite a bit. Hmm, not making sure a supplyer has 1.2 is the trick...

[DriveEuro]

Excaliberpc.com guarentees that they have the 1.2

[MSX]

Hey Euro. Is the S version worth the extra 20 bucks? Over lets say an audigy gamer? I'm guessing for everything but EAX right?

[Necrosis]

It will support EAX just not the newer version. The sound is very comparable to the Audigy 1. However, the built in hardware decoding is what Audigy lacks but the onboard sound does have. You'll save yourself some headaches too..IRQ's..Firewire...Game Port.

[MSX]

Yeah, I'm guessing it would. So I might as well go for all the extra's. And besides the optical sound out is jsut really kinda cool.

Heh, come to think of it the only firewire device I've ever seen is the nomad 3... Kinda sad actually...

I'd like to thank you all for your input. I also hope this thread helps someone else make their purchase. I'm going to go with the Abit board. In the past I've been very impressed with abit. Hopefully all goes well.

[DriveEuro]

HEY! Wait! If you are buying the NF7-S and hoping to use the SATA (Serial ATA) feature and run a RAID array with it then don't. Cuz the NF7-S doesn't run SATA stable yet.

[MSX]

Heh, no raid array. Raid is cool and all, but for playing games the advantages do not outweigh the hinderances... at least in my mind. Sides I dont even own any serial ATA drives... yet.

[DriveEuro]

You don't need a SATA drive.... The board comes with a coverter that makes your ATA100/133 drive almost as fast as a SATA drive.