Which socket A mobo?

mavec · May 12, 2004, 01:41 PM

so.. I'm looking for a new motherboard in the socketA range.. nforce2 chipset..
my main alternative is the Asus A7N8X-E..
other alternatives are Abit NF7-S, Abit AN7, Epox EP-8RDA3+, DFI NF2 Ultra Infinity.. any other?

anyone know about any upkoming new socketA based motherboards? .. I mean the Asus A7N8X-based mobos are based on over a year old "technology"..

and if someone got other threads that are alike, please gimme the link :P ..
thanks!

dipstick · May 12, 2004, 02:11 PM

I would go with either the DFI or Abit(s) depending on price. There are new nForce2 boards coming out but I have no idea when...
http://www.anandtech.com/chipsets/sh...tml?i=2051&p=1

patje · May 12, 2004, 02:12 PM

Hi mavec,

I've got mysefl an Epox 8rda+ and it's one of the best boards i've used.
If you check on reviews of this board, you won't find any bad ones.
But as long as has an nforce2 chipset, I think your good.

Do a search on google and read the reviews, it's the best wat to buy stuff!

Patje

***craig5320*** · May 12, 2004, 02:13 PM

Asus A7N8X are great motherboards, I've not had any problems with mine, (Deluxe version) it's got everything, firewire, sata, dual DDR. real nice

~~HawK~~ · May 12, 2004, 02:23 PM

Well if you can wait a few more months, until PCI- Express has become mainstream, think that would be better, AMD already made it clear the Socket A, will not support PCI-E, and AMD-XP's are to be phased out with-in a few months, so > AMD64's will be mainstream then..
still, it is true a XP3200+ will get you thru another year of 2 no-doubt. it all depends on your wallet, and your future plans.
I myself recently bought a Gigabyte GA 7N400-L, after tried out 3 diff. Mobo's of an Asus 7N8X, (each had failures of some sort), so i went for the GA7N400..
Good luck with whatever you buy

In my Antec P160:
MoBo = Gigabyte GA7N400- L
PSU = Q-tec 550 watt
mem = 2x512mb 333mhz
Cpu = Amd Athlon 2400xp Tb-B (266)
HD = 2x WD- 800JB + 1200JB
Vid = Ati9700 driver: Cat. 4.4
OS = WXPpro sp2rc1 DX9b (all patched up)
CD-rw, DVD-r
Sound = Hercules FortissimoIII 7.1

BWX · May 12, 2004, 02:25 PM

I still like Abit's NF7-S or non-S, but I would stay away from the AN7 from what I hear about it.

zerodamage · May 12, 2004, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BWX
I still like Abit's NF7-S or non-S, but I would stay away from the AN7 from what I hear about it.

Blah. The board is fine. I am using it right now. The active cooling on the North Bridge leaves a lot to be desired.

I have to agree with Patje however. Epox's 8RDA+ Rev 1.1 was by far the best Nforce2 board for the money when I purchased it. I paid $80 for it and it performed great, Over clocked like a dream, and was rock stable.

~~HawK~~ · May 12, 2004, 04:24 PM

Well there you have it; 6 answers and all different
So what to do?
well on this seldom occasion I will tell you who is right.. Me!! (ofcourse)
Mean the others are nice guy's and they mean well, but between me and you.. they are allready happy they remembered what brand it was....

so and now I must hide quickly under my desk, and please!? do not tell them where I hide??

drakesteakn · May 12, 2004, 05:12 PM

go with a gigabyte board. GA-7N400- L or a GA-7N400 PRO 2. personally i have a GA-7N400 PRO and its great.

BWX · May 12, 2004, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by zerodamage
Blah.

How's that Uguru treatin ya?

mavec · May 13, 2004, 10:12 AM

what does the abit "micro"guru do anyways? :P ..

and the DFI and gigabyte boards are quite a lot more expensive than the other ones....

if there are new nforce2 based mobos coming out "soon" I think I'll wait for them.. or then I'll wait for the A64 socket to get "standard", heard there was some uncertainty about which of the sockets would be the future socket.. ?

a A64 2800+ with a mobo doesn't cost that much more than a AXP 3000+ with mobo :P .. and I think it would perform better anyways.. and be "newer". .

I was actually going to upgrade in July or something but then one of my harddrives started to make strange noices, a little over a year old seagate barracuda V 120GB :\, so no warranty left of course..
anyways, I thought that if I have to buy a new harddrive it would be nice with S-ATA, and my current mobo, epox 8k3a+, doesn't support that..
so this is why I'm "in a hurry". ..

thanks for all the pieces of advice!

pinstripe007 · May 13, 2004, 02:19 PM

The DFI Ultra Infinity is a cheaper version of the Lan Party B but, the mobo is the same minus the UV reactive coloring and the GigaLan. For more info...http://www.experimentalinsanity.com/.../dfispecs.html

I've been running and testing this mobo for almost a month and is stable and fast. On another note...looks real good in my case and matches my Raddy.

Good Luck, if you follow anyones assessment on a board on this forum you prolly won't go wrong.

pr0digal jenius · May 14, 2004, 12:47 AM

i recommend the epox...those things are ROCK SOLID, nto to mention great onboard LAN/Sound and they are pretty and have a ncie heatsink

mavec · May 14, 2004, 08:27 AM

the 8rda3+ has a cooler for the chipset while the 8rda+ has only a heatsink.. .. I'd go for the 8rda3+ anyways in this case.. .. how much sound/noice does the chipset cooler make? I hate noice so I try to have as few coolers as possible.. ?

pr0digal jenius · May 14, 2004, 02:40 PM

i'd get the 3, however the one i have worked with is just the 8rda+..worked great after we RMAed the 1st oen since the IDE channel was fried and it detected drives as the worng thing if it detected them at all...lol

mavec · May 17, 2004, 09:54 AM

yup the 3 is the one I would get if it would be an epox board.. the 8k3a+ has worked fine atleast.. after I turned off all the cache systems etc in the bios.. got a lot of BSOD before that

.. but I don't think it's the mobo's fault.. .. I think I'll wait a while and go for a A64 then..

May 12, 2004, 01:41 PM	#1
mavec DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Helsinki, Finland Posts: 73 Rep Power: 0	Which socket A mobo? so.. I'm looking for a new motherboard in the socketA range.. nforce2 chipset.. my main alternative is the Asus A7N8X-E.. other alternatives are Abit NF7-S, Abit AN7, Epox EP-8RDA3+, DFI NF2 Ultra Infinity.. any other? anyone know about any upkoming new socketA based motherboards? .. I mean the Asus A7N8X-based mobos are based on over a year old "technology".. and if someone got other threads that are alike, please gimme the link :P .. thanks!

May 12, 2004, 02:11 PM	#2
dipstick HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: USA Posts: 3,609 Rep Power: 71 System Specs	I would go with either the DFI or Abit(s) depending on price. There are new nForce2 boards coming out but I have no idea when... http://www.anandtech.com/chipsets/sh...tml?i=2051&p=1 Last edited by dipstick; May 14, 2004 at 01:41 PM.

May 12, 2004, 02:12 PM	#3
patje Former Mobility Modman Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Belgium / Antwerp Posts: 1,475 Rep Power: 66	Hi mavec, I've got mysefl an Epox 8rda+ and it's one of the best boards i've used. If you check on reviews of this board, you won't find any bad ones. But as long as has an nforce2 chipset, I think your good. Do a search on google and read the reviews, it's the best wat to buy stuff! Patje __________________

May 12, 2004, 02:13 PM	#4
*craig5320* HH Administrator Join Date: May 2002 Location: Manchester, UK Posts: 8,566 Rep Power: 445 System Specs	Asus A7N8X are great motherboards, I've not had any problems with mine, (Deluxe version) it's got everything, firewire, sata, dual DDR. real nice __________________ HardwareHeaven on Facebook

May 12, 2004, 02:25 PM	#6
BWX unplugged Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: USNY Posts: 19,669 Rep Power: 110 System Specs	I still like Abit's NF7-S or non-S, but I would stay away from the AN7 from what I hear about it. __________________

May 12, 2004, 02:23 PM	#5
~~HawK~~ Banned Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 2,092 Rep Power: 0	Well if you can wait a few more months, until PCI- Express has become mainstream, think that would be better, AMD already made it clear the Socket A, will not support PCI-E, and AMD-XP's are to be phased out with-in a few months, so > AMD64's will be mainstream then.. still, it is true a XP3200+ will get you thru another year of 2 no-doubt. it all depends on your wallet, and your future plans. I myself recently bought a Gigabyte GA 7N400-L, after tried out 3 diff. Mobo's of an Asus 7N8X, (each had failures of some sort), so i went for the GA7N400.. Good luck with whatever you buy In my Antec P160: MoBo = Gigabyte GA7N400- L PSU = Q-tec 550 watt mem = 2x512mb 333mhz Cpu = Amd Athlon 2400xp Tb-B (266) HD = 2x WD- 800JB + 1200JB Vid = Ati9700 driver: Cat. 4.4 OS = WXPpro sp2rc1 DX9b (all patched up) CD-rw, DVD-r Sound = Hercules FortissimoIII 7.1

May 12, 2004, 04:24 PM	#8
~~HawK~~ Banned Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 2,092 Rep Power: 0	Well there you have it; 6 answers and all different So what to do? well on this seldom occasion I will tell you who is right.. Me!! (ofcourse) Mean the others are nice guy's and they mean well, but between me and you.. they are allready happy they remembered what brand it was.... so and now I must hide quickly under my desk, and please!? do not tell them where I hide??

May 12, 2004, 05:12 PM	#9
drakesteakn boo!!!! Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Ft. Meyers, FL Posts: 2,041 Rep Power: 0	go with a gigabyte board. GA-7N400- L or a GA-7N400 PRO 2. personally i have a GA-7N400 PRO and its great. __________________

May 13, 2004, 10:12 AM	Thread Starter #11
mavec DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Helsinki, Finland Posts: 73 Rep Power: 0	what does the abit "micro"guru do anyways? :P .. and the DFI and gigabyte boards are quite a lot more expensive than the other ones.... if there are new nforce2 based mobos coming out "soon" I think I'll wait for them.. or then I'll wait for the A64 socket to get "standard", heard there was some uncertainty about which of the sockets would be the future socket.. ? a A64 2800+ with a mobo doesn't cost that much more than a AXP 3000+ with mobo :P .. and I think it would perform better anyways.. and be "newer". . I was actually going to upgrade in July or something but then one of my harddrives started to make strange noices, a little over a year old seagate barracuda V 120GB :\, so no warranty left of course.. anyways, I thought that if I have to buy a new harddrive it would be nice with S-ATA, and my current mobo, epox 8k3a+, doesn't support that.. so this is why I'm "in a hurry". .. thanks for all the pieces of advice! __________________ MSI P35-Neo2 FIR / Intel E8400 @ 3600MHz / Xigmatek HDT-S1283 / Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro + Arctic Cooling S1 2x2GB A-Data Vitesta / 320GB Seagate 7200.10 / Be Quiet! 480W / Antec SOLO Last edited by mavec; May 13, 2004 at 11:08 AM.

May 13, 2004, 02:19 PM	#12
pinstripe007 DriverHeaven Lover Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Florida Posts: 105 Rep Power: 0	The DFI Ultra Infinity is a cheaper version of the Lan Party B but, the mobo is the same minus the UV reactive coloring and the GigaLan. For more info...http://www.experimentalinsanity.com/.../dfispecs.html I've been running and testing this mobo for almost a month and is stable and fast. On another note...looks real good in my case and matches my Raddy. Good Luck, if you follow anyones assessment on a board on this forum you prolly won't go wrong. __________________ [color=blue] [color=red][color=darkgreen]\|Desktop\| [/color]Mobo:[/color] DFI nForce2 "Ultra Infinity" [color=red]CPU:[/color] AMD Athlon XP 2500+ @ 3200+ Barton [color=red]RAM:[/color] 2x256 & 1x512 PC3200 Buffalo Technology CH-5 @ 11-2-2-2.0 [color=red]Vid:[/color] Sapphire ATI r9700pro @ 360/320 [color=darkgreen]\|Laptop - Prostar 3722\| [color=red]Display: [/color][color=blue]15.4" WSXGA+ [/color][color=yellow]; [color=red]CPU: [/color][color=blue]1.7 GHz Dothan 2MB L2 Cache[/color]; [color=red]RAM: [/color][color=blue]1024MB PC2700 DDR[/color]; [color=red]Vid: [/color][/color][/color][color=blue]ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 128M[/color] [/color]

May 14, 2004, 12:47 AM	#13
pr0digal jenius Delete Me Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 14,648 Rep Power: 0	i recommend the epox...those things are ROCK SOLID, nto to mention great onboard LAN/Sound and they are pretty and have a ncie heatsink

May 14, 2004, 08:27 AM	Thread Starter #14
mavec DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Helsinki, Finland Posts: 73 Rep Power: 0	the 8rda3+ has a cooler for the chipset while the 8rda+ has only a heatsink.. .. I'd go for the 8rda3+ anyways in this case.. .. how much sound/noice does the chipset cooler make? I hate noice so I try to have as few coolers as possible.. ? __________________ MSI P35-Neo2 FIR / Intel E8400 @ 3600MHz / Xigmatek HDT-S1283 / Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro + Arctic Cooling S1 2x2GB A-Data Vitesta / 320GB Seagate 7200.10 / Be Quiet! 480W / Antec SOLO

May 14, 2004, 02:40 PM	#15
pr0digal jenius Delete Me Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 14,648 Rep Power: 0	i'd get the 3, however the one i have worked with is just the 8rda+..worked great after we RMAed the 1st oen since the IDE channel was fried and it detected drives as the worng thing if it detected them at all...lol

May 17, 2004, 09:54 AM	Thread Starter #16
mavec DriverHeaven Junior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Helsinki, Finland Posts: 73 Rep Power: 0	yup the 3 is the one I would get if it would be an epox board.. the 8k3a+ has worked fine atleast.. after I turned off all the cache systems etc in the bios.. got a lot of BSOD before that .. but I don't think it's the mobo's fault.. .. I think I'll wait a while and go for a A64 then.. __________________ MSI P35-Neo2 FIR / Intel E8400 @ 3600MHz / Xigmatek HDT-S1283 / Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro + Arctic Cooling S1 2x2GB A-Data Vitesta / 320GB Seagate 7200.10 / Be Quiet! 480W / Antec SOLO