Which motherboard should I get? Please help...

[Rapzidi]

Hello, Im new here. And soon Im going to buy parts for a whole new comp and the motherboard is the only thing Im not sure about...
The motherboard that seems best to me is the asus a7n8x deluxe, it was the "mb of the year" on tomshardware and got really good benchmarks, the only thing that scares me is that people have had problems with it and it dosnt seem to work so well with the ati radeon 9700 (which Im also buying)so I dont know... The other one Ive been thinking anout is the msi k7n2g-islr but asus got better benchmarks and so on... but they should be able to fix the problems with the asus by upgrading the bios or something, right? Im going to buy a amd athlon xp 2400+ if that matters..
Can anyone please help? thx

[blade]

How about the Epox 8rda nforce2 mobo. Many here use that one and seem to be very pleased with it.

Though I'd think Asus will be fixing that problem either with a bios update or a newer revision.


Welcome to PCA

[Rapzidi]

thx. Yeah, you are right about fixin it... maybe there is no problems with the deluxe version? and Ill take a look att that epox.

[NascarFool]

I have a Rad AIW 9700 Pro and an Epox 8RDA+. I have no complaints on either item. Very stable board, easy to O/C too. If you have a T-bred "B", no unlocking required, as the 8RDA+ does it for you.

[Rapzidi]

thats cool. 8rda and a7n8x is my main options now.... Ill kepp looking for info

[chottoED]

i love my a7n8x deluxe

[Pugsley]

on that 8rda, what speed ram does it take? 2700?

That and how many drives can be hooked to this board? the normal 4?

and whats the differenace with the + besides price?

And i take it this mobo is a good for OC?

[Absolut Talent]

i just got myself a gigabyte ga-7axp ultra, it kicks major ass. Solid as a rock and cant beat the extras

[Judg3]

ALL HAIL GIGABYTE!

[Nomjr]

EPox 8RDA+ & xp2100
Corsair xms3500
fsb 200 *11.5 = 2.305 @1.825v
SLK800 and a TT rheo control fan(80mm) @ 5200rpm
39c idle and 47c load(prime & sandra burn in looping for 6 hours so far(water to come)

This setup was very inexpensive and setup was pretty simple. Running mem 1:1 so 400ddr. I knew very little about how to setup these new nforce2 mobos.

Easy, inexpensive, fast!!! 200fsb out of the box, no vdd mod

[wvjohn]

asus has the high end sound options and some other stuff

i've had some probs with msi boards lately

epox 8rda+
tbred 2100 b @ 13.5x173 = 2.33 GHZ
512 pc2700+512pc3200
1.75v 37 idle 42 load
folding 24x7 for 3+mos

flawless for me

when i've pulled the pc2700 i've been able to boot as high as 210 with mushkin value 3200

the onboard sound is fine for me


don't think you can miss with the asus or the epox
epox has only 2 ide - no raid - I am solving that with an external firewire HDD box with 2x80GB whenever i get the time to fool with it

[Jen]

dont leave Abit NF7S rev 1.2 or the 2.0 [2.0 will support the 200 fsb ] . the 2.0 hasnt been released to the public yet and i dont know when it will be available




i have the ver 1.2 and currently at 220 fsb with dual channel memory insynch. i know this board can do 235 fsb with modifications that has been to it


these modifications include a VDD and Memory mods.




Jen

[Bigal]

Based on my first experience with Epox motherboards, I can only give a big positive recommendation to the Epox EP-8RDA+ with an Athlon XP 2100+ Thoroughbred 'B'. Buy the best memory you can (PC3200 or DDR400) with CAS 2 or 2.5. As you have heard, it's possible to extensively overclock this motherboard. You can also use the Thermalright SLK900U heatsink that bolts down to the motherboard, since the EP-8RDA+ has the four mounting holes. I think this may be the best copper heatsink available - it's so good that I can run the 92mm Vantec Stealth fan and get 35 C at idle, while running just over 2 GHz.