Which is The Best Motherboard to buy?

I have a Athlon Xp 2700 (Clocking at 2.2Ghz) and 1.5 gig 333 Kingston Ram just dying to find a Fully
overclockable Mobo.
Does anyone Know which is the best board to go for to bring out the best in my stuff ?

Eddie Allen wrote:
I have a Athlon Xp 2700 (Clocking at 2.2Ghz) and 1.5 gig 333 Kingston Ram
just dying to find a Fully overclockable Mobo.
Does anyone Know which is the best board to go for to bring out the best
in my stuff ?

The ABIT NF7-S is rated highly.

I've got an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe.

Just get an nForce2 whatever you do...

Ben
--
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...

IMO with the 2.2ghz that you are already getting from that CPU and the 1.5gb
of 333mhz memory that you have I would not buy another motherboard with the
hopes of doing much better.

If you got a n-Force 2 board and went for higher FSB's then you would be
limited by your 333 memory of the highest attainable speeds whilst keeping
in sync, the preferred way by many for both performance and stability.

The 2.2ghz that you have achieved already is a great and unless you have
spare cash with nothing else to buy then I really would keep with what you
have got.

If the cash is burning a hole in your pocket, and as you are posting this to
a OC group, this is my list....

1. Abit NF7-S revision 2 board.
2. Go back to 1.


--
Regards

Morgan

Or for real folding @home power get a (now cheaper) AMD mpx dual cpu board.
It is nice to be able to encode video, burn a DVD and CD, run two terragen
renders, run two folding @home clients and play a 3d game online at the same
time.
Once you go dual you can't go back to using just one computer. ;-P
They also a don't crash as much as a single, a rogue process can consume all
of one cpu, on a dual there is the other cpu that can get up the taskman and
kill the offending process. And the duals are built as servers/workstations
and are usually more reliable than a cheaper desktop. My Iwill MPX2 is a
massive 30x30cm size and has 64bit 66mhz slots for 1000mbit lan or SCSI
RAID.
Be aware that the duals uptill now have lagged behind the desktops in FSB
speed but abits new 875 dual xeon system shows a lot of promise. The xeons
have multis unlocked downward so getting a 800fsb buttkicking dual Xeon is a
big possiblity :-).

"Ben Pope" wrote in message
...
Eddie Allen wrote:
I have a Athlon Xp 2700 (Clocking at 2.2Ghz) and 1.5 gig 333 Kingston
Ram
just dying to find a Fully overclockable Mobo.
Does anyone Know which is the best board to go for to bring out the best
in my stuff ?

The ABIT NF7-S is rated highly.

I've got an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe.

Just get an nForce2 whatever you do...

Ben
--
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...

boostland wrote:
Or for real folding @home power get a (now cheaper) AMD mpx dual cpu
board. It is nice to be able to encode video, burn a DVD and CD, run two
terragen renders, run two folding @home clients and play a 3d game online
at the same time.

Show off :-P

Once you go dual you can't go back to using just one computer. ;-P
They also a don't crash as much as a single, a rogue process can consume
all of one cpu, on a dual there is the other cpu that can get up the
taskman and kill the offending process. And the duals are built as
servers/workstations and are usually more reliable than a cheaper
desktop. My Iwill MPX2 is a massive 30x30cm size and has 64bit 66mhz
slots for 1000mbit lan or SCSI RAID.

I've never used a dual processor machine (well, not on my own or directly
sitting in front of it). I'd like to have one for the fun of it, but I
can't really justify the expense. One day :-)

Be aware that the duals uptill now have lagged behind the desktops in FSB
speed but abits new 875 dual xeon system shows a lot of promise. The xeons
have multis unlocked downward so getting a 800fsb buttkicking dual Xeon
is a big possiblity :-).

alt.comp.hardware.overclocking. AY EM DE

:-P

Ben
--
I'm not just a number. To many, I'm known as a String...

Hello

1. Abit NF7-S revision 2 board.

I don't think the Abit board are a good choice. After running Prime95
at NF7-S about 8 hours, my board died (with default setup, no voltage
changes). I also had a MSI Delta-L, but the system alway froze (after
overclocking). Now I have the Asus A7N8X-X (no DUAL-Channel!), but the
benchmarks with overclocking are the same like MSI Delta-L WITH Dual
Channel. But my A7N8X-X only works stable with a COLD boot of my PC,
if I do a reboot (warm-start) I have lags with UT2003. So I think many
Nforce boards at market are very buggy and are not designed for REAL
use of FSB (2x)200. Befor that I had a MSI KT3Ultra2 with an AMD 1700+
at 2600+ and had not such problems like with nforce2 chipset. I think
the hardware at market is at his limit!

Regards Sven

"Ed" wrote in message
...
On 25 Sep 2003 22:50:48 -0700, ) wrote:

Hello

1. Abit NF7-S revision 2 board.

I don't think the Abit board are a good choice. After running Prime95
at NF7-S about 8 hours, my board died (with default setup, no voltage
changes). I also had a MSI Delta-L, but the system alway froze (after
overclocking). Now I have the Asus A7N8X-X (no DUAL-Channel!), but the
benchmarks with overclocking are the same like MSI Delta-L WITH Dual
Channel. But my A7N8X-X only works stable with a COLD boot of my PC,
if I do a reboot (warm-start) I have lags with UT2003. So I think many
Nforce boards at market are very buggy and are not designed for REAL
use of FSB (2x)200. Befor that I had a MSI KT3Ultra2 with an AMD 1700+
at 2600+ and had not such problems like with nforce2 chipset. I think
the hardware at market is at his limit!

Regards Sven

hmmmmm I've had my Asus nf2 ultra 400 for over 4 months now, dual chan
PC3200 running in sync with the FSB at 206 to 210Mhz, it's been 110%
rock solid 24/7 since day one, not a single error, maybe I'm just lucky
but I doubt it. ;p

Cheers,
Ed

Same here, but using a Abit NF7-S * 2800+ oc to 2.3gigs runs great....

I'm with you on this one Morgan,

I own both boards, the Abit NF7-S has more physical advantages over the Asus
A7N8X-dlx board, plus I found the performance better (changing only the
board in the same machine).

Until June, I have supported Asus boards entirely. Then I purchased the
A7N8X-dlx, I went through 2 of them, my last replacement died back in June,
it is now repaired and I haven't even bothered to install it into another
machine. I found that the BIOS crashed out frequently, especially if you
made a tweak or change, I thought it was working perfectly for about 4
months, then it died during a boot. Just look at the many posts over the
Asus newsgroup, you will see this problem happens only too often.

Here is a list of advantages of both of these boards, if anyone has more to
contribute, please do so

Abit is the NF7-S Rel 2.0.
CPU: Barton 2500 - (current CPU-Z -- 2263.3 MHz, 205.8 x 11, 1.664V)
Mem: 2 x 512 OCZ EL3500 (copper)
Video: Matrox G450 (agp)


Advantages A7N8X-dlx:

1. Dual Lan

2. Manual is better and more complete.

3. AGP Pro - Graphics Slot - (no locking mechanism)

4. AGP warning light - checks for 1.5V

5. Raid Controller

Advantages Abit NF7-S:

1. Overclocking is superior on the Abit Nf7-S. You can manage several more
tweaks on the Abit board including the chip set voltage.

2. Winbond Doctor - hardware monitoring software - lets you see the limits
of your Bios settings (temps, voltages and fans). Asus Probe is so poor by
comparison.
3. Abit NF7-S board comes with a Serrilel connector. This allows you to
connect one (ATA100/133) hardrive through the serial interface or 5 IDE
devices - right out of the box.

4. Abit NF7-S offers jumperless convenience. On the Asus A7N8X you must set
jumpers for SATA, Audio, FSB 333/400, KBPWR, and USBPWR (3).

5. NF7-S connections do not interfere with PCI slots. Asus board placed the
audio connectors right in line with the PCI cards where the card actually
bends the connections when inserted fully.

6. NorthBridge Chipset fan, also is quiet and certainly not audible above
case and PS fans.
7. Clearing the CMOS in Abit does not require removal of battery (as does
Asus).
8. Jumpers have finger pulls, the Asus are more difficult to set.
9. CPU - Tape protection - complete protection from the edge of the CPU to
the edge of the motherboard. Asus tape only partially protects the area.

10. SPDIF connection is included, Asus you must pay more for this option.
11. AGP slot - lock incorporated in design.
12. More attractive - Red coloured board

13. NF7-S costs less than the A7N8X-dlx.


Review the newgroups, and make a wise choice.

http://www.myworldhardware.com/v3/re...?ID=53&Page=10 - Editors Choice
Award Aug 10/03

http://www.ocaddiction.com/reviews/m...7_v2/pg4.shtml - OCAddiction
Essential Hardware Award

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardwar...703_2217921__7 -
Sharkey



Alan


"Morgan" wrote in message
...
But if you hadn't have got the Asus - I have both the Asus board and the
Abit (both revision 2's in separate machines) which would you buy from the
start...?

For me I based the Abit as a choice from the following advantages
(advantages were what I thought were important to me)

3 Phase power on the board.
Higher Vcore voltage by default. And the ability to undervolt.
Chipset voltage adjustment
P4 type 12v connector on board
Active Northbridge Cooling
Cmos reset jumper without the need to remove battery

As the OP posted his question to a O/C group the above *might*weigh more
in
the Abit's favour than say the 3Com LAN on the Asus, which give me one
reason to get one of those.

That doesn't mean that the Asus is not a damn good board. Mine has
performed
really well. Just out of curiosity I used the Asus in a system and built
it
up and found that I could not achieve the same results from that board as
with my an Abit 1.2 (not my revision 2 but a 1.2 board). With the Abit I
used a XP 2.4 CPU at 220x10 with 6.2.2.2 timings. With the Asus (revision
2)
I had difficulty getting stability at 200x10 with the same hardware, not
conclusive to condemn any board but enough for me to appreciate the Abit.

Both boards are great but I still think, for me, that the Abit has the
edge
as the overclockers board, ymmv

What does concern me though on ANY n-Force 2 board is how they can die
prematurely with refusing to boot after Bios flashes or Bios adjustments.
I
know as it had happened to me


--
Regards

Morgan