Still undecided on Mobo - Opinions please!

[Tara]

Hi all

I still can't decide which of these mobo's to build my new system on, so I
thought i'd throw it open to you all.

My final choices are:

MSI Nforce K7N2 Delta-ILSR
or
GIGABYTE GA-7NNXP

Please don't suggest any others as it's taken me ages to whittle it down to
these and any more options will do my head in!

I'll be dropping in 2 x 512MB Corsiar TwinX PC3200 & an AMD 3200 400FSB with
Zalman Flower Cooler CNPS 6000-AlCU

Also has anyone any experience of the Sapphire Radeon 9800 Ultimate
Edtition? The one with the passive cooler?

Thanx a bunch

T

 

[Rich Barry]

I just read a great review of the MSI Board. I would go with that.

 

[Pattayalob]

I recently bought the MSI board. Looks good, nice packaging, loads of
features, probably much more than you require. Has everything that I could
possibly want for the next few years anyway. Works perfectly first time and
is available at dabs.com for around £100.

 

[tHatDudeUK]

Hi all

I still can't decide which of these mobo's to build my new system on, so I
thought i'd throw it open to you all.

My final choices are:

MSI Nforce K7N2 Delta-ILSR

That or an Abit NF7-S v2.0 or Asus A7N8X Deluxe v2.0. BTW I'm easily running
a 2500+ at 3200+ speeds. Why not spend £50 on decent cooling instead of £300
for nothing on the processor?!

 

[Li'l ol' me]

That or an Abit NF7-S v2.0 or Asus A7N8X Deluxe v2.0. BTW I'm easily running
a 2500+ at 3200+ speeds. Why not spend £50 on decent cooling instead of £300
for nothing on the processor?!

I agree about the 3200.

I use an abit NF7-S to run an XP2100 at well over 200FSB. Could go higher,
but I don't want to raise the noise levels. There's no room for manoeuvre
at all with an XP3200 except rasing the multiplier a little, but they
already run super-hot.

Oh yeah, I have a zalman (the original flower type). They are designed to
be quiet, not super coolers. You may fry your chip, so double check their
specs.

 

[methylenedioxy]

so


I agree about the 3200.

I use an abit NF7-S to run an XP2100 at well over 200FSB. Could go higher,
but I don't want to raise the noise levels. There's no room for manoeuvre
at all with an XP3200 except rasing the multiplier a little, but they
already run super-hot.

Oh yeah, I have a zalman (the original flower type). They are designed to
be quiet, not super coolers. You may fry your chip, so double check their
specs.

Specs for the flower are maximum of 2600XP....
But I overclocked my 2600 with it on my abit nfs and although not much, the
temps only went up a degree......now changed cooler though for some heavy
oc'ing

 

[SLP]

on,
Specs for the flower are maximum of 2600XP....
But I overclocked my 2600 with it on my abit nfs and although not much, the
temps only went up a degree......now changed cooler though for some heavy
oc'ing

I have to agree too about the cooling. You can get a Barton 2800+ and a
decent HSF for half the price of the 3200 - and clock it beyound 3200
speeds.

I wouldn't worry too much about your motherboard choice - either will be
fine and a month after you build the machine, you probably wont care which
one you've got anyway.

SLP

 

[tHatDudeUK]

I wouldn't worry too much about your motherboard choice - either will be
fine and a month after you build the machine, you probably wont care which
one you've got anyway.

In the time I put a machine together for myself I settled for a 7VAXP Via
KT400 chipset and am stuck at 133mhz FSB on my 2200+ Athlon (unless I take
off my HSF and silver paint the Athlon chip, which suxxorz). Now there are
NForce 2 mobo's I'm considering replacing it for a Abit NF7-S after building
a friend a machine with one. The sound is impressive and since I was
considering buying a sound card, it's one less thing to worry about. Also,
this would be useful for a Home Cinema PC in the future when there's
possibly "Nforce 4" mobos around as the onboard sound does realtime Dolby
encoding (The onboard sound on the 7VAXP makes my games lag sometimes
:-( ) I can then sell my old mobo on ebay and upgrade to a 2500+ and faster
larger RAM etc as finances permit...

Dual WD SATA Raptors would be nice too

 

[AD C]

Hi all

I still can't decide which of these mobo's to build my new system on, so I
thought i'd throw it open to you all.

My final choices are:

MSI Nforce K7N2 Delta-ILSR
or
GIGABYTE GA-7NNXP

Because I think MSIare better boards than Gigabyte, not that Gigibyte
boards are bad and because I like the Nforce chipset, I think you be
better off with the MSI.

Please don't suggest any others as it's taken me ages to whittle it down to
these and any more options will do my head in!

That is a shame.

I'll be dropping in 2 x 512MB Corsiar TwinX PC3200 & an AMD 3200 400FSB with
Zalman Flower Cooler CNPS 6000-AlCU

Corsiar is good, if i had the momeny, that whay I would get.
I have heard that the flower is not all it cracked up to be, better
heatsinks around for less money. Which is a shame, as it was thwe flower
I was looking at.
The Aero 7 looks good, I think that is what it is called, by Cooler
master, it looks like a jet engine.

Also has anyone any experience of the Sapphire Radeon 9800 Ultimate
Edtition? The one with the passive cooler?

I can not help you there, as the only ATI card i owned was a rage pro,
apart from the drivers, it was a good card.
My brother got a Radion 9600 and that goes like the wind, very fast
indeed.

 

[Li'l ol' me]

In the time I put a machine together for myself I settled for a 7VAXP Via
KT400 chipset and am stuck at 133mhz FSB on my 2200+ Athlon (unless I take
off my HSF and silver paint the Athlon chip, which suxxorz).
Now there are NForce 2 mobo's I'm considering replacing it for a Abit NF7-S after building
a friend a machine with one.

The nf7-s will let you set any multiplier you like. My XP2100 is not
unlocked, but I wouldn't be able to get it running on an FSB of 213 if I
wasn't able to lower the multiplier. You'll need fast memory of course.

The sound is impressive and since I was
considering buying a sound card, it's one less thing to worry about. Also,
this would be useful for a Home Cinema PC in the future when there's
possibly "Nforce 4" mobos around as the onboard sound does realtime Dolby
encoding

It's great quality when you've got an external amplifier/decoder doing all
the donkey work. And games like UT2003 sound fantastic. I just can't get a
good sensation of surround even though I clearly hear different sounds in
the rear channels i.e. they're not just mirrored.

 

[tHatDudeUK]

It's great quality when you've got an external amplifier/decoder doing all
the donkey work. And games like UT2003 sound fantastic. I just can't get a
good sensation of surround even though I clearly hear different sounds in
the rear channels i.e. they're not just mirrored.

I've read it's rated better than an Audigy so considering I was thinking of
buying one of them and keeping my dodgy Mobo

I'm also considering buying a decoder to stick on my desktop and look all
nice (and only handle my PC audio).... The pioneer receivers look well
suited to my needs.

Maybe you need to spend a while moving the speakers and setting it up or
perhaps the acoustics in your room just aren't up to the surround sound
business?!

 

[AD C]

I have to agree too about the cooling. You can get a Barton 2800+ and a
decent HSF for half the price of the 3200 - and clock it beyound 3200
speeds.

I wouldn't worry too much about your motherboard choice - either will be
fine and a month after you build the machine, you probably wont care which
one you've got anyway.

You are right there, when I was first thinking of upgrading and getting
a new motherboard, my poor brain went into overdrive to try and think
which one to get. I certainly wanted a Nforce based board and I also
wanted a higher end one. It cam to a choice between the Asus A7N8X
deluxe or the Abit NF7-s. The NF7-s won, but only because it was in the
store when my old motherboard went belly up. I am pleased I got it, but
to be honest, It do not worry me now if i had the Aus or Abit.

 

[Gerbil Madness]

Hi all

I still can't decide which of these mobo's to build my new system on, so I
thought i'd throw it open to you all.

My final choices are:

MSI Nforce K7N2 Delta-ILSR
or
GIGABYTE GA-7NNXP

Please don't suggest any others as it's taken me ages to whittle it down to
these and any more options will do my head in!

I'll be dropping in 2 x 512MB Corsiar TwinX PC3200 & an AMD 3200 400FSB with
Zalman Flower Cooler CNPS 6000-AlCU

Also has anyone any experience of the Sapphire Radeon 9800 Ultimate
Edtition? The one with the passive cooler?

Thanx a bunch

T

I just bought an MSI Nforce K7N2 Delta-ILSR and I'll be getting a few more
(great HDTach scores), I'm quite happy with them. I've had a few bad
experiences with gigabyte so my opinion is a little slanted.

 

[AD C]

tHatDudeUK wrote:

The current Gigabyte board is actually more pricey, but packs more
features....

But what about performance?

I have a Gigabyte board and would probably not get one again.

I doubt I would buy a gigabyte again, not that there is anything much
wrong with them, but there are better boards.

I ordered a ECS board for a mate of mine, cheap, but it works well, it
can only go to a 266 FSB, but that is all he wants. A good budget board,
plus you can use Sdram or DDR

I can tell the Abit is a decent board when it works (NF7-S v2.0) so although
I have seen and been annoyed with a dead board I will seriously consider
replacing my Gigabyte in the near future.

I got an older NF7-s, 1. what ever it is, I got it just before the 2 was
around, but it works well and it is fast, boy is it fast.