View Full Version : ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe
CerealKiller
20-08-04, 07:40
Been having PC woes, my new MSI motherboard is defective, and my Soyo Dragon board blew a capacitor, so all I have is an old iMac kicking around, obviously it's time to get new parts.
My question for you is, what do you think of the board? I've heard things from both spectrums, and not sure what to think yet.
You buying it new or what?
If your looking for a good nforce2 motherboard there are certainly better options.
CerealKiller
20-08-04, 07:58
I would be buying it new, yes, but what is your reasoning for "better options"? I am trying to do my homework on this, and I don't mean to sound ignorant, but I need more than, "it sucks".
Well first off, how much cash do you have to spend?
CerealKiller
20-08-04, 08:13
I will go up to $120 on it. But what is your problem with the board? It's apparently not the chipset, (which is usually everyone's complaint).
That mother board is not the fastest you will find on the market nor the slowest it is tho faster than the average board. And you get the Asus quality that comes with it.
you got a decent onboard soundcard, a decent 100mbit nic and an 1 gb nic aswell. It is also a very stable motherboard, so if you are like me and dont give ashit about thoose 2 fps more you can get with another motherboard :) then go with this one. Stability, quality and probably enough power to keep you happy.
edit
oh and it has a surprisingly nice sata controller. I was a little pissed asus didnt go with promise on this one. Works nice in Windows and even better in Linux.
CerealKiller
20-08-04, 08:28
Thanks for the input, I should be able to get some decent FPS with the whole system, when done, this will be the specs:
ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton
1 GB Dual Channel Corsair, (Maybe Mushkin, also don't really give a damn about Dual Channel)
80 GB Hitachi SATA HD
Radeon 9800 Pro
Yeah it will probably do for a while.
One note I dont know if this is something that happens all the time, but Kingston 400 mhz ddr dont work that good with this board strangely enough. I ordered 1 gig Samsung modules but the store only had Kingston in, I said sure Kingston is a well known ram's maker so no problem, but oh the was :). So if the store or internet shop dont have corsair in stock try and get something else than Kingston just in case.
Edit
Well Dual channel mode is faster than singel channel :) and fast memory can make your day. So make sure you buy 2x512 modules, so that you can run them in dual channel mode.
Mine is not the "E" revision but it still is a rock solid mobo. I don't overclock or anything, just air-cooled etc. XP 2800 CPU, it's a really nice unit.
What's the difference, firewire?
I got mine here:
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/DeepSearch.hmx?scriteria=a7n8x&Dname=Motherboards&Pname=ASUS&DID=MB&PID=MB-ASU
I think its the 2 nics. the Deluxe has a 100 mbit nic and 1 gb nic :) overkill.. Other than that it's no noticable differance. It was pretty cheap where I bough so said what the hell.
Abit NF7-S is teh bestest nForce2 based mobo.
Asus is pretty ok, but it's exploiting it's good opinion IMHO.
uhm, Athlon XP is "single-channel", so dual-chan mobo is better only at AGP tranfers. So if you have gfx with lotsa mem, there is no difference really : p
I just replaced mine as the CPU died on me. The board was great though, no problems with it at all. There might be faster or more tweakable boards around, but for general build quality and reliability you can't go far wrong with an ASUS. On top of that it does everything you need on-board, so if any of your cards go boom the board can take over til you get a replacement.
Abit NF7-S
Mobile barthon 2500+ @220*11.5 (2535mhz)
512 mb noname pc3200
I did extensive research into the best board for my buck before i bought it.
There's also a lot of forums on how to overclock it.
You can adjust a LOT in that bios, and there's many overclocking bioses out there for it.
Mine works best with the Tictac D10beta2 bios.
Also look into the L12 pinmod for your processor. real easy to do and it helps you overclock on that motherboard.
Yep get the abit NF7-S. great board
With a Barton 2500+, I'd be looking at an A-Bit NF7-S as well. I'm using one right here. :)
Much better for overclocking than the Asus board I had previously (though that was A7V600, not A7N8X-E), though I haven't actually started overclocking yet. The Barton 2500+ is probably the most commonly overclocked CPU around, since it's the same core as the 3200+. Buy a decent fan for it, stick it, get in the A-Bit bios and crank it up. :D
Very good (I should know I use one) in all but 1 area, memory, but thats Nvidias fault for making a nasty memory controller, ensure you check with the compatable memory list on the Asus site or if in doubt use Corsair.
I have built hundreds of custom computers for all uses. Abit and Asus have always been the top names on my personal list. In general I think Abit when overclocking comes into the picture. If you just want a good product straight out of the box with little more than a few BIOS tweaks, Asus is the way to go.
Asus has always used good quality capacitors and I believe Abit uses the same ones now -- for the past few years at least.
My personal computer uses the Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe with a 2700+ Barton and Kingston HyperX DDR400 1GB (512MBx2) in dual channel. Aside for the ATI Radeon 9600XT -- it's always crap drivers with ATI, thank god for omega drivers -- this system is rock solid and I don't overclock aside from tweaking the memory settings to the fastest stable settings. Most people that have memory trouble with the nForce2 can resolve them with some memory timing adjustments.
Here's a quick answer. If you plan to overclock, go with the Abit NF7-S. Otherwise strongly consider the Asus A7N8X-E. #1 reason why I'm using the Asus personally is there is no fan on the northbridge and I don't overclock. I don't know how many times I've had to replace northbridge fans for my customers. If you do plan to overclock, order a nice zalman northbridge heatsink to replace that fan on the Abit. Enough said. Good luck.
Actually that's one thing about the NF7-S. The fan on mine was very dodgy, kept making lots of noise, eventually I just stopped it and it hasn't been running ever since. I haven't ahd any problems at all with it stopped, but I think I'll get a new one on it before I overclock. :)
Many times the small heatsink the fan sits on is enough to keep the northbridge at a safe temperature < 35°C. But you will do your northbridge a favor in longevity if you get a zalman northbridge heatsink, they are like US$30-50 depending on the model. You will certainly need something more than a small heatsink and an unplugged fan if you overclock. :D
If you do replace the heatsink on the northbridge, do it with extreme care. Depending on the adhesive they used to stick the heatsink/fan on there, it can take a considerable amount of force to pop it off. The biggest thing is to NOT try to pull it straight off the board. You will need to twist it back and forth to loosen it up and pull slightly. Whatever you do, do not pry it off with any sort of tool.
The funny thing is, through all the years these fans they use on the northbridge are always very very cheap. Rated at like 10,000 hours or something stupid. Most times they don't even last for their rated hours. o_O
CerealKiller
20-08-04, 19:46
I don't really want to overclock, my system was blazing fast before, but the Soyo didn't like my Radeon 9800 Pro at 8x, if I ran it at 8x, it made it look like the video card was overheating. I won't be using Kingston Memory, I already am, but it's KVR333x64C25/256. I know alot about Kingston, and it's pretty solid memory if you're just trying to get a computer together, but if you're looking for high end performance, I would personally go with Corsair or Mushkin.
Soyo is on my list of brands to stay away from. Kingston HyperX is guaranteed, so therefore the lower price makes it just as attractive as the other high performance brands. If it doesn't perform within the advertised timings, Kingston will replace them for free. I've taken advantage of this many times while tweaking for my customers. It always works out. My last system used Corsair, but that was before Kingston put out their HyperX series. Mushkin is really really nice, really really expensive, and not easily obtainable -- aside from their authorized retailers. :D
The NF7-S has very bad voltage regulation but other then that it's a solider board.
The DFI Ultra-Infinity is killer.
On the Asus my voltages are never more than ±3% off, which is very tight. But half the equation is the PS, quality counts. I use an Antec TRUE330.
the past 7 years ive been building my own pc's and also for friends . In that time ive used most makes of motherboards and have come to the conclusion the Asus is the best in my opinion and i currently use a A7N8X Deluxe , and when i build a new system I will use Asus again . Having had problems with other mobo's and reliabilty and component faliure in the past and looking for information on forums etc It would seem the mobo's with the least problems were Asus .
ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe is best tested Socket 462 motherboard in a LOT of tests... Get it...
I've had my ASUS A7N8X Deluxe for over a year now. (not the 'E' version) Not had a prob with it. My only little niggle is the wobbly connection to all the external sockets. They just seem too flimsy and i get an annoying sound buzz if i as much as knock the tower accidentally with my knee. :(
Btw, can somebody confirm the diff between mine and the 'E' version??
CerealKiller
20-08-04, 23:00
I'm feeling pretty good about the decision to get it now, seeing alot of positive feedback, which is good. It'll be nice to have a working PC again, I'm working on Day #5 without a PC. I will be in total 11 days without a PC when this is all said and done.
I just bought a DFI Infinity NF2 Ultra
It's sexy, especially for the price. After having played with it a bit I would suggest it to anyone.
Yay for DFI, I'm a fan now.
uhm, Athlon XP is "single-channel", so dual-chan mobo is better only at AGP tranfers. So if you have gfx with lotsa mem, there is no difference really : p
Not really true. Dual channel = more bandwith = faster CPU performance.
The NF7-S has very bad voltage regulation but other then that it's a solider board.
It has good regulation compared to many other boards that is why it can perform so well. My A7N8X could only do about 209, but my NF7-S could do 220 with the same ram/cpu right out of the box. Add in a L12 mod and TicTac bios and your in business.
If you have $120 to spend on the motheboard alone I would go a64. You can get one of the best 754-pin a64 boards for $100 and the cpu for about $150-170. That will leave A LOT of room to upgrade in the future, especially the video card.
CerealKiller
20-08-04, 23:19
Not buying a new processor right now, just need a new mobo. Going to be getting married soon, so I can't spend a lot of money on it.
Then grab the DFI....it will perform best.
Not really true. Dual channel = more bandwith = faster CPU performance.
Yes, but bandwith has to be "to something". So as CPU is "single" that's the bottleneck.
if CPU<->memctrler bandwith is X and memctrler<->memchip is 2X what is max CPU<->memchip ? Chain is as strong as it's weakest component...
i would make sure you get dual channel RAM sticks, the performance increase is... amazing.
Thats the mobo i use, and even with only a Duron 1.6GHz it can run some programs better than a P4.
this mobo is TWO THUMBS FRESH.
I've been using an origional A7N8X deluxe (well over a year old) and its been very good, only probs I've had with it is heat, the origionals were to sensitive to it, but they have been improved since then.
You need to get 2x ram sticks aswell so you can use the dual DDR channels to get the performance boost over normal boards, which can be the expensive part.
Yes, but bandwith has to be "to something". So as CPU is "single" that's the bottleneck.
if CPU<->memctrler bandwith is X and memctrler<->memchip is 2X what is max CPU<->memchip ? Chain is as strong as it's weakest component...
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Mzk0
So I guess they are completely wrong about dual channel performance and the benchmarks are forged?
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