New mobo for XP CPU - which one?

[Devast8or]

Hi all,

I'm thinking about buying a new motherboard, and wanted to hear if you guys have any good suggestions. It doesn't have to be Abit, but I've been very happy about my KT7A-RAID and BH6 boards.

My needs are:

1) Sockat A (I have a Palomino 2000+ I wanna put inthere)
2) Room for a Silent Viking 2 cooler (80x80mm)
3) Some way of connecting 5 IDE drives (RAID/SATA)
4) I don't want some cheap crap (like ECS)
5) OTOH it shouldn't be too expansive either

I've been looking around a bit and found a few interesting boards:

Asus A7N8X DeLuxe /GD ATX

Soltek SL-75FRN2-RL

Abit NF7-S

The Asus card looks to have a passive chipset cooler as opposed to other two boards. That's nice (that would save me from buying and installing a passive Zalman heatsink which would void the warranty). Is the fan on the NF7-S noisy?

Info and experience with any of these boards will be much appreciated, as well as as suggestions for other boards.

TIA

Devast8or

 

[Morgan (archive)]

Hello

Pop over to...

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/

You will see that they have forums for each of the n-Force makes of boards. That way you could have a read up on each of them as there are links to many reviews of each of the boards.....

http://www.nforcershq.com/modules.php?name=Reviews

That way you can decide on price / features etc, inc availability of course, as well as peoples opinions to select the right one for you. My friend, for example, likes the Asus for two Ethernet ports on board - one of them being a 3Com and it overclocks (being the latest revision) every bit as good as my Abit.

Don't leave out the Epox board from your list either.

As for your question on the noise of the Northbridge fan from the NF7-S - it is as quiet as any other std Northbridge fans that I have heard - the point being that I can't tell if it makes any additional noise over my 80mm 2500rpm HSF, Graphics chip fan or PSU fan combined together.

Your point on being able to connect 5 IDE drives - well that might limit your choice to those boards with an additional controller on board as you also mention that cost is a factor for you - being more expensive to add an additional PCI controller later. But price around as I have seen PCI IDE ATA 100 cards quite cheaply, non-raid though.

Regards

Morgan

How I fixed my noisy IBM drive
www.flyinglizard.freeserve.co.uk
3DMark 2001 with Ti 4200 = 15214
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=6420632

 

[Devast8or]

Morgan wrote:

Hello

Pop over to...

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/

You will see that they have forums for each of the n-Force makes of boards. That way you could have a read up on each of them as there are links to many reviews of each of the boards.....

http://www.nforcershq.com/modules.php?name=Reviews

...

Great, I'll have a look on that site when I get to work tomorrow

Don't leave out the Epox board from your list either.

Haven't really heard much about Epox. I assmue they're good too, since you mention them. I'll take a look at what Epox boards are for sale around here (Denmark).

As for your question on the noise of the Northbridge fan from the NF7-S - it is as quiet as any other std Northbridge fans that I have heard - the point being that I can't tell if it makes any additional noise over my 80mm 2500rpm HSF, Graphics chip fan or PSU fan combined together.

Well, if it's anything like the chipset fan on my KT7A-RAID it has to go

Does anyone know if it's enough if I just disable the fan? Is the heatsink enough to cool the chipset? (My KT7A-RAID is running fine that way now).

Your point on being able to connect 5 IDE drives - well that might limit your choice to those boards with an additional controller on board as you also mention that cost is a factor for you - being more expensive to add an additional PCI controller later. But price around as I have seen PCI IDE ATA 100 cards quite cheaply, non-raid though.

Yeah, I've seen those PCI cards too. But it would be both easier and cheaper to get a motherboard that already has an extra controller onboard.

Regards

Morgan

How I fixed my noisy IBM drive
www.flyinglizard.freeserve.co.uk

LOL, that is great.

Thanks for the answers

Devast8or

 

[Morgan (archive)]

Haven't really heard much about Epox. I assume they're good too, since you mention them. I'll take a look at what Epox boards are for sale around here (Denmark

Not knowing where you lived I mentioned Epox as here in the UK I have found their tech support to be superb and also the boards are very competitively priced. But they do not have on-board SATA.

Well, if it's anything like the chipset fan on my KT7A-RAID it has to go

Well my fan on my other Abit board - A7V266 stopped working for ages - I ran it for many weeks without the HSF until I got a replacement sent to me from Abit. But noise can be subjective, my mates machine sounds like a damn helicopter but he doesn't see, or hear, that as a problem.

Yeah, I've seen those PCI cards too. But it would be both easier and cheaper to get a motherboard that already has an extra controller onboard.

With you all the way on that one - except it does limit your choice.

LOL, that is great.

Well I felt better - and my drive is now quieter ;-)

 

[Wayne Youngman]

Devast8or wrote:

Hi all,

I'm thinking about buying a new motherboard, and wanted to hear if you guys have any good suggestions.

Hi,

I have also been researching a new mobo for a AMD based system, and after a few weeks I myself have decided on the NF7-S v.20 (Nforce ULTRA 400). I can buy this board for �75-00. I intend to run a Barton 2500+ which I can pick up also for about �75.00. So that makes �150-00 for CPU and Mobo!!! I just think that's mega value. . . .I mean I paid �180-00 for my current PIII550EB CPU over three years ago, it's a buyers market. . . .

There is some good stuff out there from ASUS, MSI, EPOX, also but nothing that's clearly superior to the NF7-S v.2.0 and you also get access to this newsgroup if your ABIT purchase goes pear shaped!

Hmmm I know exactly the process you are going through, but I think for �75-00 you are gonna have a tough time to beat the new ABIT NF7-S. . . . .

Wayne ][

 

[Jens C. Hansen [Odense]]

Wayne Youngman wrote:

my current PIII550EB

That would be a P III 550E then.
EB means FSB 133, which does not fit with 550 MHz.

 

[Wayne Youngman]

Jens C. Hansen [Odense] wrote:

Wayne Youngman wrote:

my current PIII550EB

That would be a P III 550E then.
EB means FSB 133, which does not fit with 550 MHz.

hehe true true , just that I overclock it to 733Mhz, almost think of it as an EB!. . .ahhh but we digress