Need recomendation on nforce2 motherboard

XafGoat

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I need serial ata raid, 2 serial ata conectors, some good overclocking(planning on ocing a 2500+ with some kingston 3500 hyperx), and room for a nice fat heatsink. Is there anything that does that for a decent price(150 or under)? I was looking at the abit nf7-s but i dont think it has onboard raid. I guess i could buy a seperate controller but i dont really want too.

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Santa God. God evolves from Santa.</font color=blue><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Xafgoat on 08/06/03 11:33 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 

Prof133

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NF7-S has Serial ATA RAID. Excellent for overclocking. Well below $150.

<b><font color=blue>Logic over all.</font color=blue></b>
 

XafGoat

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REally? well i think ill go with that one then. I just couldnt find it saying anything about raid when i was reading the specs.

Any body know why the nforces only have 3 memory slots? Seems kinda lame cause i have 2 sticks of 256 kingston hyperx and i was planning on getting 2 more eventually to give a gig of ram while keeping it dual channel.

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pIII_Man

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the world may never know

here's what ya do

use your 2x 256 for now and run em dual channel...then when it comes time to buy ram...put the 2x 256 on the same channel and a 512 on the other channel...this will enable dual channel and you will have 1gb of ram... :smile:

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Prof133

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It would be best to add a 512MB stick of memory in order to reach the 1GB of memory. Put the 512MB stick in the memory slot that seems to stand alone and your two current 256MB sticks in the two remaining memory slots. The result: memory balanced across both channels and the full 1GB in Dual DDR access mode.

<b>Edit: i'm a moment too late. ditto to piii's recommendation.</b> :D

<b><font color=blue>Logic over all.</font color=blue></b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Prof133 on 08/06/03 11:56 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 

XafGoat

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Aiight well i guess i will have to do that. So everyone agrees the abit nf7-s is the best choice for what i want? If so now all i gotta do is find somewhere to buy it. Newegg charges me tax(damn all the computer resellers being in CA) but i think the shipping is free so ill prolly get it from there.

Oh one more thing i've heard there are different revisions of these. Am i gonna be sad if i get an older one or will it not matter much?

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Quetzacoatl

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Abit Nf7-s is a good choice as the others said. You're likely going to get the new revision, well, simply because Abit no longer manufactures the old versions (kinda a duh). It won't matter that much, but the new revisions tend to overclock better, and have the 4 holes around the CPU socket for larger heatsinks like the Alphas and Swiftechs

I want to see an <font color=blue>Ati Radeon 99999 Ultra Pro</font color=blue>, based on the <font color=red>AtiRage core</font color=red>. And people wonder how a <font color=purple>Geforce3</font color=purple> is better than a <font color=orange>Geforce4 Mx...</font color=orange>
 

XafGoat

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Yeah i just checked out monarch computers and they have the nf7-s rev 2.0 for 120 plus free shipping and no tax(they in georgia) :lol: , plus they have good reseller ratings :lol: .

One more question, has anyone used directron.com to buy stuff. I was looking at a coolermaster 201c case their and an antec 480true power suply and they have both at a good price. Problem is their reseller ratings are a mixed bag, so i was wondering if anyone had tried them personally.

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Quetzacoatl

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Oh man, Directron is garbage, they have such random sales, it's a very hit and miss operation buying from them. Newegg is so much better, Monarch isn't too bad, and Mwave.com is not too shabby either.

I want to see an <font color=blue>Ati Radeon 99999 Ultra Pro</font color=blue>, based on the <font color=red>AtiRage core</font color=red>. And people wonder how a <font color=purple>Geforce3</font color=purple> is better than a <font color=orange>Geforce4 Mx...</font color=orange>
 

Spitfire_x86

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You can safely go for ABIT NF7-S 2.0. I'm using the lite version (without SATA, RAID, SoundStorm) of this board for couple of weeks. It's working great for me. And it's very overclocking friendly.

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Caimbeul

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The ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe is the king of N-Force 2 boards. Has the best performance + serial ATA Raid with 2x cables etc and a host of other features.

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XafGoat

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Does it overclock as nicely though?

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Prof133

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Any body know why the nforces only have 3 memory slots?
The nForce2 chipset can read 6 banks max. Therefore it is logical to have 3 memory slots and most nForce2 motherboards do. Gigabyte offers an nForce2 board with 4 memory slots but the chipset restriction still exists. Consequently, the Gigabyte nforce2 board can't support 4 double-sided memory modules as the nForce2 chipset would have to be able to read 8 banks.

<b><font color=blue>Logic over all.</font color=blue></b>
 

XafGoat

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Well just wanted to thanks for the help guys, i apreciate it. My nf7-s should be ariving in a couple days and then the overclocking experiments shall begin :smile: .

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Prof133

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You're getting a quality motherboard no doubt. Looks to be quite the success! ;)

<b><font color=blue>Logic over all.</font color=blue></b>
 

pIII_Man

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i think he ment...why does the nforce chipset only support 3 double sidded dimms...which IMO is pretty dumb for a dual channel chipset...

If i put my k6 in a Ferrari it would be faster than your your pentium 4 or Athlon XP :tongue: <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Piii_MAN on 08/07/03 08:19 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 

markgun

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You can safely go for ABIT NF7-S 2.0. I'm using the lite version (without SATA, RAID, SoundStorm) of this board for couple of weeks. It's working great for me. And it's very overclocking friendly.
I have a question. Did you notice any performance drop in Vice City coming from EAX supported sound to non-EAX supported sound? I've heard you can take large performance hits from that in Vice City, but I'm not sure if it's actually true.

<b>Qui habet aures audiendi audiat</b>
 

Spitfire_x86

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I don't feel performance difference with/without EAX enabled. I played GTA VC with nForce APU (my previous mobo MSI K7N420 Pro had nForce APU) and SB Live! Value.

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Spitfire_x86

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The onboard audio badly sux compared to nForce APU. It's even worse than SB Live! Value.

I feel depressed when I think about my nForce APU loss :frown:

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XafGoat

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Anybody know if the nf7-s comes with a sata cable? as my seagate harddrive didn't for some reason. If not im gonna have to pay 10 bucks for one of those which is pretty sucky.

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Prof133

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It includes the cable. <A HREF="http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/13-127-143-05.JPG" target="_new">Here's a picture</A> of what's included with the motherboard.

<b><font color=blue>Logic over all.</font color=blue></b>
 

XafGoat

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Very nice. Heh, i was looking at new egg and the cable were as much for shipping as they were to buy.

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