Epox 8rda3+

LIQuidLIQuid Raleigh, NC
edited July 2003 in Hardware
(*#^%^@#%

I knew this was going to happen. The day i was going to order my nf7-s, i find this new nf2 400 board out by Epox... New egg has it in stock. But im not sure what i should get now.

Abit NF7-S or Epox 8RDA3+

Anyone have any experience with either of these boards, please help me out

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    The NF7-S 2.0 is the ULTRA400 stepping. Taking a peak into the revision reported by the chip with WCPUID, it reports C1 back...

    The C1 stepping is the ultra400 stepping.

    The 8RDA3+ is in my opinion, a wannabe of the NF7-S 2.0. It's everything the NF7 is without the benefit of having the very very nice MCP-T powered sound card.

    I hope this solves your quandary.
  • LIQuidLIQuid Raleigh, NC
    edited July 2003
    Yeah, thanks
  • AgeekAgeek
    edited July 2003
    Assuming you use Windows the best is as Thrax said. IF you want to multiboot, Linux still has major issues with the NF2 chipset but works with the Via chipset. I will say that if you plan to multiboot but do not now need other than Windows for something, I would go with the NF7 and pend the linux install for 4-8 months until you know the chipset is supported right and the nf2 nVidia drivers are out of beta for Linux.

    The nForce is more overclockable but Linux is more sensitive to fine timing compromises than Windows.

    John Danielson.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    I dualboot Slackware 9 and Windows 2000.

    Slackware works marvelously with my NF7-S 2.0.

    However what must be noted is that the onboard LAN MUST be enabled, or Slackware will not boot. It's quirky, I know...
  • AgeekAgeek
    edited July 2003
    Slack does, some distros do not because they need to recompile the source code for the chipset betas against other gcc before building manually into kernel to get them mostly working. Which version of Slack???? 9.0????
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited July 2003
    Aye. Slack 9.
  • AgeekAgeek
    edited July 2003
    Thanks, one of those will be ordered next week sometime (I like the equiv of a Mandrake Power Pack, probbaly will get a workstation CD set to play with in whatever spare time I have as cannot afford a good digital camera, DVD burner or reader and Slack DVD this month, so the DVD burner gets skipped and I get Slack on CD.). I expect to have a Pioneer A05 by September so next versions I get will be DVDs (skipping reader only DVD drive purchase).
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited July 2003
    Originally posted by LIQuid
    (*#^%^@#%

    I knew this was going to happen. The day i was going to order my nf7-s, i find this new nf2 400 board out by Epox... New egg has it in stock. But im not sure what i should get now.

    Abit NF7-S or Epox 8RDA3+

    Anyone have any experience with either of these boards, please help me out

    Right now I would say grab the Abit NF7-S v2 mobo. You never want to be among the first batch of pepole to buy a new motherboard.

    I will probably grab the Epox 8RDA3+ next month (just for eval purposes :) )
  • CCWCCW Suffolk, UK
    edited July 2003
    http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15343

    This might help

    Craig
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited July 2003
    An Abit vs Epox donnybrook! I love it. :)

    When you OC you roll the dice......
  • CCWCCW Suffolk, UK
    edited July 2003
    LIQuid, buy both and let us know which one is better!
  • LIQuidLIQuid Raleigh, NC
    edited July 2003
    Got the nf7-s 2.0 ... love it!
  • dorkusdorkus
    edited July 2003
    i've heard good things about the NF7-S but the one thing that's held me back is the lack of mounting holes for a heatsink... at least that's what i read somewhere. is that true? i have an Alpha PAL8045 so it's absolutely necessary for my board to have mounting holes. i know that all Epox boards have them...

    also, does the dual-channel memory of the Ultra 400 chipset have much real-world advantage over single-channel 400? e.g. will i be getting any better BF1942 FPS with a 8RDA3+ vs. 8RDA+, or is it more of a theoretical advantage...
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited July 2003
    LIQ - there's a huge thread on Abit Forums about Sound/MIC problems on the IC7 series mobos.

    If you can check out the MIC on the NF7-S - and make sure it's an Intel only poblem
  • a2jfreaka2jfreak Houston, TX Member
    edited July 2003
    The only thing I hate about my NF7-S Rev2.0 is <a href="http://www.icronticforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1519">this</a>.
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited July 2003
    Originally posted by a2jfreak
    The only thing I hate about my NF7-S Rev2.0 is <a href="http://www.icronticforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1519">this</a>.

    Just a shot in the dark....
    What's your PSU's +5vsb rating? (it should be 2-3A )
  • a2jfreaka2jfreak Houston, TX Member
    edited July 2003
    I fixed it.

    Weird problem: keyboard/mouse work in either PS/2 port, but with a restart, the keyboard/mouse are not re-initialized.

    Switched the keyboard/mouse and all works.

    Just a BIOS glitch. Either the BIOS should gripe and not work at all the way I originally had it, or work both ways as it acts like it does upon initial boot and reset. Only restart exhibits the problem.
    Originally posted by Omega65


    Just a shot in the dark....
    What's your PSU's +5vsb rating? (it should be 2-3A )
  • Omega65Omega65 Philadelphia, Pa
    edited July 2003
    Originally posted by Thrax
    The 8RDA3+ is in my opinion, a wannabe of the NF7-S 2.0. It's everything the NF7 is without the benefit of having the very very nice MCP-T powered sound card.

    The 8RDA3+ has the MCP-T NB!
  • LIQuidLIQuid Raleigh, NC
    edited July 2003
    I love my NF7-S 2.0 :)

    Got it like a week ago :)
  • DoM-aLDoM-aL Indiana
    edited July 2003
    Originally posted by dorkus
    i've heard good things about the NF7-S but the one thing that's held me back is the lack of mounting holes for a heatsink... at least that's what i read somewhere. is that true? i have an Alpha PAL8045 so it's absolutely necessary for my board to have mounting holes. i know that all Epox boards have them...

    Uh... not sure what you are talking about. How do you think i hooked up my slk 900 :p
  • a2jfreaka2jfreak Houston, TX Member
    edited July 2003
    The original NF7-S did not have mouting holes around the ZIF socket.

    I think the 1.1 or 1.2 revision of the board added them, but I know the Rev2.0 boards have them as my SLK-900U is also mounted to an NF7-S Rev2.0.
    Originally posted by DoM-aL
    Uh... not sure what you are talking about. How do you think i hooked up my slk 900 :p
  • LIQuidLIQuid Raleigh, NC
    edited July 2003
    yeah they do, im using a Maze2...
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