One pro-giga comment.
On the recent top end GA mobos the sound systems are very good. They have better s/n and less distortion than any other on board versions, even better than typical pci sound cards.
But for oc'ing, no go.
If you can't send it back just sell it, I'd prolly buy it for the simple fact it has FOUR Ram slots insted of the normal 3! I hate only having 3 Ram slots, it's annoying! I'm sure the board would do fine, you just have to remember that everyone in this forum is biased to their hardware. Everyone said I was crazy for buying a Soyo, but the board as served me well, still going strong and will OC like a beast!
Oh Yea! One more thing, if I'm correct he never stated wether or not he was "going" to buy or "already" ordered the board, seems to me he was just wanting the opinions of the forum.....
Someone want to route this thread to the MoBo forum?!
Dodger: that Asus you plan on buying will hit 400 FSB with no problem. The Abit differentiates itself by being able to OC higher above 400 than the Asus can. The Abit does have dual-channel RAM also, but it doesn't actually say it in the description there.
The NF7 standard doesn't have firewire and SATA. The NF7-S (I think) has both. But I'm not trying to sell ya an Abit. I'm an Asus fan myself. The ONLY motherboard I've EVER had fail on me was an Abit (always run stock and never OC'd - turned out to be QC issues with the capacitors).
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Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited November 2003
GH is correct... for firewire and SATA support, you'll have to get the ABIT NF7-S or ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe.
Oh, GH... the caps were an issue with multiple mb manufacturers tho. I wouldn't blame ABIT for that one.
Dodger had this to say I am deffinently buying the Abit NF7-S.
Another one lost... ack
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Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited November 2003
[Evil Laugh];D[/Evil Laugh]
I still like ASUS boards, but you have to try an NF7-S sometime, GH. It's so much better than the A7N8X Deluxe. I like ASUS, but this time, the ABIT is better.
Positively 100% certain. Yes. The NF7-S definitely has dual channel RAM support.
And Geeky... If I could get a decent $$$ for the DFI board, I'd probably change over to the NF7-S to try one out. But I bought the DFI board for all the goodies it came with (FrontX connector, Case strap, etc.) and unfortunately had to get a DFI board with it all!
Geeky1 had this to say GH is correct... for firewire and SATA support, you'll have to get the ABIT NF7-S or ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe.
Oh, GH... the caps were an issue with multiple mb manufacturers tho. I wouldn't blame ABIT for that one.
Geeky's right here. I read an article in a magazine telling about how a company stole the prototype from the company that made quality capacitors and used the plan to make cheaper capacitors. Many MB manufacturers bought them from epox, to abit, to asus, to gigabyte, to soyo it effected all Motherboards makers and was not just limited to Abit.
Dodger: GOOD CHOICE! I truly love my board, it does so much more than I expect from it
Also, my cousin bought an a7n8x deluxe and I helped him put it together and I oc'ed it for him. All I can say is that Abit's softmenu pwns the ish out of Asus's bios. Truly an overclockers board.
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Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited November 2003
GH, nothing wrong with DFI... they don't overclock all that well most of the time, but they're decent boards.
Al, yes... ABIT's BIOS is far better than ASUS's, although since they're both the standard BIOS for both companies, you could argue that ABIT's BIOSes have ALWAYS been better than ASUS's.
Cha-ching! The order has officaly been cancelled! YES, now I can get that Abit NF7-S m/b, a Volcano 10+ cooling fan, ducting mod, and copper shim I wanted!
Volcano? :banghead: It'll suffice, but you'd be much better off with a Thermalright SLK-900A ($20 plus shipping at SVC.com) and a good 92MM fan. You trying to kill me here?
Nothing's really wrong with it... it's kind of like the Asus/Abit overclocking issue... you get more capability out of a Thermalright SLK-900A than you do out of any Thermaltake cooler.
Volcano's are very average. Mating surfaces are generally on the poor side. You won't find much respect for them in here. I have a V11, to get good- no, decent - temps it's noisy as hell.
I also run an NF7-S at high overclock, it's been an outstanding board, probably the best I have owned.
As an aside, the 2nd best board I have owned is an Asus P3V133. It sounds so wierd to say that (Via chipset) but it ran a celery 600 overclocked to 750 every day for 4 years and NEVER crashed.
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Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited November 2003
Some of the volcanos are good, others are awful.
The Volcano 10 would be one of the awful ones.
Also, don't get a copper shim. They're not worth the risk. If it happens to touch the wrong part of the CPU, it'll short the thing out and kill it.
Ideally, you'd get a Thermalright SLK-800A, SLK-800U, SLK-900A, SLK-900U, or SLK-947U, but they are much more expensive ($30-$50) and don't come with a fan.
HOWEVER, SVC has the SLK-900A on sale for $20 with coupon code vf900a THE SALE ENDS TODAY!!!!!
I think i'll get that SLK-900A thing... anybody care to reccomend a great CPU fan for it?
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Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited November 2003
You get my e-mail? I wanted to make sure you saw that, so I e-mailed it to you too.
//EDIT
If you haven't been to SVC before, the site is www.svc.com
//END OF EDIT
I recommended a couple of fans in there.
It really depends on how much noise you can tolerate vs. how much cooling you want.
The fans I recommended were from SVC, and they were:
92mm Vantec Tornado (ONLY if you can handle an INCREDIBLY loud fan!! I've got one- I only use it for benchmarking record-breaking attempts... I can't stand it)
92mm YSTech
92mm Enermax Adjustable
Other than those, you could also get:
92mm Panasonic Panaflo "H1A"
92mm Sunon KD1209PTB2
92mm Zalman
92mm Thermaltake
Trust me, absolutely NOTHING could be louder than my old fan. It was like a law mower with a log stuck in it's blades! After a few days I simply got used to it. So, I can handle the Vantec Tornado fan they reccomend to go with it.
Dodger had this to say Trust me, absolutely NOTHING could be louder than my old fan. It was like a law mower with a log stuck in it's blades! After a few days I simply got used to it. So, I can handle the Vantec Tornado fan they reccomend to go with it.
Willing to place a bet on that?
If you choose to skip the Tornado... the 92mm Panaflo U1A 70 CFM fan is a nice choice... and at only 43 dBA, it's not as loud as that Tornado...
Dodger had this to say Trust me, absolutely NOTHING could be louder than my old fan. It was like a law mower with a log stuck in it's blades! After a few days I simply got used to it. So, I can handle the Vantec Tornado fan they reccomend to go with it.
Willing to place a bet on that?
If you choose to skip the Tornado... the 92mm Panaflo U1A 70 CFM fan is a nice choice... and at only 43 dBA, it's not as loud as that Tornado...
LOL, I stand corrected.
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Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited November 2003
But, keep in mind that like I said, it can be slowed way down if you need to, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.
Comments
On the recent top end GA mobos the sound systems are very good. They have better s/n and less distortion than any other on board versions, even better than typical pci sound cards.
But for oc'ing, no go.
You mean this? (third motherboard down)
I main concern in the FSB... I was kind of going for 400 FSB but this should do just fine.
EDIT: also, the RAM isn't Dual Channel. I really want d/c RAM support.
Oh Yea! One more thing, if I'm correct he never stated wether or not he was "going" to buy or "already" ordered the board, seems to me he was just wanting the opinions of the forum.....
Someone want to route this thread to the MoBo forum?!
And the RAM on both the A7N8X and the NF7 is dual-channel. It's just not color coded on the NF7.
Oh, GH... the caps were an issue with multiple mb manufacturers tho. I wouldn't blame ABIT for that one.
But are you guys absolutely, positively, 100% certain, without a single doubt in your minds that the Abit NF7-S has Dual Channel support?
I still like ASUS boards, but you have to try an NF7-S sometime, GH. It's so much better than the A7N8X Deluxe. I like ASUS, but this time, the ABIT is better.
And Geeky... If I could get a decent $$$ for the DFI board, I'd probably change over to the NF7-S to try one out. But I bought the DFI board for all the goodies it came with (FrontX connector, Case strap, etc.) and unfortunately had to get a DFI board with it all!
Geeky's right here. I read an article in a magazine telling about how a company stole the prototype from the company that made quality capacitors and used the plan to make cheaper capacitors. Many MB manufacturers bought them from epox, to abit, to asus, to gigabyte, to soyo it effected all Motherboards makers and was not just limited to Abit.
Dodger: GOOD CHOICE! I truly love my board, it does so much more than I expect from it
Also, my cousin bought an a7n8x deluxe and I helped him put it together and I oc'ed it for him. All I can say is that Abit's softmenu pwns the ish out of Asus's bios. Truly an overclockers board.
Al, yes... ABIT's BIOS is far better than ASUS's, although since they're both the standard BIOS for both companies, you could argue that ABIT's BIOSes have ALWAYS been better than ASUS's.
Try to treat even your worst enemies in a respectful manner thrax.
I also run an NF7-S at high overclock, it's been an outstanding board, probably the best I have owned.
As an aside, the 2nd best board I have owned is an Asus P3V133. It sounds so wierd to say that (Via chipset) but it ran a celery 600 overclocked to 750 every day for 4 years and NEVER crashed.
The Volcano 10 would be one of the awful ones.
Also, don't get a copper shim. They're not worth the risk. If it happens to touch the wrong part of the CPU, it'll short the thing out and kill it.
Ideally, you'd get a Thermalright SLK-800A, SLK-800U, SLK-900A, SLK-900U, or SLK-947U, but they are much more expensive ($30-$50) and don't come with a fan.
HOWEVER, SVC has the SLK-900A on sale for $20 with coupon code vf900a THE SALE ENDS TODAY!!!!!
If you've got $20, order one. Now.
Barring that,
<a href="http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?description=35-103-420&depa=1">This</a> is a good, cheap heatsink.
<a href="http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?description=35-114-012&depa=1">this</a> is the exact same thing, only cheaper (and out of stock, ATM).
<a href="http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?description=35-114-013&depa=1">this</a> is the same heatsink, but with a lower-flow fan. It won't be enough if you want to overclock.
//EDIT
If you haven't been to SVC before, the site is www.svc.com
//END OF EDIT
I recommended a couple of fans in there.
It really depends on how much noise you can tolerate vs. how much cooling you want.
The fans I recommended were from SVC, and they were:
92mm Vantec Tornado (ONLY if you can handle an INCREDIBLY loud fan!! I've got one- I only use it for benchmarking record-breaking attempts... I can't stand it)
92mm YSTech
92mm Enermax Adjustable
Other than those, you could also get:
92mm Panasonic Panaflo "H1A"
92mm Sunon KD1209PTB2
92mm Zalman
92mm Thermaltake
Willing to place a bet on that?
If you choose to skip the Tornado... the 92mm Panaflo U1A 70 CFM fan is a nice choice... and at only 43 dBA, it's not as loud as that Tornado...
That's how loud it is.
It'll be louder than that on the heatsink, due to turbulence introduced into the airstream by the heatsink's fins.
You can always make it quieter though. So, I'd probably go with it anyhow, actually.
LOL, I stand corrected.
From Newegg:
Abit NF7-S m/b
Thermaltake Highest Performance - DuctingMod A1442. 80 x 80mm
From SVC:
Thermalright SLK-900(A) Clip-On w/ Vantec (Sunon) Tornado Fan 92 x 38 mm
How's this?