A7NX8 OR A7V333?????

[Kevstir]

Hi guys im due some money in 2 weeks and im going to use it to upgrade my compy.

The components i know im getting are an xp2400 chip and crosair xms pc2700 256mb
now i cant decide on a motherboard, i want raid so i was thinking about getting the asus a7v333
but with the asus a7nx8 delux being one off the top boards at the moment i dont know what to get?

Would i have to get a raid card for the a7nx8 or would the serial raid work ??? the reason i want raid is that
i have an asus a7v which has 4 ide connectors (same as the a7v333) allowing 8 devices and i would like to have the same setup
with my new system.

hope u guys can help , oh ment to say my mb has to be asus no other will do.

Kevstir
:

 

[CaptnKirk]

I looked real hard at a simular situation for mounting an XP2800+ and came down to a coin flip between the Asus A7N8X Dlx
Vs. an Abit AT7-MAX2. I know that the Serial ATA will work as RAID with one drive per cable on the Asus.
I kept looking to see when Abit was going to have the 333FSB out on a board that would handle the XP2800+,
and was considering the Abit KD7 as a third option - then I came across a BIOS update for the MAX2 that is supposed
to enable the 333FSB and make the XP2800+ play like a champ, so that's where I'm going.

The BIOS in the Abit will provide more powerful use of the CPU and other features than the Asus, but even then
the Asus is pretty good. I hear a lot about Epox, but am not comfortable with their products.

 

[Kevstir]

cheers m8, anyone else like to help????

 

[CaptnKirk]

Ask away - theres lot's of info and help from the Forum Peeps

 

[WobbleWobble]

On the A7N8X, the RAID is through serial ATA. So unless you have serial ATA drives, you'd need those serial to parallel ATA convertors. And to my knowledge, those serial to parallel ATA costs a nice more chunk of money. I'm not sure if it comes with any convertors though. Just something to keep in mind as it may add some extra costs on top of the motherboard.

 

[Kevstir]

a7n8x with raid card or a7v333 raid????
I know the a7v333 is a good board thats why im think off that...

 

[Markfw]

I have the A7V333 raid, and it is faster than my KX7333 (Abit), and I updated the bios to support the 333 bus. I like the MB. I don't have any knowledge on the Nvidia chipset board, but I hear and read that it is the fastest. As far as Raid there are some add-in cards with better firmware that don't use as much CPU as the on-board ones do, so if you want to spend the extra money, read up on those cards. There are several reviews around, since I don't remember where they are, just go look.

To sum up : A7V333r - fairly inexspensive, pretty good board, OC potential fair.

A7NX8 with extra raid card (if you get a good one) - At least $100 more (the raid card), but the best performance combo, and the best OC potential.

 

[WobbleWobble]

I meant using the serial ATA RAID built onto the A7N8X.

 

[Kevstir]

cheers guys