Abit AN8 ultra or MSi Neo4 Platinum?

[plion]

Ok, I can't find any reviews on the an8 ultra it seems to be as unpopular as the asus A8N-E...

The only reason I seem to be leaning on the AN8 is the otes/passive cooling and the audio module which lowers cpu utilization. I plan on heavy gaming and overclocking to 2400, this would be my 2nd time overclocking so I'm still new at it... I don't really have enough to get a sound card thats why the abit seems to be my choice, but I don't get why it's not as popular like the msi and epox boards...

-from what i've been searching in the forums it seems the msi has problems with the battery draining? I'm still looking searching to see what issues the AN8 has...

 

[n7]

I like MSI's Neo mobos in general, but i'd get the Abit.

From what i've seen (there are some reviews out there if you look hard enough), it's an OCing beast.

 

[Jader88]

Go with the MSI, the RAM slots are too close together on the Abit AN8 especially if you use ram that has heatspreaders.

 

[Tambora]

I like my AN8 Ultra, but you will want a sound card if you have good speakers. Audiomax is only a name applied by Abit marketing. I think the sound is muddy compared to a real sound solution, just one opinion after limited usage. Difference was immediately noticeable.

 

[silentvois]

How does that an8 ultra overclock by the way? I heard peeps talkin bout it having stability issues when overclocking. Like 300fsb x 9 and all when it usually does fine on other motherboards. Any words on that?

 

[Waylay00]

MSI

 

[SPQQKY]

Neither

 

[keeleysam]

MSI

 

[Aenslead]

Abit.

 

[tropic]

Abit. Works out of the box, and you can overclock the hell out of it. The northbridge cooling's a nice extra. The board reminds me of the NF7-S v2 I used to own. The AudioMax card isn't bad at all, but it doesn't sound as nice as a true hardware solution. I replaced it with an X-Mystique Gold. Great board.

You might also look at the EpoX EP-9NPA+ Ultra. Good performer, good overclocker, about $20 less than the Abit. Or the DFI Lanparty UT Ultra-D (awesome OCer, needs some BIOS attention before it will purr) for about the same price as the Abit. All three are good boards.

Sorry, haven't played with any MSI NF4 offerings, so I can't give an opinion on them.

 

[Tambora]

Board overclocks well. I am at 230 htt with Mushkin Redline PC3500 at 3.35 volts and a XP64 4000+, 1.58 volts. Seems very stable and temps are good. Running bios 13 with Command Rate set to 'auto' - board chooses 1T. There have been reports of some issues with the Command Rate on later bios revisions.

Tested prime stable for 13+ hours until I turned it off this morning to browse the internet.

 

[plion]

thanks for the reply, tambora your talking about the abit an8 ultra right? It looks like I'll be getting the Abit, I was pleased with my NF7-s board.

 

[Tambora]

Yes plion, this is with an AN8 Ultra. I wanted to us Mushkin Redline memory and not use the DFI NForce 4 Ultra board. This is my second build and I like the board a lot. Easy to set up, easy to overclock. I've about maxxed out the processor but am happy at 2.76 gig. Bios 13 is the way to go, if you get a newer board it may have bios 15. Some folks who got their boards from Newegg the week before I did had bios 15 which limits memory voltage to 3.4. Ordered mine 8/16/05.