AMD motherboard suggestions

[DragonFire]

I have a Soyo Dragon Ultra Plat (KT333) at the moment which is a really nice board but the damn thing cant even do 150FSB.

So I was thinking of getting either a KT400/600 or nforce2 board but need some help.

Id like a board that can do 166FSB, if its able to do more thats great but at the moment I only have PC2700 ram so Im not looking for a board that must be able to do 200FSB, just need one that can do 166 at least.

Be nice if it had RAID or SATA onboard.

IDEAS?

 

[Vette73]

Well the Abit NF7-S is a great board. Good sound, SATA ports, and can do 200+ Mhz FSB easy.

Its the board I have

 

[DragonFire]

Is it able to read the internal AMD thermal sensor? That is something else that Id really like to have a board do, its not a must but it would be a big +



Since Newegg doesnt seem to sell the NF7-S anymore, what about the AN7?


OH!

I almost forgot, the board must have heatsink/waterblock mounting holes on the sides of the socket.

 

[McArra]

Asus A7N8X deluxe 2.0

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: DragonFire
Is it able to read the internal AMD thermal sensor? That is something else that Id really like to have a board do, its not a must but it would be a big +



Since Newegg doesnt seem to sell the NF7-S anymore, what about the AN7?


OH!

I almost forgot, the board must have heatsink/waterblock mounting holes on the sides of the socket.

Newegg.com still has the NF7-S , but the AN7 is kinda the upgraded NF7-S. And yes the NF7-S does read the temps off the die if it has them, XP chips.

 

[DragonFire]

So if I go Abit, I should just get the AN7 since its a newer version of the NF7-S. Both boards are about the same price and the only thing that really sticks out is the chipset, since I have no clue about nforce2's perhaps one of you can help.

The asus uses the nForce2 Ultra SPP, nForce2 MCP-T
The Abit uses the nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset with MCP-T


The difference between Ultra SPP and Ultra 400 being what?

 

[DragonFire]

Anyone?

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Well the Abit NF7-S is a great board. Good sound, SATA ports, and can do 200+ Mhz FSB easy.

Its the board I have

another vote for NF7-s

 

[Palek]

Originally posted by: DragonFire
So if I go Abit, I should just get the AN7 since its a newer version of the NF7-S. Both boards are about the same price and the only thing that really sticks out is the chipset, since I have no clue about nforce2's perhaps one of you can help.

The asus uses the nForce2 Ultra SPP, nForce2 MCP-T
The Abit uses the nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset with MCP-T


The difference between Ultra SPP and Ultra 400 being what?

The only difference in terms of funcionality between the SPP and Ultra 400 that I am aware of is that the Ultra 400 officially supports 400 MHz FSB Athlons, although some manufacturers also offer BIOS upgrades to the older SPP boards that will allow them to run at 400 MHz FSB (although this is unsupported, I believe).

Basically, the Ultra 400 is a new revision of the chipset with improved signal stability and more speed headroom. Boards based on the Ultra 400 will most likely overclock higher, and will be much more stable at stock speeds. The initial SPP boards were a little finicky with memory timings and would not work with certain RAM modules.

If the difference is not too great (ie $10-20), you will be much better off with an Ultra 400 based board. The Abit NF7-S 2.0 is one of them, so is the ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe. The ASUS board costs quite a bit more, but it does also have a little extra added value, such as the ASUS wireless slot and dual lan, with one at Gigabit speed. The AN7 from Abit is not really worth the extra money over the NF7-S unless you are into overclocking and play around with your BIOS a lot. Apart from the uGuru thingie and an additional SPDIF input connector on the back panel, the AN7 and the NF7-S seem identical (although I could be wrong). Plus, you get a Serilles adaptor with the NF7-S which allows you to use a PATA HDD on the SATA port.

I'd say the NF7-S is the sweet spot! It also happens to be the current enthusiast favourite for Athlons.