Anone got the NF7-S Rev 1.2 yet?

[Richdog]

Just wondering if anyone's managed to get hold of this new revision of Abit's card yet as it's supposed to be far more stable at higher FSB frequencies than any other card, and I'm stuck between getting this or the 8RDA+. If anyone's had any experience with it I'd be interested to know how it's going...

 

[ferrarifreak93]

It sounds like you, Fingolfin269, and I are all deciding between the nf7-s rev 1.2 and 8rda+. I would definitely go nf7-s if i knew 100% that the bios problems have been solved. I've read that the rev 1.2 comes with an extra jumber that resets the bios and fixes the corrupted bios, however I don't see people many confirming this. Is there anyone out there who can confirm what the extra jumper does or any fix for the nf7-s problem? I also heard that the latest bios update for the 8rda+ fixes this problem so that's a strong point for the 8rda+. So far these are my conclusions for nf7-s versus 8rda+.

EpoX 8RDA+
__________________________________________________________________________
PROS
1. bios problem fixed
2. proven overclocking ability
3. cheaper than nf7-s (only by a little)

CONS
1. no chipset voltage adjustment (vdd)
2. doesn't have audio S/PDIF Out or official Soundstorm certification
3. no active cooling on northbridge (NF7-S does)



Abit NF7-S
__________________________________________________________________________
PROS
1. known as better overclocker than 8RDA+, especially at higher FSB - many reach 200 w/ no problems
2. Soundstorm certified
3. Serial ATA 150
4. chipset voltage adjustment (vdd)
5. active cooling on northbridge (better than heatsink, especially when overclocking)

CONS
1. corruped bios problem - people are experiencing bios lockups and systems that won't boot when overclocking even if they reset the bios
2. if you buy the bios backup from excaliberpc.com, this board ends up being really expensive

 

[ferrarifreak93]

And by the way to the administrators, please don't move this post to the motherboard section because it deals with overclocking mostly. We really need some feedback as to what the situation is with the nf7-s

 

[sambao21]

I'm in the same boat as you guys, trying to decide between nf7-s 1.2 and 8rda+. any feedback from more experienced users would be helpful

 

[gsethi]

the Abit board is definately worth ~$30 more than the 8RDA+....

you get SATA and Soundstrom (spelling ?) certification and SPDIF and that is honestly worth $30 more. The only problem w/ Abit right now is the BIOS corruption as spoken before and thats where you have to decide.

Some people have been lucky and have had no problems while others are not so lucky. The safest bet will be to get the BIOS survival kit along with the board but that ends up extra $10....

the total cost difference between the two boards end up being ~$40 and thats what you can decide. If i were you at this moment, i would get the Abit board and sell my sound card to offset some of that cost difference since i have heard that Soundstrom is comparable to Audigy (better than SB Live that most of us have anyways).

hope that helps.

 

[Shimmishim]

i would go with the 8rda+ (not only because i have it)... doing the vdd mod is pretty simple...

and it'll allow you to hit over 200 mhz easy....

 

[ferrarifreak93]

I'm not sure the Abit NF7-S is worth 40 dollars more, in fact, how do you figure 40? The 8RDA+ costs about 100 at mwave.com and the NF7-S costs 115 at gamve.com. The NF7-S would definitely be worth the extra 15 dollars if I knew 100% the bios problem was fixed on the NF7-S rev 1.2. Don't any NF7-S users know if the extra jumpers fix the corrupted bios or if there are any other fixes for the board? I know there was an article that said nvidia and came up with a fix, however, I'd still like some input from NF7-S users. Also, I believe the 8RDA+ has all the soundstorm features except the extra digital port which holds the board back from offical Soundstorm designation.

 

[KidChaos]

It's funny ... the people who actually have a NF7-S rev 1.2 and know what they're doing never complain about bios corruption. Go figure. I hope all of this isn't based on that theInquirer article.

 

[Shimmishim]

i'd still go with the 8rda+ cuz it's cheaper and even anandtech says it overclocks better...

 

[wicktron]

I trust user experiences more than site reviews and I have found across several forums that the NF7-S v1.2 is the better overclocker.

 

[KidChaos]

Originally posted by: Shimmishim
i'd still go with the 8rda+ cuz it's cheaper and even anandtech says it overclocks better...

I don't think they're comparing it to nf7-s rev 1.2.

 

[bgeh]

just got it today
will be testing it next week

 

[LED]

I have them both and prefer the Abit because:
Better Support/Warranty
Newer Release
ATA SATA
SoundStorm Certified
OC's better
More Adjustments/Features
Nicer Visual Asthetics (IMO)
Added Goods (ie 2 Firewire/USB, Serial ATA Adapts)
Finally 1 Better Manual.

For the marginal price difference ($20-30 US) 1 easy choice for the above listed

I have yet to experience any BIOS problems (which alludes to all NForce 2.0 Mobo's) other then 1 BIOS bug of resetting to Default and the workaround is to simply disconnect power and then hold the "insert key" on the next boot.

 

[dude53]

I have 3 8rda+ 1 dies 2 would'n do pass195 not stable and got abits rev 1.1 suck very bad but just got abits nf7-s rev 1.2 much better than then rev 1.1 beside that vcore is up to 2.3 will do do 210 no trouble 200 very stable no modd whatsoever my 8rda+ are okay don't get me wrong but I think this abits rev 1.2 has all over epox seem more stable at high fsb and got no problem with bios with this rev 1.2.ray

 

[Richdog]

Thats that then, Abit here I come! Thanks for the feedback!

 

[ferrarifreak93]

Yeah, I'm leaning towards Abit NF7-S rev 1.2 now

 

[Swanny]

Originally posted by: ferrarifreak93
It sounds like you, Fingolfin269, and I are all deciding between the nf7-s rev 1.2 and 8rda+. I would definitely go nf7-s if i knew 100% that the bios problems have been solved. I've read that the rev 1.2 comes with an extra jumber that resets the bios and fixes the corrupted bios, however I don't see people many confirming this. Is there anyone out there who can confirm what the extra jumper does or any fix for the nf7-s problem? I also heard that the latest bios update for the 8rda+ fixes this problem so that's a strong point for the 8rda+. So far these are my conclusions for nf7-s versus 8rda+.

EpoX 8RDA+
__________________________________________________________________________
PROS
1. bios problem fixed
2. proven overclocking ability
3. cheaper than nf7-s (only by a little)

CONS
1. no chipset voltage adjustment (vdd)
2. doesn't have audio S/PDIF Out or official Soundstorm certification
3. no active cooling on northbridge (NF7-S does)



Abit NF7-S
__________________________________________________________________________
PROS
1. known as better overclocker than 8RDA+, especially at higher FSB - many reach 200 w/ no problems
2. Soundstorm certified
3. Serial ATA 150
4. chipset voltage adjustment (vdd)
5. active cooling on northbridge (better than heatsink, especially when overclocking)

CONS
1. corruped bios problem - people are experiencing bios lockups and systems that won't boot when overclocking even if they reset the bios
2. if you buy the bios backup from excaliberpc.com, this board ends up being really expensive

My Rev. 1.2 NF7-S does have a CMOS discharge jumper, if that's what you were asking about.

 

[jstaggs]

Is there anyway to tell if you are buying a NF7-S Rev 1.2?

or are all the NF7-S's are Rev 1.2 now?

http://www.googlegear.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=240109

I just want to make sure i'm buying the 1.2

(also, If i purchase this board, would it make sense to sell my audigy 1 mp3+ card, and just use onboard sound.....or no?)

 

[KidChaos]

Originally posted by: jstaggs
Is there anyway to tell if you are buying a NF7-S Rev 1.2?

or are all the NF7-S's are Rev 1.2 now?

http://www.googlegear.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=240109

I just want to make sure i'm buying the 1.2

(also, If i purchase this board, would it make sense to sell my audigy 1 mp3+ card, and just use onboard sound.....or no?)

The onboard audio of NF7-S Rev 1.2 is awesome. The consensus is that it is in between audigy1 and audigy2 in sound quality. I would sell the sound card in that respect. To get a garaunteed rev 1.2, get it from ExcaliberPC. They have a special relationship with Abit.

 

[jstaggs]

ABIT NF7-S NFORCE2 MAINBOARD V 1.2 - Gameve.com $115
AMD Athlon XP 2100+ OEM AIUHB 0306 - Gameve.com $89
512MB Corsair XMS 3200 - NewEgg.com - $142


I'm buying some parts, and so far this is what i've came up with....Should I spend the extra $ and get the combo deal from Excal?

And what would you guys get for a hsf?

 

[KidChaos]

Originally posted by: jstaggs
ABIT NF7-S NFORCE2 MAINBOARD V 1.2 - Gameve.com $115
AMD Athlon XP 2100+ OEM AIUHB 0306 - Gameve.com $89
512MB Corsair XMS 3200 - NewEgg.com - $142

- I see gameve.com has it too. Have seen some vendors advertise v1.2 and then deliver a previous version. May not be the case here but it's something to keep in mind.

- Make sure ya get at least two sticks (two 256MB sticks) in order to take advantage of Dual DDR. Should ya add a 512MB stick later in an effort to reach 1GB, it would still be in full Dual DDR as long as you 512MB in each channel (512MB stick in the memory slot that seems to stand alone and the two 256MB sticks in the remaining slots).

I'm buying some parts, and so far this is what i've came up with....Should I spend the extra $ and get the combo deal from Excal?

I would buy the parts individually.

And what would you guys get for a hsf?

Cooler master HAC-V81 Heatsink+Fan is great and only costs $12 at newEgg. Check the user reviews for it at newEgg.

 

[LED]

Originally posted by: jstaggs
Is there anyway to tell if you are buying a NF7-S Rev 1.2?

or are all the NF7-S's are Rev 1.2 now?

http://www.googlegear.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=240109

I just want to make sure i'm buying the 1.2

(also, If i purchase this board, would it make sense to sell my audigy 1 mp3+ card, and just use onboard sound.....or no?)

Not without Comparing/seeing them...the 1.2Rev on the right has jumpers by the PS2 Ports and 1 less Cap to the right of the socket, which has been moved close to the NorthBridge....as far as the Audigy goes, I would test and hear it compared to the onboard sound and then decide. IMO there is very little difference in favor of the Audgy which uses less CPU resources.

 

[KidChaos]

IMO there is very little difference in favor of the Audgy which uses less CPU resources

The nvidia apu has ultra low cpu utilization. Have any numbers on the audigy's cpu utilization so that we can compare?

 

[Swanny]

Originally posted by: jstaggs
Is there anyway to tell if you are buying a NF7-S Rev 1.2?

or are all the NF7-S's are Rev 1.2 now?

http://www.googlegear.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=240109

I just want to make sure i'm buying the 1.2

(also, If i purchase this board, would it make sense to sell my audigy 1 mp3+ card, and just use onboard sound.....or no?)

I got my Rev 1.2 from Newegg a week ago, so if you order from them I think it's a pretty safe bet that you'll get a 1.2.

 

[bgeh]

Originally posted by: KidChaos

IMO there is very little difference in favor of the Audgy which uses less CPU resources

The nvidia apu has ultra low cpu utilization. Have any numbers on the audigy's cpu utilization so that we can compare?

Comparison
linky
it compares it with a sb live, but it should give a rough idea of how it works.
and since the APU is unchanged from the nforce to nforce 2, i guess it wouldn't make a difference