are NF2 based mobos faster than the K7S5A Pro?

[OS]

Is there a big difference in performance? Fry's is having a sale again and this would let me skimp 50 bucks off my next upgrade.

 

[GreatDaleness]

you can get Nforce2 ultra 400 motherboards for $60. Given that, why go SiS?

 

[sandorski]

yes

 

[JimRaynor]

Yeah don't even bother with the k7s5a. Nforce 2 mobos are very cheap nowadays. k7s5a STILL has issues too.

 

[Sunner]

Don't ever skimp on the mobo, you'll be sorry later on.

 

[Mem]

Btw you know ECS have a nforce 2 board out now, link to ECS N2U400-A V1.0 .

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: Mem
Btw you know ECS have a nforce 2 board out now, link to ECS N2U400-A V1.0 .

not sure if you want to go with ECS

 

[MrEgo]

Originally posted by: OS
Is there a big difference in performance? Fry's is having a sale again and this would let me skimp 50 bucks off my next upgrade.

I'm my opinion, very big difference. Anand wrote a very nice review on the NForce2 boards, and it looked as though the DFI NF2 came out on top, although he didn't mention any EPoX motherboards in the review. My vote goes for DFI or EPoX NForce2.

 

[Markfw]

If you are talking about the 2600+ECS K7S5A for $109, then I say go for it. Just get at least 2700 memory, so you will be ready to upgrade your mobo later. The motherboard in that deal is almost free. I have two of those still as workhourses, and stiff haven;t found the need to upgrade. My primary game computer has an Nforce though. I am typing on an ECS now.

 

[Mem]

not sure if you want to go with ECS

Some people are on very tight budgets and ECS is probably the most popular brand for those on very tight budgets,having said that, my MSI board died in my backup PC and I replaced it with a ECS K7S5A Pro V5 which has been very solid in stability.

 

[Blackroot]

Originally posted by: GreatDaleness
you can get Nforce2 ultra 400 motherboards for $60. Given that, why go SiS?

i picked my shuttle nf2 for that price.

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: Mem

not sure if you want to go with ECS

Some people are on very tight budgets and ECS is probably the most popular brand for those on very tight budgets,having said that, my MSI board died in my backup PC and I replaced it with a ECS K7S5A Pro V5 which has been very solid in stability.

I don't know what it's like in the US, but here in Sweden, the difference between top brands, such as Asus for example, and budget brands, such as ECS, is around 20-30$ or so in most cases.
If you can't afford to shell out an extra $30, I'd just wait for a month or borrow $30 from a friend or something.
$30 ain't exactly alot of money.

 

[Mem]

If you can't afford to shell out an extra $30, I'd just wait for a month or borrow $30 from a friend or something.
$30 ain't exactly alot of money.

In the UK ECS boards are very cheap,got mine for £29.95 ,besides I`m not going to spend a lot of money on my backup PC it`s just not worth it.I do spend more money on my main PC that`s why I`ve an Epox in it 😉.

 

[Ionizer86]

You could get the CPU part of the combo then sell the board (not sure how much it will go for on ebay). A good nforce 2 board will be much more featured (you'll be ready for future peripherals with usb2, firewire, etc) and will be stable and offer some overclockability if you want as well.

On the ram, 3200 isn't much more than 2700, so even if you settle with the k7s5a, you may want to spend a few bucks more for some 3200. The prices should all be very similar.

 

[RaymondY]

Yes the NF2 are faster than the K7S5A Pro. The Sis chipset is comparable to a Via KT266A based motherboard when using PC2100

 

[WalkingDead]

I had owned 3 nFocer 1 and 4 nForce 2 boards. I still has a Shuttle and a biostar nFoce 2 mobo. There are alot of good things, like memory performance, about the nForce chipsets but there're also few bad one. The two major ones are flakey IDE and PCI performance. nVidia knows both of those issues and has been trying to fix since nfoce 1 but it's still not completely fixed.

The ECS K7S5A uses the SIS 735 chipset which is even older than the nFoce 1 chipset and both are 133mhz FSB chipsets. Of couse, the newer nFoce 2 chipset with its 166mhz-200mhz FSB is faster than either of those. There are 2 current SIS chipsets that compares very well with the nFoce2 chipsets. The SIS 746 vs the 166mhz version of the nforce 2. The SIS 748 vs the 200mhz version nfoces 2. ECS makes mobo with both of those two newer SIS chipsets but I recommand Asrock (Asus sub-brand) over ECS (Pc Chip sub-brand). Btw, the SIS chipsets have great IDE and PCI performance.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I have a box with a k75SA in it ... and a box with a kt333 (epox) ... and a Nforce 2 ultra 400 (shuttle) ... and a Really like this shuttle board a LOT.

If you are going to be using a really old duron 700 or something ... thango with whats cheapest, it wont make a difference. ... but if you have an xp1800 or faster, you'd probably notice a difference in performance between K75SA and Nforce 2 ....

I used the K75Sa as a replacement for a troubled KT133 board (originally with a 1ghz cpu) however that computer now has a Xp2000 in it and works quite well. I gave the box to my brother and its very stable and performs well.

I like the K75SA because it supports SDRam and that way i still have a use for my old SDRam modules.

You would be better off with an nforce 2 board, but its your $50, spend it as you wish. (I'd go with a cheap Nforce 2, such as shuttle or biostar brands ...)