Asus A7N8X (X or E) vs. ABIT NF7 (S, S2, or S2G)

[GearCat]

If anyone has had any good/bad experience with or heard anything pro/con regarding these two Athlon XP socket A, nForce2 motherboards, please reply. Other recommendations are welcome, but trying to keep price tag under $70.

Thanks!

 

[imported_Kiwi]

I have been quite pleased with my Asus MB of that model. I was terribly unhappy with the Abit you mentioned. It didn't like my RAM, it had issues with Windows, it was essentially just roadkill.


:frown:

 

[GearCat]

What about the Abit NF7 or NF7-S2 ?

 

[imported_Kiwi]

The S2 and S2G are twins. The second one has the higher speed LAN aboard (1 Gigabyte).

(Added in edit: I was reading what I expected to see, not what you wrote. You didn't ask about the NF7-S, but about the "plain" NF7. Sorry, but I never got around to studying that one or using it for anything. I have no idea where it fits in!)

Abit's NF7-S is a nice board. It may still be picky about exactly whose RAM, of what sort, it might run nicely with, however. There is also a "Rev 2" of that one, which is where a lot of confusion occurs. The NF7-S was a 333 MHz board, for XP's up through the 3000, but not the 400 MHz version of the 3000 XP. Rev 2 has the faster FSB for the fast 3000's, and the XP 3200's (all of which, AFAIK, are 400 FSB).

I think that the NF7-S, both Rev 1 and Rev 2, include the dual-channel RAM speed feature, which the "X" sub-version of the A7N8X does not have. Since we're now referring to a feature that may improve overall speed by something between 3 and 5 %, it's almost not worth even considering as a superior feature, but the A7NX-deluxe and A7N8X-E both add SATA to the mix, if that's a selling feature. And those do have dual channel RAM enabled, making those two more comparable to the NF7-S pair (which also have SATA, I think).

 

[GearCat]

I guess if I don't have a 400 MHz version of the Athlon XP, there's less reason to consider a 400MHz FSB MB, unless I pick up a faster Athlon XP.

EDIT: I meant to say 400 MHz version of RAM above, not the processor. Sorry!

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Please see the edit I added to my last reply. I was writing about the NF7-S, a popular enthusiasts' motherboard. I know that Abit had one numbered "NF7" with no hyphenated add-ons, but I never paid attention to it, know nothing about it! You asked about that and I answered about the other!

(See also OM's double post, same subject) -- http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=29&threadid=1659290

However that affects your considerations, for an ordinary PC user, the NF7-S' original 333 MHz would be just dandy. For a majority of AT's readership, they could be considering buying a mainboard that they might want to tweak and tune, and even to Overclock, and for them, having the extra FSB region between 333 MHz and 400 MHz would be desireable.

Those folks could get value-priced PC-3200 RAM, and a 333 MHz cpu, and start incrementally testing it from 333 MHz upward in faster FSB's to see how fast it could be cranked up to. It's an "interesting thing" for a computer nut to try. The three makes of (Socket A) MB's that OC-ing folks around AT seem to like best are Abit, Asus, and DFI - all allow plenty of that kind of thing. And the A7N8X series, all of those, the NF7-S's, and most of the DFI NF2 MB's are all used for that.

 

[GearCat]

So if I were to try one of these MBs with PC-3200 RAM (I have PC-2700 now), what Athlon XP and video card (ATI or nVidia processor?) would you suggest to make it worth while? If I have to replace memory, processor, and video card for a new MB, to make it worth buying the new MB, then I may just keep runing my old Abit AT7 MB for what has now become the kids' PC.

 

[Fern]

What are trying to achieve with a mobo upgrade? What cpu do have for it?

The biggest diff between the NF7 & the NF7-S v1 or v2 is "Soundstorm" a very popular digital audio solution (instead of an add-in card). Also the "S" version has on-board SATA.

Version #1 of these mobo's supports FSB 333, version 2 supports FSB 400.

The regular NF7 and the NF7-S are basically the same mobo but for the features I mentioned above.

The others - NF7-S2 etc are a bit different. Unfortunately the similar names are confusing.

Fern

 

[GearCat]

Have an old Athlon XP 1900+, PC-2700 RAM, and AGP 4x GeForce4 Ti4200 (64MB) on old Abit AT7, so not sure I'll see much improvement with NF7-S (v1 or v2) using these components except for added features you mentioned (audio & SATA), unless I also upgrade all these components. If that's the case, one has to consider is it worth it compared to $ for a socket 939 system.

 

[Varun]

I don't think it's worth it. I'm not sure if you are asking for a motherboard because your old one quit though, if it did quit, sure pick up the NF7-S v2 or something.

If you want a performance increase, I would say there isn't much point spending money on Socket A anymore though.

 

[GearCat]

OK. That's what I figured. This whole discussion started because I thought I might have killed my AT7, but I just needed to clear the BIOS on the CMOS. Working fine now. But if the motherboard does ever fail, I agree with general discussion here that the Abit NF7-S (Rev. 2) or Asus A7N8X (X or E (deluxe)) is the way to go for replacement. At least that way, I have a solid XP computer with some additional, limited but cheap, upgrade potential. That may be worth it until the Athlon XP 64 and newer video cards get real cheap.

THANKS TO ALL!

 

[Makaveli]

If your gonna overclock use the Abit NF7-S 2.0 I have same board and a Mobile AMD. Was on the asus one previously. both good Abit better overclocker tho. Currently the abit is collecting dust on my floor at the moment though I upgraded to a AMD 64 rig month ago. I'm gonna sell it.