Asus A7V8X/Amd 2400+ or AsusA7N8x/Amd2200+

[sterling]

HI All

I need to build a computer for my office. I thought the combination of the Kt400 Asus A7V8X and AMD 2400+ would meet my needs. But, Ive been reading about the Nforce2 Asus A7N8X board. This board costs 35% more than the Kt400. I know it isnt 35% faster or even close. Is this board features like firewire, sound and Lan that much better than the KT400s. Wouldnt a kt400 board with a 2400+ processor be faster than a Nforce2 with a 2200+ processor?

thanks in advance

By the way, I bought 2100ddr memory 6 months ago, so i figure some of the advantages of the Nforce board will be limited using this memory.

 

[floccus]

Ok, for starters, the ram will limit the performance of both boards.
Second, I'm going to talk about the A7N8X delux board, since the A7N8X non delux doesn't have the dual lan, IEE1394, or sound.

The IEEE1394 (Firewire) is pretty much the same for all boards. The A7N8X has a much better LAN controller, using the nForce and 3com controllers. The sound on the A7N8X is far superior to most general sound cards. The sound alone usually can justify the price since you would need something at the Audigy or TBSc level or above, which would cost more $$.

Also, the nForce chipset is much better than the KT400. If you have two sticks of ram, you can run dual channel and you'll probably see better performance than with the KT400.

Also, I don't really like the KT400. This might not mean much when you're the one paying here, but the KT400 has little to no upgradability. This means that down the line you wont be able to bump up to a higher processor when prices fall.

 

[alembic5]

I'll be on the other side of the fence here. I do agree that the NForce2 chipset is slightly better than the KT400, as benchmarks show. I have the A7V8X, and have been quite happy with it. The dual bank DDR of the nforce2 does offer better memory bandwidth, but the likelyhood that you would notice a real world difference is doubtful. In the reviews I've read, there are only 1-2 FPS difference between the single and dual channel setups. As far as the LAN goes, I would disagree that the nforce lan is better than the broadcom onboard the A7V8X. I have the deluxe model which has the gigabit ethernet. Granted, most users will never get around to having a gigabit ethernet setup, but its there if you want it. I also prefer the Broadcom over the nforce for compatibility issues. I also would disagree with the future upgradability comment... what makes you think that the KT400 is any less capable of handling new processors than the nforce? 333 FSB support, and a bios flash away from accepting the latest processors. Both are excellent and very stable boards. I went with the Via simply because Via has always been more stable than Nvidia in my systems, and I've run both. I'm typing this from an NForce2 board! One last point... if you ever want to try running linux, I would stay away from the nforce boards. I've been having some serious perfomance issues with mine due to compatibility issues in Linux. I'm sure this will be fixed in upcoming kernels, but for now its a bit spotty. Thats my take on it! For gaming, go NForce2. Office? I'd stick with the KT400. I've also enjoyed the overclockability of the KT400... I've got my XP1700 running at slightly over 2 GHz stable with air cooling! Cheers!