Asus A7VN266-VM? Worth the buy?

[Ninaholic]

I recently noticed a new addition to Asus' nForce motherboard line (which previously consisted of like, one mobo ) being the A7VN266-VM.

I'm looking at building a cheap system for my girlfriend, and the asking price for the board seems to fit in well with my budget, at around AUD$154. This is much cheaper than the other Asus nForce board, the A7VN266-E. Thing is, they both seem to have the same feature set (at first glance), having the GF2MX-like chip, 5.1 sound (not that it matters), LAN, etc.

The question is, has anyone actually heard of this board (a quick google search found nothing), and what it's missing that qualifies the much lower price? Is it a revision of the original, at a cheaper price because of the upcoming nForce2? Or is it castrated in some evil way which will come back to bite me?

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers.

 

[Ninaholic]

I just answered my own question. This board has the 220D chipset as opposed to the 420D on the other board.

Still, anybody have any comments on the board?

 

[mechBgon]

I built four of these for my workplace, going well so far. The 220D chipset has just one memory controller, unlike the 415's and 420's. The additional bandwidth of the second memory controller comes into play most significantly when you're using the onboard GF2MX video for 3D games. Since the board has an AGP slot too, you can simply throw in a new video card if the onboard video isn't up to your performance needs down the road.

I have some comments about the board...

• We are using Windows 2000 on ours, and I've heard some comments that it doesn't have drivers for Win98 (which seems strange). Maybe someone can comment on that.
• During setup of Win2000 from CD, the video may go out for the first two minutes or so, right at the start. I think this is Win2000 rummaging through its drivers to get one that works on the GF2MX video. It eventually pops up and you can continue installation as usual.
• The four boards we got do have a second 3-pin fan header in the upper-front corner by the DIMM slots. They were retail-boxed, so they came with the S/PDIF outlet. The manual pictures the 100/133 jumper block upside down.
• It will take an Alpha PAL8045 if you're so inclined. I like the big, fanless heatsink on the motherboard chipset too... no whiny fans to wear out.
• Obviously, it's microATX so you have fewer slots on hand... but with great audio and built-in LAN, it may be enough.

 

[Athlon4all]

We are using Windows 2000 on ours, and I've heard some comments that it doesn't have drivers for Win98 (which seems strange). Maybe someone can comment on that.

There are 98 drivers, its just you have to install each one individually, which does take a little bit but the manual tells exactley how to do it.

It appears to be a great board, and I suggested to a friend to get it, but we have had loads of isseus (using 98SE). I honestly think its the mobo is damaged and we've filed an RMA, bottom line, you should be alright with the board. I think it was just a bad board we got.

 

[Ninaholic]

Thanks for the info, guys. It's going to be a word processing/mp3/net box, so the onboard video isn't as important - I think I've found the right board for the purpose. It'll be running Win2k, so drivers shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks again.

 

[302Ranger]

i just picked up 2 of them for systems i am building for people, so far i like the boards. the onboard video isnt the greatest, but hey, when its not a gamer machine its not that critical. the onboard stuff is basically why i picked them up, and they were cheap on newegg too

it doesnt appear to be able to do much overclocking if thats an issue...

i have a a7n266-c in my main system, and i like it, so i hope i have the same luck with these 2...

 

[clumsum]

I am currently running the A7N266-VM with an XP1800+ and Win2K.
Loads of features, good on-board graphics and component layout ........... and great sound, plus an AGP slot.
For the money .............. they are the best (Socket A) mATX mb's currently available ............... IMO.

Note:
KF is correct, it's ......... A7N266-VM

 

[SinfulWeeper]

What is a A7VN266-VM? I can not find it anywhere... not even Asus's web site.

 

[CanisEstInVia]

Newegg's link to a7vn266-vm

It's a mini atx board with onboard lan, sound, video for $68 (free shipping!). That is a quality budget board. The mini revolution begins!

 

[kgraeme]

Originally posted by: SinfulWeeper
What is a A7VN266-VM? I can not find it anywhere... not even Asus's web site.

At the ASUS site.

 

[KF]

Originally posted by: SinfulWeeper
What is a A7VN266-VM? I can not find it anywhere... not even Asus's web site.

A7N266-VM as far as know. No V after A7. Lots and lots of listings for it this way.

I set one up with Windows XP and it works great.

For reasons I don't know, installing the drivers off the ASUS CD did not go automatically as I think it was supposed to. Things got weird after that. I ended up wiping XP and doing a complete reinstall, but I used the latest driver from Nvidia site. It installed every driver automatically (there are many) in a few minutes, just running setup. I haven't tried it, but the driver for W98 at the Nvidia site is decribed as all-in-one, the same as the description for XP.

I thought the sound was very good. It can do six channels. The MIDI sounds were very good. And the 3D video was much smoother in comparison to a separate AGP Geforce2 MX card on an ECS K7S5A. I did some torture tests for a few days and I couldn't make it crash.

The BIOS does not have any overclocking options at all. I imagine the big brother to this mobo does.

An older, but expensive, keyboard I like could not be made to work with this mobo. The keyboard works with three other computers I tried. The mobo does work with a couple of other keyboards.

 

[BarMan]

Lucky i saw this thread, maybe you guys can help me out. I just got one of these
for a person I'm bulding comps for and his continues to freeze over and over.

I'm not sure what the problem is but any suggestion would be greaatly appreciated.

Here's the system specs:

Asus A7N266-VM
Athlon XP 1800+ w/ Coolermaster HSF
40GB Western Digital HD
32x Lite-on CDRW
16x Lite-on DVD
Floppy
MicroATX 400w Case/PSU

No add-in cards, all onbaord stuff in usage (i.e. USB, Video, Sound, SPDIF, etc.)

Windows XP Installed for OS.



Thanks!

 

[mechBgon]

Under what situations does it freeze? At boot-up, while running Windows, only during games, or ??? Also, what kind of 400W microATX power supply is that? I've never heard of a mATX 400W so I'm inclined to wonder about its actual capabilities.

 

[BarMan]

Ok it's not actaully mATX now that I'm looking at it, it's a mid tower
case w/ 400w Duro PSU. It's actually not freezing either, the USB Logitech
mouse would just stop working, you'd have to unplug and re-plug
it to work again.

What it is doing though is random restarts in Windows. I was typing this message
before now and it restarted on me. I was also trying to install XP SP1 before that and it restarted.

All I can currently think of is it overheating by chance.... anything else?

 

[BarMan]

Oh another thing, IE crashes randomly also.
I'd be surfing and bang it crashes, I can
restart the browser and go to the same page
and it works... any clue?

OS reinstall?

 

[BarMan]

I installed SP 1 and a few MS patches... it seems to be running
fine now but I think my main problem is the heat.

Idle it runs
CPU - 48C
MB - 43C

Got the readings from Motherboard Monitor and from in the bios.
The CPU temp seems ok but still kinda high and the MB temp
is high to me. As far as a full load I'm not sure yet, he doesn't do
much but play music, surf, dload songs, and burn cd's.

 

[mechBgon]

If your mobo temperature is 43C, work on your case ventilation first thing. Also, check to ensure that the little slide switch on the rear of the PSU isn't set to 220V by accident. Personally, I haven't heard of Duro power supplies, so you might consider trying a different PSU if the problems persist. Antec, Enermax or Sparkle Power are some brands I would feel good about using in my system.