Best AMD motherboard (Nforce 2) with Soundstorm

[Johnbear007]

Whats the best nforce 2 motherboard with soundstorm. I don't need dual channel becauseI have mismathced crucial pc2100 / 2700 (1 GB 512 x 2) and I want to put a barton 2500+ on it and OC

 

[Peter D]

NF7-S

 

[Johnbear007]

Originally posted by: Vegetto
NF7-S

I looked around and thats what I am beginning to think. Looks like one great board, but can I run my current RAM init?

 

[MDE]

It will run but will slow down the CPU unless you run the FSB\mem asynchronous. Just get some new memory already. Buffalo PC3200 512MB sticks are $90.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Monkey meant to say run synchronous I'm certain If that 2100DDR will run 270DDR speeds with that other stick then you could leave it synch 333DDR and just overclock from the multiplier for now till you can afford better ram as 333DDR performance isn't bad at all even in SC-DDR mode.

 

[McArra]

Asus A7N8X deluxe v2.0

 

[Johnbear007]

Originally posted by: MonkeyDriveExpress
It will run but will slow down the CPU unless you run the FSB\mem asynchronous. Just get some new memory already. Buffalo PC3200 512MB sticks are $90.

running one stick of 512 is just as slow as running two async for a dual channel board. I do not have 180$ to spend on memory right now

 

[Johnbear007]

Is there a good NON dual channel solution?

 

[pspada]

You don't have to run a dual channel capabible mobo in dual channel mode.

 

[MDE]

You don't need a gig right now. I have 256 right now and I can run any game out there. 512 is definately enough for now, unless you play games that are known to need 1GB for better performance. I'd just use the one 512 stick of 2700 and be done with it.

EDIT: I did mean async, there's a PC2100/2700mix there.

 

[Johnbear007]

Originally posted by: MonkeyDriveExpress
You don't need a gig right now. I have 256 right now and I can run any game out there. 512 is definately enough for now, unless you play games that are known to need 1GB for better performance. I'd just use the one 512 stick of 2700 and be done with it.

EDIT: I did mean async, there's a PC2100/2700mix there.

I play alot of BF 1942 which is the reasonI grabbed teh second 512. I got a pretty dcent deal on it with the whole hpclub coupon thing and crucial.

Anyway, id like to use the gig I have. As long as I dont take some kind of horrible performance hit ill run async

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: Johnbear007

Originally posted by: MonkeyDriveExpress
It will run but will slow down the CPU unless you run the FSB\mem asynchronous. Just get some new memory already. Buffalo PC3200 512MB sticks are $90.

running one stick of 512 is just as slow as running two async for a dual channel board. I do not have 180$ to spend on memory right now

It isn't if you're comparing a single stick of PC3200 memory at 200MHz DDR + versus dual-channel at PC2100 speeds. I believe the DC PC2100 will actually be slower, believe it or not (tests would be interesting).

 

[wicktron]

NF7-S

 

[KF]

I'm not sure how interested you'll be, but the Crucial stick I have is PC2100 256MB with Micron chips. With my Nforce2 mobo, it will do over 200MHz at CAS 3.

I have a mismatched stick of PNY PC2100 256MB with Samsung chips. With a careful choice of memory settings, I run the two sticks dual channel at 183MHz and CAS2.5. The 1700+ TBB is OCed to about 2000MHz. The setup will run Memtest with no errors for at least 24 hours. Same for prime95. I can't make it crash with the games I have, but they are nothing advanced.

So dual channel is not critically dependent on matched sticks. This is all sync of course.

In order to get the speed over 133MHz, I had to set the timings manually. It turned out the PNY memory has an odd quirk. It will do over 200MHz at CAS 2.5, but it won't go over 139MHz at CAS3. You would think the slower timings would go faster, but its the opposite for this one. I wish I understood it. The BIOS will set the memory sticks to CAS3 at over 133Mhz, unless I over-ride it manually. When I figured it out, then I got it up to about 189MHz. It's at 183MHz because I don't like to run at the very edge. It passes the tests just as well at 189.

If you have two sticks, pushing each stick independently to the max will make it easier to guess the max OC.

The motherboard is a DFI NFII Lanparty. Very nice, but expensive ($160), because of the included kitchen sink. It does use the Nforce chipset sound. DFI has a version (NFII ULTRA-AL) without all the extras, and much cheaper ($86). It looks like the identical mobo with some empty spots for the things they left off. Those are newegg prices shipped

I really think people ought to be looking at that $86 DFI nForce2 mobo. There is a DFI rep that hangs out on Anantech that should know any details. Just start a topic with DFI or LanParty in it.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: Vegetto
NF7-S

 

[DerwenArtos12]

Quote form the AnandTech review of teh DFI NFII:
"However, we found there was much more to the NFII than attention-grabbing eye-candy. The NFII is also the best-performing AMD Athlon board that we have tested. It overclocks further than any other Athlon board we have seen, and it performs better at all speeds in gaming benchmarks. The board was clearly designed and tweaked for gaming performance. "