DFI nF3 UT 250GB or Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR

[nacheeze]

Hi Guys

I am planning to buy a Athlon 64 3400+ New Castle sometime today or tomorrow. Need a board to go with it. I am stuck between the Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR and DFI Lanparty UT nF3 250Gb. Any suggestion? Anandtech did a head to head and even though they saw Soltek being faster they recommond the DFI because of Overclocking options.
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2206&p=7
The price diffrence is about $20 between the boards at Newegg with DFI being the expensive one. I aslo heard that with Soltek you should get the Newegg warrenty (additional $15) since their tech support is a little hard to get hold off. And since DFI has good reviews for tech support it might end up being equal in price after i take the warranty on Soltek.

My other issue is that i am going to be using RAM from my currect system (athlonXP 2000+). Its the Corsair XMS PC2700 (DDR333) and my question is, would it work in the Soltek? I have two DIMMs and even though the memory is exactally the same since they were bought about 2 years apart, the version number is different... should i experiance problems? And considering i am not using the faster DDR400 would overclocking be out of the question with both DFI and Soltek?

I am buying a under $200 setup to replace my current Motherboard and CPU. Don't want to upgrade the graphic card and memory till like 2007 after Longhorn is out.

Thanks for reading... and would really appreciet any comments.
Thank you.

PS: I have never overclocked anything the past... but wouldn't mind trying.
PSS: There is a referb version of Soltek going for $30... worth it?

 

[imported_Kensai]

DFI.

~Yes, your ram should work easily.

 

[grooge]

I had the Soltek for 6 months, and sold it to a friend. I was very pleased with that board, and my friend is very pleased with it too. The 3400+ is not one of the most overclockable CPU out there. It is already running at 2.4 GHz which is very good. It might overheat a little if OCed, depending of your cooling.

I was running Corsair TwinX in mine, even thou it was not dual channel. I already had the memory when I first got it. The Soltek is very fast stock and with the 3400+, it should fly!

 

[Budman]

If you're going to buy a new cpu/mobo why even bother with socket 754???

Just buy a Venice 3000+ and a nice NF4 board.

 

[Megatomic]

I vote for the Soltek board, too. I used one for about a year, it was very stable and fast at optimized settings.

I'll never recommend DFI to anyone, not even an enemy. If you value ease of setup and a board that's not dead on arrival don't bother with DFI.

 

[angryswede]

I've had a good experience with my DFI nF3 board. My newcastle OCs nicely and this is on stock vcore.

 

[Heckler 5th]

Originally posted by: angryswede
I've had a good experience with my DFI nF3 board. My newcastle OCs nicely and this is on stock vcore.