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Epox 8RDA+ vs Asus A7N8X for 1700+ ocing
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Necrolezbeast
Senior member
I got the 8rda+ when I had the same question...because I saved money and didn't need the extra lan or SATA...but if I were to be buying a board now I would get the Abit nf7s(?), whatever their nforce2 board is named, because it is about the same cost as the 8rda+ on newegg and has SATA and still only 1x lan...
I've been reading about this on many forums. It seems that luck has a lot to do with whether your new nforce2 board will do 200+fsb. With Abit, Epox and Asus, some hit a high fsb, some don't.
I picked Asus and had some luck.
If I were you I'd pick for the features you want and the price you can pay.
I picked Asus and had some luck.
If I were you I'd pick for the features you want and the price you can pay.
Abits tech support is great. So is their RMA policy. I had a bad board once (my fualt I think...not Abit's), and they replaced it for free. I didn't even have to contact the reseller. I shipped it to Abit after filling out the RMA application and they gave me a new one 🙂
I made this decision Sunday of last week (Asus vs. Epox). I ended up purchasing an MSI K7N2-L instead 😛 The Asus was more expensive than all the other nForce 2 boards, and I was just as comfortable with getting an MSI or Abit. I didn't need SATA or any onboard stuff. I decided against the Abit NF7 because it didn't have very great customer reviews on Newegg, and out of the three Abit boards I've had in the past 3 years, only 1 has been 100% problem free (one needed to be RMA'ed, one refused to boot with anything but Enermax/Antec PSU's and several other minor but fixable problems). So, that left me with MSI and Epox (I didn't want a Chaintech...they seem too cheap). In a couple reviews, the MSI scored very well at stock speeds -- even better than the Asus and Epox in some tests (Anandtech was NOT one of those reviewers...they showed it as being slower). The MSI's red PCB looked awesome, and I like MSI's products a lot. I wasn't going to be doing any OC'ing, and the MSI was doing great at OC'ing in reviews anyway, so I figured I didn't need the Epox even though everyone was recommending it. The major factor in my decision was that I have a black, aluminum Chieftec server tower with a window, so I wanted the mobo that looked AND performed the best. It was a no brainer -- I chose the MSI K7N2-L for it's beautiful red PCB.
I've had it for a couple days now, and have yet to have a problem. It's 100% stable. I've run 3DMark 2001 and 3DMark 2003 at least 35 times EACH, I've played some UT2003, Warcraft III, Tribes 2, and GTA3, and everything has performed great and been flawless. My Audigy and it's gameport even works...many users have reported that their Audigy/Audigy 2's gameport won't install on their nForce 2 board. Just to test the effect of 3D performance, I installed XP Pro twice on some extra hard drive with different BIOS settings and drivers. Even when disabling APIC (adds more IRQ's), and disabling PNP OS Installed in the BIOS, my Audigy + gameport and all hardware still installed and ran perfectly.
Plus, my stock score is now 10, 554 in 3DMark 2001 and 1,432 in 3DMark 2003. That may not seem like much, but my GF4 Ti 4200 64mb holds me back in 3DMark 2003 (the 128mb version scores about 100-200 points higher). It's a bit of an improvement performance-wise over my Abit KR7A-RAID (the board I had right before this). However, it is a MAJOR improvement in terms of future upgrades and looks. I now have USB2.0, AGP8x, ATA133, a 333 or even 400mhz FSB, and can support XP 3000+ and maybe even higher CPU's (my KR7A only supported 2100+ Palominos). The board really does look awesome in my Chieftec case. It's the coolest looking board I've ever owned!
I made this decision Sunday of last week (Asus vs. Epox). I ended up purchasing an MSI K7N2-L instead 😛 The Asus was more expensive than all the other nForce 2 boards, and I was just as comfortable with getting an MSI or Abit. I didn't need SATA or any onboard stuff. I decided against the Abit NF7 because it didn't have very great customer reviews on Newegg, and out of the three Abit boards I've had in the past 3 years, only 1 has been 100% problem free (one needed to be RMA'ed, one refused to boot with anything but Enermax/Antec PSU's and several other minor but fixable problems). So, that left me with MSI and Epox (I didn't want a Chaintech...they seem too cheap). In a couple reviews, the MSI scored very well at stock speeds -- even better than the Asus and Epox in some tests (Anandtech was NOT one of those reviewers...they showed it as being slower). The MSI's red PCB looked awesome, and I like MSI's products a lot. I wasn't going to be doing any OC'ing, and the MSI was doing great at OC'ing in reviews anyway, so I figured I didn't need the Epox even though everyone was recommending it. The major factor in my decision was that I have a black, aluminum Chieftec server tower with a window, so I wanted the mobo that looked AND performed the best. It was a no brainer -- I chose the MSI K7N2-L for it's beautiful red PCB.
I've had it for a couple days now, and have yet to have a problem. It's 100% stable. I've run 3DMark 2001 and 3DMark 2003 at least 35 times EACH, I've played some UT2003, Warcraft III, Tribes 2, and GTA3, and everything has performed great and been flawless. My Audigy and it's gameport even works...many users have reported that their Audigy/Audigy 2's gameport won't install on their nForce 2 board. Just to test the effect of 3D performance, I installed XP Pro twice on some extra hard drive with different BIOS settings and drivers. Even when disabling APIC (adds more IRQ's), and disabling PNP OS Installed in the BIOS, my Audigy + gameport and all hardware still installed and ran perfectly.
Plus, my stock score is now 10, 554 in 3DMark 2001 and 1,432 in 3DMark 2003. That may not seem like much, but my GF4 Ti 4200 64mb holds me back in 3DMark 2003 (the 128mb version scores about 100-200 points higher). It's a bit of an improvement performance-wise over my Abit KR7A-RAID (the board I had right before this). However, it is a MAJOR improvement in terms of future upgrades and looks. I now have USB2.0, AGP8x, ATA133, a 333 or even 400mhz FSB, and can support XP 3000+ and maybe even higher CPU's (my KR7A only supported 2100+ Palominos). The board really does look awesome in my Chieftec case. It's the coolest looking board I've ever owned!
Go with the EPOX from what I've heard they are the way to go. I had a MSI board this baord is great and stable. However for OC it has no PCI lock so I don't recommend it at all that's why I am selling mine. However you can multiply an ABred and get and OC with out increasing the FSB that's how I"m running mine until I sell it.
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