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Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI or EPoX 9NPA+SLI?

K

keitaro

Member
I've only had my MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum for a short time and already I'm interested in jumping on the PCI Express bandwagon. This means having to go for Plan B... But first things first.

As the topic suggests, I have narrowed my choices down to those two. I'd like to save some cash while having some bit of flexibility in overclocking. Nothing too extreme or fancy that some DFI motherboards has but something a little simple and straightfrward (like MSI's). The intent is to keep the 240x10 overclock I have with my current setup, as I am sure most or all motherboard should (keyword = should) achieve. If you have a general idea about either of the two boards, I'd like to hear them. Anything from menu layout (technical, n00b, or average?) to board stability to integrated quirks, please share 'em here so that I can help make a better choice. I know some of you will recommend one over the other. And that's fine. But anything informative that you can share, I just would like to hear them.

Once finalizing the motherboard choice comes the difficult part -- power supply. We've heard it time after time to get a quality PSU. I don't intend to get something flakey. Given the possibility, I may need to get something potent of around 600W and possibly higher. The PSU calculator gave me an estimate of 572W at 100% and I hope there's something affordable out there that can handle 600W. If you have any recommendations, suggestions, ideas, or whatever, please share 'em.

After all the information is gathered, I'll hopefully come to decision on whether or not to go for it. But regardless of the decision, I'll give my thanks to anyone/everyone who has helped out on this.
 
I can only inform you about the Gigabyte...it'll do 240FSB and you'll save some cash with the 1394b that's included...It's a nice Mobo and has good support. I've built 2 and the users are happy with them and have a non SLI myself with all the Slots except 1 PCI-e filled...
 
Still seeking info from people who own either of these... and a little update with a chance for you to give your input. After some research into what power supply would be most useful, I've narrowed it down to two -- Enermax's "Noisetaker EG701AX-VE SFMA" model or Sea Sonic's S12-600. Both are the cheapest "reliable" 600W I can find (unless you got another one in mind). I found out that I can get the S12-600 from Microcenter for $132 & tax. From where I live, this would save me just a couple of dollars off from getting the Enermax one online. Has anyone owned a Sea Sonic?

I'm slowly leaning towards getting the EPoX. Please say something if you think it's the right (or wrong) direction.
 
I luuuuurve my 9NPA+SLI. No, I don't need to actually use a 370 HTT, but am I glad I have the option? Yes. Being able to push it up to around 300 gives you a lot more flexibility when overclocking, especially when dealing with memory dividers. It hasn't crashed once and it just looks so damn cool with the LEDs that I have to leave the side of my case off. The best part is that I'd be far too embarassed to rice up my computer with blue LEDs normally, but now I have an excuse... they came with the motherboard!

Ah, the perfect crime.

People have reported USB2.0 issues with the Ultra which I assume would apply to the SLI as well, but I haven't had a problem. All six ports work perfectly. Haven't had a chance to test the firewire yet.

Overclocking was an absolute breeze, the insert key worked like a charm when I pushed the memory too hard. It booted up at fail-safe settings but retained my custom settings in the CMOS, which saved a heap of time. I assume most/all modern boards do this, but it's still a pleasure to see it in action. The one issue that others have reported that I've seen is a slightly unstable CPU voltage, but that hasn't affected me at all. It might be a problem if you need to push like 1.7v through your CPU.

Edit: one thing that bothers me - the onboard sound sounds pretty bad. I think it's exactly the same as the sound included on most boards, but I do know my last Gigabyte (KT333!) and my friend's NF2 Gigabyte had much nicer sound quality, so it's possible that their NF4 will sound better too. This wouldn't be an issue at all if I could get my hands on a decent sound card, but the glorious AV710 isn't available here.

Oh yeah, both of those PSUs are absolutely fantastic.
 
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