Help me decide between A7N8X-X, and A7V8X-X

[littleprince]

My GF wants a new system for Xmas.

I'm thinking Athlong XP 2500, 256mb DDR400
Radeon 9600

I'm trying to decide on the MB.
A7V8X-X Pretty cheap in price. Integrated sound and LAN.
A7N8X-X Nforce chipset. Better performer? $20 cdn more.

How is stability and other features compared ?
I havent had time lately to keep up.

 

[littleprince]

O yeah, Stability over overclocking. I doubt I will overclock this one at all.

 

[bootoo]

I have the a7v8x-x and have never had a more stable board, period. That said, the a7n8x-x is faster. I love my a7v8x-x but now that I've gone nforce 2 (for overclocking) I'm replacing it with an epox 8rda+ which is what I use in my overclocking/gaming rig.

I've had a couple of "issues" with the 8rda+ that would have left me scratching my head over a year or so ago but folks have been really helpful; ram is less compatible (newer bioses for nforce 2 boards will give you no problems I think but stay away from generic); I had to think ahead and not install the nforce 2 sw/ide drivers (the first time I did they were nasty) and use microsoft's; it didn't play well with some older drivers I had for an older video card; but I don't think at this point you'd have much of a problem going with a new a7n8x-x board if that's what you want.

I will say though if I were building a new system for my daughter I'd use the a7v8x-x. I'd use the $20 bucks somewhere else in the system... But your call, and good luck. If resale is an issue, I'd go nf2.

 

[gunblade]

For me, I always has better luck with Nf2 than any Via chhpset. Currently using the A7N8x deluxe, I find it to run well and really stable, not to mention also being fast and feature rich.

 

[littleprince]

Normaly I think I'd go for the A7N, its just that with Xmas $20 could actualy be really usefull... Hmmm.... Will the performance be noticiable to her? Occasional gamer. Plays a lot of sc, listens to music, watch dvds/ divx. And of course do work.

If I didint decide to spring for the 9600 pro I think I would've went with the A7N for sure.

 

[bootoo]

I've watched hundreds of dvd's with the a7v8x-x and also played god knows how many hours of fps games on it. It's not the best but if you want a non-screw-uppable mobo get it.

I think though I would have bought the nf2 board for myself; but hey I got into overclocking and QUICKLY that board would have limited me too.

My daughter messes her computer up every 2 weeks like clockwork with her nasty little downloads, spyware etc. (can't teach her a thing, she knows it all, has everything running on bootup) and when she boots up my nforce system it will crash but my via board has never crashed.

Like I say, for you I'd recommend different but for the g/f I'd say asus kt400 unless she's going to listen to you. You know her and what she needs though; there's some tasty nf2 prices out there. Hard to go via with those possibilities.