More stable K8N-E or K8V SE Deluxe

[tallman45]

Building a rig primarily for dig photo processing (photoshop) and need it to be very stable. A 3200+ or 3400+ would be the proc of choice (nill to mild OC'ing needed)

Of the 2 MB's which do you think would offer teh best stability and which mem would you install ?

 

[chr6]

ive owned both of these boards, and i say, if you must choose between these two, go for the k8n-e deluxe. i am almost certain with a good bios update, it will be a top nforce3 250 performer. the k8v is also a good choice, as a matter of fact (mine is for sale in the f/s trade forum here) but i wouldn't recommend it if you were doing overclocking with the lack of an agp/pci lock.

if you are planning to run stock speeds, i'd say just save yourself the money and get the k8v. it does has the robust features most people need.

as far as memory, i always went with ocz eb series for these boards, but seeing as they discontinued this memory, i say try something that will give you tight timings @ ddr400. perhaps some bh-5 chips since people seem to be selling them, or the new corsair xl's.

 

[mfc2]

I do not see how the stability of the Asus K8N-E Deluxe can be properly evaluated since that board has not been around very long. Would all the problems really be apparent and reported on at this forum during the first two weeks of the board's release? A quick search of these forums reveals people having problems with it. The Asus K8V SE Deluxe has been around longer, so theoretically should have most of the bugs worked out.

I am still deciding between the two myself, and I was actually leaning towards the K8V because of stability concerns and because the K8N is $30 more expensive.

I asked Asus the difference between the boards and the response I got was this:
"There are 2 differences in the K8V Dlx and K8V SE Dlx. The SE model has an
upgraded NIC card and features scalable HyperTransport for the CPU. The
K8N-E is our newest model and offers 6 Sata ports instead of 4, 8 channel
audio instead of 6, 8 USB ports instead of 6 and 2 IEEE 1394 (firewire)
ports instead of 1. Thanks."

Since the guy did not mention the faster ethernet or hardware firewall, you have to wonder how good the information is. But my evaluation of the features is roughly this:
2 more SATA ports: not sure I can even fit this many devices in my case
8 channel audio: I have no use for this.
2 more USB ports: worthless
1 more firewire port: maybe useful.
Faster ethernet: the primary selling point
Onboard firewall: a selling point

I am not sure faster ethernet is worth $30 if it means I have to put up with all the undiscovered problems in a new board. From what I read, NVIDIA did not do a great job the last time around because they were new at the motherboard game. I would not assume that they would suddenly obtain perfection with their second attempt. Just my thoughts. I may end up buying the K8N if I come across some glowing reviews. So far, the reviews I have read say that it is not much better than the K8V.

-Mike

 

[jkresh]

dont forget a working pci lock, which you would only get with a more recent k8v, while all k8n-e's have it.