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MSI K7N420 Pro Vs Asus A7N266-E nforce mobos

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Just got my K7n420 Pro, ordered from newegg on 1/15

It DOES contain the CNR card.

Gonna start building now, wish me luck....



j
 
Great, thanks for the update... hmm wonder why newegg told me it didn't have the CNR riser card. Hmm, so there really isn't much reason to get the asus then, beyond having a few extra overclocking features and a few percentage points better speed. I think I'll stick with the MSI for the system I'm building for my Grandmother, unless something better comes out soon that takes advantage of the built in modem... although that's a software modem on the nforce chip, well I have a $15 hardware 56k pci modem I picked up from ebay, perhaps I'll use that.

BTW, any details about the MSI CNR riser card? If its like the asus it included like three out stereo ports (front channel, rear, and sub/center) and a spdif input...
 
SPDIF is for digital out, for instance if you want to send to a dolby digital 5.1 decoder for like DVD movies... thats what I use, I use one of those dolby digital 5.1 cambridge sound systems.

C/W is probably center/woofer
R is probably rear surround.

Basically that's so you can use a 5.1 system if you don't have a decoder, plug the front stereo speakers into the line out on the motherboard rear panel, then use the two plugs on the CNR; the rear two speakers into the R port and the center/woofer into the C/W plug.
 


<< ...Hmm, so there really isn't much reason to get the asus then, beyond having a few extra overclocking features and a few percentage points better speed.... >>

The Asus also gets you an ACR card which, as I described above, provides more advanced technology as compared to CNR. But then again, Granny probably won't need it's advanced features. 😉
 
Just wanted to post a second confirmation regarding the CNR Riser card being included with the K7N420 Pros from NewEgg. I just received my new motherboard (shipped from NewEgg on Monday) and it contained the a MN-CNR-S-4 Ver 1.0 just like jFunk. Also included is the D-Bracket with 2 USB ports (D-Bracket gives you four diagnostic LEDs that you can vew outside the case without cracking it open) and another bracket with 2 USB ports only. As previously posted the MN-CNR-S-4 has R, C/W and S/PDIF outputs. Unless I am blind, there is NO TV OUT included. The box says TV-out Encoder on Board under Optional on the top - it does not say anthing about the CNR card - so I have no idea how you could tell what you are getting without breaking the seals (which is probably why NewEgg didn't know)

Anyway, I bought a bunch of stuff so I'll be doing a little assemblying tonight (first time I've ever built one from scratch so it should be interesting).

BTW does anyone have a lead on where I can get a new I/O shield to match the K7N420 Pro I/O placement (MSI does not include a new I/O shield with the kit either)? (And just in case anyone feels obligated - I don't have a Dremel so I don't have that option to just make the holes that I want on the shield that came with my case (Enlight-72370AZ)).

😛
 
Generally you get the I/O backplane shields from your case manufacture (last time I bought a case the case included like 3 or 4 back shield things)... So if its Enlight, try contacting them. You could tell them what motherboard its from, or give them the link to the newegg pic that shows the back of the mobo. If all else fails, ask in for sale/trade for a backplane, someone might be able to sell you one for cheap. I could even check to see what ones I have, but I'm not sure if there's a standard for how they fit in the case or not.
 
What kind of backplanes are comming on your cases?

I've personally never got a case that had more than one (well, in the last few years anyway, they all used to come with both those different atx standards, but I never saw a board use the funky one with everything in a straight line).

What ports are missing on yours? All the cases I've gotten have had all the ports available as far as I know (all the normal stuff plus audio & lan).



j
 
Damn, sorry about that last non-post - my fingers were moving too fast for my brain and I hit enter instead of tab...
ANYWAY,

I bought and Enlight 72370AZ (340W PS) and it came with two i/o shields. the one installed matched up with the K7N420 except for the onboard LAN. The extra shield had all the components in a line.

As far as contacting Enlight goes - have you been to their site - I wasn't too impressed with it. You would think that purchasing I/O shields (while low in profit) is probably something they are asked about a lot, but it didn't seem to be much of a priority.... So I got annoyed and got out a drill and a flat head screw driver. It isn't pretty, but I have a hole in the shield for my LAN...
😉
 
Well there you go. I would have done the same 🙂 BTW, I'm in the process of ordering the MSI nforce mobo from newegg along with a athlon 1700XP.
 
Just got the MSI board/CPU today. I'll hopefully be putting it together in about a week or so. I can confirm that newegg is indeed shipping it with the CNR card.
 
i can also confirm the cnr card w/ the newegg k7n420. But mine was doa, pissed me off, i had to send the board back into msi, they said the r gonna send me a new one asap. so i guess its ok. kinda sucks though.
69
 
Excellent, Thanks dingodoc! I bookmarked that 🙂

On a side note, I was looking around on the MSI mobo, and I found an undocumented jumper at the upper left edge of the motherboard. Its labeled JKBV1 and has a red jumper on it, which is unlike the color of the other jumpers. I'm gonna go look around see if I can find out what this does.
 
From looking on the net and at other mobo documnetation, it appears that this jumper is to enable or disable wake on keyboard/mouse if computer is sleeping. The only question now is, is it enabled on 1-2 or 2-3, and why didn't MSI document this?

Edited stuff below:

I downloaded the newest MSI manual for the nforce board, and even though it is called version 1.1 as is the manual that came with my motherboard, there's at least one differance... the downloaded .pdf file shows that jumper. Strange. Oh well. I wonder what other differances there are...
 
FYI: My MSI K7N420 board didn't come with a backplate! It did come with the SPDIF/surround audio board, but no backplate, which was a big pain in the A**. I would have gladly paid the extra for the ASUS since I hear it does come with it. This may not be as big a deal to some, but cutting my own backplate isn't my idea of a good time...
 
No, the MSI doesn't come with a backplate. It didn't matter to me, since the one that came with my ultra cheap case had little metal thingys I could pop out. Generally your case comes with extra backplates. I'm sure you can find a place to buy a backplate from if you really want, although I would reccomend getting it from your case manufacture since there may be differant types of mounting availible.
 
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