nForce 2 board question, which works with my setup best

[Spike]

ok, I am going to upgrade a part at a time as that is all the wallet allows for. I want to get a mobo first, followed by a graphics card and then cpu/ram. I am looking at the nForce2 boards, and the ones that stick out to me are the Abit NF7-S, the ASUS A7N8X, and the Epox 8RDA3+. I like all of them but am not sure which to go with. After doing some researching it seems the general consensus puts the abit and the asus above the epox, but from there it gets a bit foggy.

I currently have a ECS K7S5A (so you know that I need to upgrade) with a AthlonXP 1800+ and 512 Curcial DDR 2100 ram. I want to get a mobo that will work well with all these components until I can upgrade them. The next step after the mobo will be a Radeon 9800 pro (time to retire my supprisingly faithful Radeon 8500). then onto a barton XP (not sure which one yet) and some nicer ram (I have not kept up on ram so any suggestions as to what is the best ram would be appreciated, though not really needed at this time.)

The Epox and the Asus support 400 fsb while it looks like rev 2.0 of the Abit does this as well. Is this a concern I should have when I would like to go with a 400 fsb system in the near future? I have read some of the Abit vs Asus threads so far but I figured the steps I want to take may qualify my situation for different advice. Thanks for the time and help

-spike

P.S. one of the reasons I like the epox is that it comes with round cables... nice...

 

[Bonesdad]

All of those boards are excellent. If you plan to use SATA etc, you pay for it. I have heard not so good things about the 8rda3+, have you considered the 8RDA+? Excellent board too. Any of these boards will use all of your existing components without a hitch. I too upgraded from the K7S5A to an NForce2 mobo (8rda+) and have not regretted once. Many will back the other boards too...you really can't go wrong, but if you won't use the extras on some of the boards, why shell out the bux? Good luck.

 

[Spike]

I am perfectly comfortable paying in the $100 range as I plan to use SATA in the near future. plus, I like the sound setup on the Abit as well as the extras on the asus. I also heard those bad things about the 8RDA3+ but wanted further confirmation. I just put together a pc for my brother using the 8RDA+ with a 2400+ and it has worked wonderfully so kudos for such a nice board. One of the main things I want, though, is the ability to go 400 fsb because by the time I upgrade my CPU I will get one of the 400 bartons. Thanks for the reply, it's nice to have another vote of confidence for my brothers new board

-spike

 

[Spike]

while I'm thinking about it I have another question... I have two dimms of crucial cas2.5 256mb DDR 2100 ram. now I know this is slow but it will be my ram for the near future till I figure out what ram to upgrade to (and I get the money to afford it). with these boards (especially the abit rev 2.0) can I run this ram dual channel?
just curious

-spike

EDIT: oops, sorry about the double post

 

[Bonesdad]

Yes, I am running Crucial 2100 as dual channel on my 8rda+ now. Planning to upgrade to PC3200 (likely Buffalo).

 

[Spike]

Originally posted by: Bonesdad
Yes, I am running Crucial 2100 as dual channel on my 8rda+ now. Planning to upgrade to PC3200 (likely Buffalo).

thanks for the confirmation. as an update I decided to go with the Abit board. I looked and looked and in the end it came down to the fact that the abit was a whole $14 cheaper so that decided it for me. Both looked like awesome boards so I hope I got a good one this time. (no more buying the cheap motherboard).

BTW, I ordered the revision 2.0 from excaliber so that I can run a 400fsb in the future. again, thanks for the help

-spike