nforce2 board recommendations?

[gordanfreeman]

recent events have transpired that has caused me to start looking for a decent nforce 2 board to replace my current Asus Via board. I am looking for something that wont cost me much... under $75, similar to my current Asus a7v8x-x board. i was recommended by one person to look into the MSI K7N2 Delta-L but have seen at least a couple people on here not happy with MSI boards. Being i have had no problem w/ my current Asus board other than the chipset i would not be against getting an Asus board again. something of the a7n8x family of boards probably if i were to go with Asus by looking at their product listing.

any recommendations/warnings for companies/models would be greatly appreciated

 

[Diogenes2]

The A7N8X-X is $70 at NewEgg..

A7N8X


Here are the search results for NF2's under $75

Search

A pretty good list, but note some may not be in stock.. I think the Asus, Abit, Chaintech or Shuttle would be good choices..

 

[Zap]

Many people have had good luck with the Shuttle boards. Nice, stable and budget. Not too feature filled, just basic 5.1 sound and 10/100 network, but Newegg has them for around $55.

Oh yeah, and if you're into overclocking the Shuttle board seems pretty decent at that.

 

[Sammy5000]

here here.

I own the Shuttle AN35N Ultra mobo, and it is cheap ($50 @ newegg), and overclocks well (had my 2500+ up to 3200+ speeds on air without volt modding).

 

[BlackMountainCow]

Same here for the Shuttle AN35N-U. Just be carefull with what RAM you pick for it. Some ppl have reported probs with Kingston Hyper X, but TwinMOS, Buffalo, Corsair and OCZ seem to run very well!

 

[gordanfreeman]

the shuttle an35n-ultra supports dual channel ram right?

 

[MattressTester]

Yes, the AN35N-Ultra supports dual channel DDR. The AN35N-400 is the single channel version.

I took a chance on a refurb Shuttle AN35N-Ultra from NewEgg ($39 shipped). Turned out to be a good deal. Wide range of vcore (1.1 to 2.0v) and multiplier settings (up to 23X). A little light on AGP and DDR voltage choices but I left those at default anyway.

I'm running a year old XP1700+ B at 11.5x200 (1.70v) and three sticks of budget 256MB Kingston ValueRam PC3200 (spec 3-3-3-8) at 2.5-3-3-8 DDR400. Can't get RAM much above 200MHz or tighten timings any further.

I'd say the AN35N-Ultra is sort of an ABIT NF7-S without the bells and whistles. One feature the Shuttle has over the Abit - Shuttle can run three sticks of DDR400 at once - Abit will only run two at once. There is a small performace hit filling all three DIMM slots - for me less than 2%.

 

[CraigRT]

Soltek SL-75FRN2-L... either this or the shuttle is kickass value!

 

[Zebo]

The best board for the money is the Shuttle MN31N. Comes with nvidias most expensive chipsets. Soundstorm MCP-T and nVIDIA nForce2 IGP ultra400. And the best part is comes with awesome on board GFMX4 graphics as a backup. I'm shocked they can sell it for less than $75. Nothing comes close to this board as far as features, price, overclcocking.

I do not recommend the AN35N unless you don't care about sound.

 

[gordanfreeman]

Originally posted by: Zebo
The best board for the money is the Shuttle MN31N. Comes with nvidias most expensive chipsets. Soundstorm MCP-T and nVIDIA nForce2 IGP ultra400. And the best part is comes with awesome on board GFMX4 graphics as a backup. I'm shocked they can sell it for less than $75. Nothing comes close to this board as far as features, price, overclcocking.

I do not recommend the AN35N unless you don't care about sound.

at first glance i didnt think the MN31N had the soundstorm chip... they dont mention it in the audio anywhere like they normally do. but it does have the MCP-T chip so it must...

it is a micro ATX which may not work out the best for me... but it does look like a killer micro ATX board. as for the lack of a good sound chip on the AN35N i am not too worried about it... if i were to get an nforce2 board i have an audigy 2 waiting to be installed :thumbsup: