Poll: given a choice, would you take: Asus A7V266-E or MSI K7N420 ?

[glenn1]

Let the fun begin.... help me select my new board 😉

 

[Athlon4all]

You need to provide more info. Do you need the integrated audio and LAN? Does overclocking matter to you? Do you need more than 2 DIMM slot's (K7N420 Pro has a feature that even though it has 3 DIMM slots, if u use a DOuble-sided DIMM in the 3rd one it slows the system for total stability)? I personally if u don't intend on overclocking, and if u only need 2 DIMM slots, then by all means take the K7N420 Pro, but I would wait a week or 2 because soon new nForce 415-D boards will be coming out (including MSi's K7N415 Pro) which are just like nForce 420-D, but without the integrated video, but you ready for the best part? Inital prices on 415-D boards are as low as $80-90 and for me as long as overclocking isn't too important (and to top that off, 415-D may overclock much better than K7N420 Pro) and as long as having onto 2 DIMM's is fine, then either take K7N420 Pro now, or wait for K7N415 Pro.

 

[Boonesmi]

asus for me 🙂

 

[glenn1]

Do i need integrated LAN and sound? No, but i'd use it if i had it, and sell my PCI NIC and sound cards. I'd probably use two DIMMs max, i only use one now after all. Overclocking is nice, but with the XP1700+ i plan to use, it's enough power for now not to worry about overly, although playing with overclocking later might be something to have fun with 🙂

 

[Davegod75]

you'd def want to use two dimms on an nforce to take advantage of the twinbank architecture.

 

[Mem]

Hmmmm neither board,go Epox 8KHA+ 😉.

🙂

 

[Athlon4all]

<< you'd def want to use two dimms on an nforce to take advantage of the twinbank architecture. >>

That's not really a factor. Twinbank doesn't improve overall system performance at all. it really only helps the integrated video, and when the int. video isn't being used, then there's absolutely no difference between using Twinbank and not using Twinbank.

Glenn, it's really your decision. I think as long as you can live with not the best overclocking (K7N420 Pro can oc a bit, but I wouldn't expect anything huge) and can live with only 2 DIMM's then I would definately take K7N420 Pro, and maybe wait for K7N415 Pro. It's a great board, and really at it's price, as long as you can live with not the best ocing and only 2 DIMM's, then I see no reason not to get it or the K7N415 Pro.

 

[AA0]

I chose Asus because I still don't trust MSI. They never have, and still don't have a reliable product line, they constantly screw up board designs. Just because it works fine now, doesn't mean it will in the future.... as a few people painfully found out.

 

[WhiteWizard]

Well perhaps you can buy almost 2 MSI for the price of one ASUS, try an MSI and if it don't work as spected, sell it and buy the ASUS.

A7V266-E
Athlon 1.2b @ 1301 (9.5x137Mhz)
Titan D5T cooler and 4 case coolers (just in case!)
512Mb DDR RAM (unbranded, 2x256Mb sticks)
Promise RAID 0 on 2 IBM Desktars 15Gb
CL Anihilator II (gForce 2 GTS 32Mb DDR)
CL Live! Platinium
Aopen Hq08 full tower case (300 What PS)
DVD and LITEON CDROM 52x on normal IDE channels
Win XP Pro OEM

 

[Funky303]

After BIOS release 2.2 from MSI i would definitively prefer the MSI board.

Finally I can use all 3 Memory modules without running in Superstability mode, or I can just enable/disable it (the superstab. mode) via BIOS.

Also having to pay way more money for the asus is not worth those little extra speed given by asus. I have the MSI, it's rock solid, MSI has really cared about it's customers with releasing new BIOSes & a good website compared to ASUS

 

[AA0]

Asus site is superb. When you pay for Asus, you pay for alot more then just a little more speed, you can overclock, and you can count on it not to just die on you in the future. Plus RAID is an amazing function, I would not take a board without it.

 

[Funky303]

Agree/not agree..

I would never buy a MoBo just bec. it's from ASUS. I had long experience with them starting from with my first Pentium 90 board ( I do not know which brand I had befor in the 386/486 time since my dad bought those computers 😉 not allowing me to hack inside them ) and was mostly really satisfied. If you asked me 2 years ago, I would have told you that if you want stability & reliability & speed, go for ASUS & Gigabyte, rest is not that good, but is cheap.

But time has changed, more & more MoBo Manufacturors are getting better and the ASsembling technology was also improved in the past few years.

I liked MSI nforce Board bec. it was first out, offering a really stable & good performing Solution for somebody whop was sick of VIA boards at all. (see my other threads @ viaarena.com)

Now with the memory Patch for MSI so one can use all 3 memory slots with unregistered DoubleSided Memory Modules, it has even gone better.

I remember my old posting where somebody said that the board has no future & I compared it with Nvidias Driver Improvement with each release in the Grafics maket.

Here we go again. Just some driver updates, a new BIOS and, le voila, the board has gone way behind my expectation at the beginnig. I'm sure there will be more things to come with this board.

I also like to enable & disable the superstability mode by hand.



<< When you pay for Asus, you pay for alot more then just a little more speed, you can overclock, and you can count on it >>




<< Well perhaps you can buy almost 2 MSI for the price of one ASUS, try an MSI and if it don't work as spected, sell it and buy the ASUS >>



Thats my problem. MSI was way cheaper than ASUS at the time I bought my board. So I could buy some extra memory & and a faster CPU. So I have more speed for the same money compared to an ASUS board.

There are two ways to buy a computer. The Min Max system, which is getting the maximum speed/best system on a fixed amount of money or buying the best Items without having a fixed amout of money. I for myself had just 500 $ for a Board, a CPU & Memory and so I really went better buying the MSI bec. I got some extra items too.



<< Plus RAID is an amazing function, I would not take a board without it. >>



I really like some onboard items, but just that kinda items like lan or cheap sound.

I had a P2B-S in my server and one day the SCSI onboard controller simply died. The half year warranty offered in Germany was outdated. So I had simply bad luck. Had to buy an external controller.

Same thing with changing motherboard. If I change my board I often keep my HDDs. So why buy each time a new board with a new IDE controller if I just pull out the external one & stick it in the new MoBo.


Btw, I do not care for overclocking, I even think thats an unfair method of selling more CPUs when offering the possibility to O'Clock in BIOS. days back I had to open my case & swich some jumpers to do so.

I had once the luck to change a system where a customer had increased the multiplier way to high & had played with Voltage settings in the BIOS frying his CPU.

Due to the way Athlons react on not well done OClocking it is almost not possible to RMA an Athlon CPU in Germany. Most vendors have a warning sheet when you buy an Athlon that inproper use & handling with the cooler or overclocking will leave you loosing your Warranty.

With todays CPUs overclocking is not necessary anymore. CPU Speed is not the limit anymore, now GPUs & memory are the bottleneck.

I don't like the way ASUS makes it's website, much tooo much clicks until you reach your BIOS update file or get the informations you search.

BTW, just look on the german ASUS site. it looks like made by an 12 year old beginner if you want to d/l something. www.asustek.de

So these are my 2 cents. Excuse my faults, I'm German 😀