The better socket A board: Epox EP-8RDA or Chaintech 7NJL6?

[Obsoleet]

I'm piecing together a spare PC out of old parts, and wondering what the consensus is between these two brands/boards?

 

[Iron Woode]

8RDA+ or just 8RDA?

I had the + and it was a great board. But it doesn't support 400 FSB unless it has the ultra400 northbridge.

read anand's review:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/1044/17

the Epox won the editor's Gold award.

also check each board's caps for swelling. There were a number of NF2 boards that suffered with bad caps.

 

[sandorski]

Epox was very good back in those days. Seems to me so was Chaintech. Might come down to Chipsets or condition as Iron Woode notes.

 

[MrPickins]

also check each board's caps for swelling. There were a number of NF2 boards that suffered with bad caps.

QFT

My 8RDA+ died a slow death due to bad caps.

 

[shortylickens]

Back in the socket A days I think Epox was better.

I cant recall, I mostly used ASUS at the time, with nForce chipsets.

 

[jjmIII]

also check each board's caps for swelling. There were a number of NF2 boards that suffered with bad caps.

That's how my Epox died too...

 

[BTA]

Chaintech was awesome in the SocketA days. I miss them.

 

[Jeff7]

QFT

My 8RDA+ died a slow death due to bad caps.

I had at least 3 Socket A boards die from bad caps: a KT133 board (I think it was the 8KTA), and two nForce2 boards (8RDA+ and NF7-S v2).

Epox repaired the first two, even though one was more than a year past warranty. I tried recapping the NF7, but my iron wasn't powerful enough to fully melt the solder, or else I just sucked at desoldering - removing the cap ripped the through-plating right out of the holes.

 

[Obsoleet]

The system with the Chaintech starting operating very slowly. My grandma used it since I built it for her in 2001(?). I'll have to examine the caps. I'm piecing together 1 socket A system from the 2 systems I have here, and will use the 2nd one for spare parts. Just bought an AGP 7600GS (fanless) for $32 shipped which I think will really help it out (it's going to be running Windows 7).

Well, really I'm getting a backup PC ready for my dad who is using a Pentium 4 1.5ghz (Willamette) at the moment with 640MB of SDR and a PCI 6200 that crashes in Aero (but meets the specs).

He runs a simulator called RealFlight and it ran on his Geforce 4200 (had to pull it out when I gave him a Win7 license due to no drivers) and I think the fanless 7600 will outlast all my old ragtag parts.

His old Dell Willamette is a horse, he's been leaving it on for years now and still no problems, I don't want to move him to one of my old socketA boards until something actually dies on it.

Hard to believe it, but the parts in that old Willamette rig must be high quality because it's not even on a surge protector, just direct to the wall in a machinist shop (lots of tools and I'm assuming dirty power).

 

[Obsoleet]

I see too that the Chaintek has 2 USB ports, 5 PCI slots, and a 10/100 NIC built-in. The Epox has 4 USB, 6 PCI slots and no NIC. I have a NIC that works in Windows 7 already (had to toss an old one though due to no drivers) so I'll prob go with the Epox for the USB ports.

The audio ports on the Chaintech have gold trimming and the Epox are just plastic.

 

[Iron Woode]

keep in mind there are no Vista or Win 7 chipset drivers for NF2 boards.

you could try compatibility mode, but that might prove buggy.

 

[bryanl]

I tried recapping the NF7, but my iron wasn't powerful enough to fully melt the solder, or else I just sucked at desoldering - removing the cap ripped the through-plating right out of the holes.

To fully melt solder on a multilayer board requires almost 50W, and adding 60/40 tin/lead solder can help immensely. If you have to use a less powerful iron, the safest technique is to cut the capacitor on top so each lead can be removed individually.

 

[DietDrThunder]

I'm still running my Epox 8K7A (Rev 1.0) MB. There is a bios flash out there for the 8KHA as well which will allow you to run at a minimum a AMD XP2400 processor (what is in my machine), and 2GB of PC3200 Ram. I run Windows XP Pro SP3 and it is stable as a rock. A bit slow with Adobe Photoshop 7.0, but not too bad.

 

[Jeff7]

To fully melt solder on a multilayer board requires almost 50W, and adding 60/40 tin/lead solder can help immensely. If you have to use a less powerful iron, the safest technique is to cut the capacitor on top so each lead can be removed individually.

Heh...yeah.
That was likely a generic 15W iron, maybe 30.