[Arch-Zealot]

Once I gather the money, I plan on building a computer. I plan on using an AMD Athlon processor, ATI Radeon 9600XT, Kingston HyperX 512MB RAM, and Sound Audigy 2 sound card. I was planning on getting the ASUS Nforce 2 A7N8X-E Deluxe Motherboard, but I'm already getting a better sound card and a video card. Is there a cheaper motherboard that has almost the same features, but just no integrated sound or video or something? Thanks

 

[crjdriver]

Most boards come with onboard sound today. Asus is a fine mgf of mb; as is Epox, Abit, and Soltek. Any of those will work well. The asus a7n8x series is very popular.

Is there a cheaper motherboard that has almost the same features, but just no integrated sound or video or something?

The mb is not where you want to save money. A good percentage of problems you see on this forum come from using poor quality parts. Quality hardware and properly installed software do not crash, freeze, lockup or give problems [well at least almost never]

 

[Triple6]

I would almost say all boards now come with onboard sound. The A7N8X-E does not have onboard video. Most also now come with a built-in ethernet controller, the motherboard you mention has two.

The ASUS A7N8X is cheaper then the -E Deluxe model and only lacks the Wi-Fi slot, second gigabyte ethernet connector, and SATA drive connectors. Same chipset, quality, and performance.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-455&depa=0

 

[Arch-Zealot]

Thanks for the quick responses.

3 questions:

What would I need a 2nd gigabyte ethernet connector for?

What is a Wi-Fi slot?

What's the differences between a EIDE hard drive and SATA?

and I thought I knew some stuff about computers heh.

 

[zeddy]

EIDE uses the usual HD controller cables, SATA uses one more akin to the USB connectors.

 

[Triple6]

Second ethernet card is for sharing an internet connection or connecting to another computer. Its really not that useful since ideally you would want to use a Router to share an internet connection, but its handy for a simple network.

Wi-Fi is Wireless networking. You would have to buy a special wireless card from ASUS to be able to use and the other PC would also need a compatible wireless card for it to work. Again, not rally an important feature.

SATA is the newest hard drive standard using serial transmission, point-to-point cabling, faster drive to host speeds, RAID, command queuing, etc. Its aimed as a replacement not only to IDE but to high performance SCSI. It's faster now and while IDE has hit the max at 133MB/s, SATA starts at 150MB/s, although most drives are still below both these for transfer speeds.

http://www.serialata.org/about/index.shtml

 

[Butterpants]

Epox 8RDA3+ under 80 bucks at newegg.

SATA, RAID, USB2.0/Firewire, 2x onboard LAN, Nforce 3 chipset.

 

[crjdriver]

Originally posted by Butterpants:
Epox 8RDA3+ under 80 bucks at newegg.

SATA, RAID, USB2.0/Firewire, 2x onboard LAN, Nforce 3 chipset.

The 8rda3+ uses the nforce2 ultra chipset. Nforce3 chipset is for the amd64 series of processors.

 

[Arch-Zealot]

Ok its between the...

ABIT NF7-S - $99

Epox EP-8RDA3+ - $88

ASUS A7N8X-X - $74


I'm leaning a little toward the ASUS because its cheaper and seems to have good quality too. Any suggestions?

 

[n2gun]

My son has that asus board and it works great. When I build my next computer (soon) I am leaning toward that one myself.

 

[Triple6]

Well I do like ASUS but the ASUS board in question does not have Dual-Channel RAM support, nor does it have SATA drive connectors. The other two boards do. I'd probably choose the ABIT board myself out of those three selections.

 

[Butterpants]

Originally posted by crjdriver:
The 8rda3+ uses the nforce2 ultra chipset. Nforce3 chipset is for the amd64 series of processors.

U R Correct !

Great board for overclocking too..FYI

 

[Arch-Zealot]

Now they have the new ASUS A7N8X which supports AMD Barton 400MHz and it also seems to have Dual Channel too except now its $90 compared to the $74 of the older ASUS A7N8X-X. Do you guys think that stuff is worth it or should I just get one of the other boards?

 

[Triple6]

I have the ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe and it is great board with loads of features. It's rock solid at normal specs and just as good for overclocking. To take aadvantage of the the Dual-Channel you need to buy a twin set of PC3200 RAM designed for Dual-Channel. The 400Mhz is nice if you ever want to upgrade to the XP3200+ or for overclocking. Its also got the SATA drive connectors that all the hard drive manufacturers have now adapted and it offers slightly better performance.

 

[StillLearnin']

ASUS.

From Newegg:

$61.00 A7V8X-X Retail, Great mobo; NO Dual Channel memory:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-451&depa=0&section=2

$74.00 A7N8X-X Retail, Great mobo; No Dual Channel memory:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-468&depa=0&section=2

$87.00 A7N8X Retail, Great mobo; DUAL CHANNEL memory:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-455&depa=0&section=2

Three choices, three winners. Throw on an AMD 2500+ Barton or a 2800+ Barton and FLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go to the DELUXE A7N8X-E Retail for the loaded mobo (was on sale for $113 today until 4 PM PST on newegg).

 

[StillLearnin']

zeddy: Can you help andyhop2003:

http://forums.techguy.org/showthread.php?s=&postid=1534472#post1534472

He's over across the pond with you. You need to create a sticky for your fellow shoppers listing the UK outlets!