Opinions on the A7N8X

S

SPRITE1001

Hey all, got a buddy who's looking to ditch his MSI KT2 Combo and upgrade. He's
looking to get the A7N8X, at least one of the varients. So far from just
looking at the specs on Asus's website there appears to be squat difference
untill you hit the deluxe version, am I not reading something correctly? The
hardware being trasnfered over in the upgrade is listed below. So any advice,
opinions?

Thanks all

AMD 2400+
512meg RAM PC2100
ATI 9800Pro 128MB
IBM Deskstar 80gig
Soundblaster 5.1 Gamer
3Com 10/100
Creative CD-RW RW1210E
Random Brand-X 50x CD-Rom
 
B

Ben Pope

SPRITE1001 said:
Hey all, got a buddy who's looking to ditch his MSI KT2 Combo and
upgrade. He's looking to get the A7N8X, at least one of the varients. So
far from just looking at the specs on Asus's website there appears to be
squat difference untill you hit the deluxe version, am I not reading
something correctly? The hardware being trasnfered over in the upgrade is
listed below. So any advice, opinions?
Click to expand...

It's an excellent board.

The Deluxe is what I have.

The -X is single channel only and a different BIOS (not award/phoenix)
The -E Deluxe is a new variant with a couple of modifications.
The -VM has onboard video.
AMD 2400+
512meg RAM PC2100
ATI 9800Pro 128MB
IBM Deskstar 80gig
Soundblaster 5.1 Gamer
3Com 10/100
Creative CD-RW RW1210E
Random Brand-X 50x CD-Rom
Click to expand...

I'd recommend grabbing the Deluxe and losing your Sound Card and Ethernet.
In my experience the onboard kit is excellent. If you have a Dolby Decoder
(built into your amp), you can encode everything that comes out of your PC
and whack it straight into your decoder. If not, you can do the same as
with your current sound card. The output side of the SoundStorm is probably
better than the Live!, analogue inputs are probably a little noisier (don't
ya' just hate analogue :)

Ben
 
E

Ed

Hey all, got a buddy who's looking to ditch his MSI KT2 Combo and upgrade. He's
looking to get the A7N8X, at least one of the varients. So far from just
looking at the specs on Asus's website there appears to be squat difference
untill you hit the deluxe version, am I not reading something correctly? The
hardware being trasnfered over in the upgrade is listed below. So any advice,
opinions?

Thanks all

AMD 2400+
512meg RAM PC2100
ATI 9800Pro 128MB
IBM Deskstar 80gig
Soundblaster 5.1 Gamer
3Com 10/100
Creative CD-RW RW1210E
Random Brand-X 50x CD-Rom
Click to expand...

I've been running one for almost 9 months and it never crashes or locks
up, one of the best PCs I've ever built for myself!
A7N8X v2.00 (non-dlx) w/Barton CPU.
3x256 corsair pc3200
ATI 9800Pro 128MB
2-WD HDD, DVD-RW, CDRW
Audigy 2 (SB PCI-512 was ok too)
Win XP Pro

As long as the mobo and ram get along I don't think you'd have any
problems.

Ed
 
D

Doug Ramage

Ben Pope said:
It's an excellent board.

The Deluxe is what I have.

The -X is single channel only and a different BIOS (not award/phoenix)
The -E Deluxe is a new variant with a couple of modifications.
The -VM has onboard video.


I'd recommend grabbing the Deluxe and losing your Sound Card and Ethernet.
In my experience the onboard kit is excellent. If you have a Dolby Decoder
(built into your amp), you can encode everything that comes out of your PC
and whack it straight into your decoder. If not, you can do the same as
with your current sound card. The output side of the SoundStorm is probably
better than the Live!, analogue inputs are probably a little noisier (don't
ya' just hate analogue :)

Ben
Click to expand...

I agree - I think the de luxe is worth it for Soundstorm alone. I have had
this mobo for about a year and it has been very good. Mine is a rev. 1.04
which does not do 200FSB, but the current rev. 2 should. It's also a bit
picky about RAM. For the extra £5, I would go for the Barton 2500.

I have just ordered a Barton 2500 and DFI LanParty mobo.
 
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