Suggestions on upgrade to A7N8X

[svrz]

Hi

I have an ASUS A7M266 and currently thinking about upgrading to A7N8X. It
seems that this board is very much liked based on a brief review of posts
on Usenet. The question is which version of A7N8X? Is the deluxe version
worth the higher price? Also, would it be advisable to get an Athlon
Barton along with this board and overclock it? For those who have done
this, how is the stability of your system?

Any further hints or suggestions is greatly appreciated.

Regards

 

[JBM]

Hi

I have an ASUS A7M266 and currently thinking about upgrading to A7N8X. It
seems that this board is very much liked based on a brief review of posts
on Usenet. The question is which version of A7N8X? Is the deluxe version
worth the higher price? Also, would it be advisable to get an Athlon
Barton along with this board and overclock it? For those who have done
this, how is the stability of your system?

Any further hints or suggestions is greatly appreciated.

Regards

I had an A7N8X deluxe with a 2500+ the highes I could
set the fsb to was 190mhz. The MB died so I bought
a A7N8X-E-Deluxe and am able to set the FSB to 200
with the same CPU and memory. Its very stable. Alot of
the time its left on over night recording movies.
But you probably wouldn't see much difference between
190 and 200 mhz fsb. But I feel the E version is more
stable than my old one.

Jim M

 

[Blaedmon]

As youve heard, the A7N8X-x is quit a liked board. With good reason. I have
3 and theyre all perfect motherboards. As usual everything is intergrated so
you're saving cash there, and on Ebay you can pick them up for ridiculously
cheap. Ive got the mobile 2500+ and oc'd to 3400+ and its very stable - all
using a mere stick of pc2100. I'll get some pc3200 soonish and oc further. I
think the only thing you'll have to give attention to is adequate cooling.
Just remember if youre thinking of oc'ing, then buy a mobile chip. Not a
standard xp. Thats where the instability comes from that people talk of.
Theyre using the wrong chips.
I'd recommened the board readily.

 

[Ben Pope]

Hi

I have an ASUS A7M266 and currently thinking about upgrading to A7N8X. It
seems that this board is very much liked based on a brief review of posts
on Usenet. The question is which version of A7N8X? Is the deluxe version
worth the higher price? Also, would it be advisable to get an Athlon
Barton along with this board and overclock it? For those who have done
this, how is the stability of your system?

If you're gonna get a new motherboard and processor, consider an Athlon64
and motherboard, not that much more, but gives you upgrade options.

The problem might be RAM... Ideally you'd want PC3200 or better.

The A7N8X is an excellent board, I have the deluxe and think it is worth the
extra, but not if you won't use any of the components, having said that the
price difference isn't that great.

As to whether to get a Barton 2500+ or not... that depends what you have
now, you're money might be better spent on RAM, and overclocking your CPU.

Ben

 

[Ben Pope]

Just remember if youre thinking of
oc'ing, then buy a mobile chip. Not a standard xp. Thats where the
instability comes from that people talk of. Theyre using the wrong chips.
I'd recommened the board readily.

Instability is a result of using non-mobile Bartons? What are you talking
about?

Ben

 

[Ed]

Hi

I have an ASUS A7M266 and currently thinking about upgrading to A7N8X. It
seems that this board is very much liked based on a brief review of posts
on Usenet. The question is which version of A7N8X? Is the deluxe version
worth the higher price? Also, would it be advisable to get an Athlon
Barton along with this board and overclock it? For those who have done
this, how is the stability of your system?

Any further hints or suggestions is greatly appreciated.

Regards

I've had the non-dlx "A7N8X" ver.2.00 for almost a year now and it's
been 110% rock solid for me. 2378MHz is about the max for my combo.

Good luck,
Ed
--
Built May 14th, 2003
Antec SX-1040BII (Full Tower/SmartPower 400W)
Asus A7N8X v2.0 (BIOS 1004) / 210MHz FSB
AMD Barton 2800+ / AQUCA 0307 @ 210x11 / 1.725V
Vantec Aeroflow VA4-C7040 / Artic Silver Cermaqe(?)
3 x 256MB Corsair XMS 3200LLPT 2-2-2-6 / 2.6V
WD 120GB 8MB PATA100 7200RPM
Seagate 160GB 8MB PATA100 7200RPM
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
Creative Labs Audigy 2
RICHO 5125A DVD+RW/CDRW 2.4x/12x/32x
AOPEN CDRW 48x12x50x
Alps 3.5" Floppy
etc,etc,etc.....

 

[Wildbill]

I would highly recommend the A7N8X-E Deluxe Revision 2.xx. This is my
first ASUS board, and by far the best in 18 years of computing. The
onboard sound is awsome when coupled with an external amp and decent
speakers. I have an all-round decent multimedia computer, and the only
feature that I have not used is the Firewire
I would definately give it high marks!

Wildbill

Hi

I have an ASUS A7M266 and currently thinking about upgrading to A7N8X. It
seems that this board is very much liked based on a brief review of posts
on Usenet. The question is which version of A7N8X? Is the deluxe version
worth the higher price? Also, would it be advisable to get an Athlon
Barton along with this board and overclock it? For those who have done
this, how is the stability of your system?

Any further hints or suggestions is greatly appreciated.

Regards

A7N8X-E Deluxe Revision 2.xx BIOS 1008
AMD Athalon XP 2800+ Barton Core
2 X- Xerox (512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
Geforce FX 5200 128MB
Windows XP Home SP1
3Dvision TV/FM/Video Capture
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8 40GB Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar WD1600BB 160GB Hard Drive
........and the list goes on.........

 

[Alan Wright]

Here is a place where you can get a pretested A7N8X-X with processor
and good heatsink already mounted. Around $200 with a year warranty.
They also have some good choices of memory to go with it. I've
bought three of these, and they all have been fine.

Alan

http://www.accessmicro.com/estore/config/index.cfm?config_id=273&OptionSet=1

 

[Blaedmon]

They are. If you're oc'ing merely a few steps, then of course its going to
be stable - but anything higher to, say, 34-3600+ then you are going to see
instability in a non-barton even with adequate cooling and quality ram. The
clincher in a barton is its default low vcore. We know this.

 

[Andrew J]

They are. If you're oc'ing merely a few steps, then of course its going to
be stable - but anything higher to, say, 34-3600+ then you are going to see
instability in a non-barton even with adequate cooling and quality ram. The
clincher in a barton is its default low vcore. We know this.

I'm running 5 desktop Barton's 2500+ @ 3200+. They run 24/7 at 100%
CPU load. So what you're getting at I don't know.

 

[Blaedmon]

guys, read what I'm saying. 34-3600+... try it. Of course youre getting
3200+.. who couldnt? Experience shows us whats possible without liquid
cooling and whats not.

 

[Ed]

I'm running 5 desktop Barton's 2500+ @ 3200+. They run 24/7 at 100%
CPU load. So what you're getting at I don't know.

I think he's saying, if you want to get 3400+ or faster speeds you
aren't going to do it with the desktop Barton, you want the XP-M.

and ya, thats easy to say now! ;P

Ed

 

[Andrew J]

I think he's saying, if you want to get 3400+ or faster speeds you
aren't going to do it with the desktop Barton, you want the XP-M.

and ya, thats easy to say now! ;P

Ohh... I see , a 2500+ out of the box at 3200+ isn't good enough. LOL,
some people will complain about anything.

 

[Blaedmon]

hehe and some people appear to be quite stupid. If youre talking on the
subject of overclocking and then limit yourself to a certain speed... I dont
understand... you're quite an idiot. Sorry. ;D

 

[Ben Pope]

They are. If you're oc'ing merely a few steps, then of course its going to
be stable - but anything higher to, say, 34-3600+ then you are going to
see instability in a non-barton even with adequate cooling and quality
ram. The clincher in a barton is its default low vcore. We know this.

Barton or mobile Barton?

You don't seem to be making what you are saying any clearer.

Bem