Why did I buy the A7N8X-E Deluxe????

[Last Boy Scout]

I dont know where you live but there are plenty of Athlon XP Processors
for sale.

Some uptight people like only selling what is new because that makes
more money. Personally if I had the money for a motherboard I would
purchase a Athlon64 motherboard with a socket 939 or maybe a 754 socket
board.

I think you can still get an XP Processor for that motherboard. Just
look at www.newegg.com . . .

Updating the BIOS should be easy. Asus has a utility to update the
BIOS. You may have to load the Third part chipset drivers for the SATA
Drive. You will have to have a floppy drive for that.

 

[Ken Maltby]

Why anyone who claims that they have been doing this for 15 years
could not know that any and all CPUs, Chipsets, Memory, HDD, MBs,
OS, video bus, video cards, networking formats, ect...., are doomed to
be replaced by something new, beats me. Now if your one and only
experience were 15 years ago, it might make sense. If you had been
updating to keep up with current technology for 15 years, this could
hardly come as a surprise.

In the two years you mention there will be new capabilities that the
best current components (even the fastest 986 Athlon 64 FX sys.)
won't be able to touch. And there will still be people selling Socket
A CPUs & MBs, just at much lower prices, not that it will matter
because you will want the latest capabilities.

The point is that there is little if anything that a good A7N8X-E
based system can't do, that any of the others can. By the time the
A7N8X-E Socket A System becomes really limited, you will be
dealing with components that aren't on the market yet, much less
available at a reasonable price. So maybe it wasn't such a bad
buy after all.

Luck;
Ken

 

[Dave McCaleb]

Hi Roln,
What made you continue to use AMD CPUs and systems until now? I suspect it
is why you will remain with AMD in the future, and that is, better value,
and faster chips. Since about 2 years Intel has been releasing hot, less
powerfull CPUs, because in my opinion, they are trying to be everything to
everyone. Marketing strategy be what it may, Intel just isn't interested in
keeping up with AMD in one small relatively market segment in the big home
computer market, what with their success in flash memory, laptop CPUs, and
so on. They are a super large public company, and must build on their
success to maintain stock value. A lot of research fell victim to the bottom
line there, although they still have a fairly good new product development
strategy. PLUS; they dropped the ball on 64 bit architecture, until they
licensed the AMD 64 bit system. Even Microsoft decided that this is
evidently the best system for the PC future You say you've been using AMD
Computers or at least CPUS for the past few years. Sounds like you have been
building or buying computers long enough to know that in 2 years a Socket
A computer, if not obsolete, will be at least a standard or basic computer
at that time. AMD had a problem choosing the successor to the Socket A, but
in 2 years I guess everyone who uses AMD will be reachng for 939 Boards and
CPUS, as I predict you will too. If you have been using AMD products til
now, then I figure you're a bit like me, in that you root for the underdog,
as well as demanding value. Hertz's slogan, #2 tries harder, fits well in
the David and Goliath picture of AMD and Intel at present, where the small
company is beating the large company in certain segments because of its'
hungry approach. Is this sounding lie a commercial for AMD? It's not meant
to be, but, I am convinced, as this market indicates, that competition is
the basis for development of products like computers, cameras, stereos, and
basically ALL other products that one can name. We must only remember the
lesson of Nike, to watch out that we don't exploit the poorer nations in our
quest for the perfect electronic product, whatever it might be.

BTW, unsure that the BIOS on that board must be udpdated to be able to use
the sempron CPUs. Thats a simple chip, and I don't think that it needs
special BIOSsettings. (I could be wrong) Boy, did I go off topic there. HOPE
I didn't bore you and/or helped, cul8r, Dave

PS: The A7N8X - Deluxe is a wonderful board. This system has one.I'm sure
you'll have years
of carefree service.

 

[Paul Busby]

Thus spake Ken Maltby:

The point is that there is little if anything that a good A7N8X-E
based system can't do, that any of the others can. By the time the
A7N8X-E Socket A System becomes really limited, you will be
dealing with components that aren't on the market yet, much less
available at a reasonable price. So maybe it wasn't such a bad
buy after all.

4 months ago, I replaced my A7V266-E with an A7N8X-E due to an accident. I
was well aware that 32bit systems were becoming obsolete but for 66UKP, I
was able to rejuvenate my existing system when money was an issue & reuse
the rest of my h/w.

However, I concur with the replies that state the OP should have done more
research instead of whinging here about it for the level of experience
stated. It also goes without saying that I've made some very poor decisions
in my life well over & above a mere computer upgrade but I tend not to
broadcast them! My PC now has an XP-M2500+, its full potential will be
realised when I can afford some Ballistix PC3200 RAM fairly soon instead of
pushing my current PC2100 to 173Mhz @12.5x!

As for the difference made so far from replacing an XP1800+ - hardly
noticeable in most tasks. Replacing hard discs with faster ones makes for
far more performance gains IMO.

 

[Paul Busby]

Thus spake Dave McCaleb:

We must only remember
the lesson of Nike, to watch out that we don't exploit the poorer
nations in our quest for the perfect electronic product, whatever it
might be.

The west is strong economically *because* it does exploit the so-called 3rd
world. This is slowly changing with globalisation which has already effected
jobs in the west. Countries such as India will become vibrant IP
powerhouses. However, countries like the USA need to reduce their
non-renewable energy consumption very soon. At least Europe is slightly less
insular in this respect. The environmental impact of supplying raw materials
to feed the west's love of technology is unfortunately something that most
end-users would prefer to remain ignorant of. I'm not a doomsayer that
thinks the planet has had it but we do go in for brinkmanship - big-time!

PS: The A7N8X - Deluxe is a wonderful board. This system has one.I'm
sure you'll have years
of carefree service.

The A7N8X-E/X & the Abit NF7-S v2 are both very good choices. I dismissed
the Abit 'cos it had a NB fan & stuck with the devil I know.

 

[Ed]

Hi Ed,

I thot seriously of going the AMD 64 route and ended up staying with a
socket A.

I wish AMD would classify their chips with model numbers that represent the
true frequency.
ie: 3000= 3ghz, 3500= 3.5ghz, etc.

CPU MHz alone doesn't mean much, I look at overall performance.

When are you going to a 64 system??

I've been running a NF3-250 board and Athlon 64 3200+ for about 6 months
now.

Ed

 

[Roln]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for an excellent post with a lot of good information.
I like this ASUS board and will use it for several years by me
and other family members. I'm starting today, gathering knowledge
of an AMD64 system. In a short time, I've noticed a lot of
manufactures already making boards. A couple from ASUS and a
bunch from Gigabyte. (I have two other computers using Gigabyte socket A
boards)
Since I'm not into gaming, I believe I can use the lesser expensive 64 chip
and still have a nice system.
Thanks again for your reply.
Roln

 

[DaveL]

A dumbass like you really should go back to Intel.

DaveL

 

[Roln]

A dumbass like you really should go back to Intel.

DaveL

 

[DaveL]

You bought an old tech motherboard and so you blame AMD? If you knew
anything about this stuff you would have bought an Nforce3 or Nforce4 board
and got an Athlon64 cpu.

DaveL

 

[rstlne]

Hi Larry,

I am happy with this ASUS board and it serves my purpose fine. Like you
say, I should have done my research before ordering. This whole thing
started when my WD hard drive crapped out and a few friends talked me into
getting a SATA drive. I did order a SATA drive, but had to get a
motherboard to use it. Since I have always used AMD chips and a socket A
the past several years, I assumed (ass+u+me) I wouldn't have a problem
getting a faster chip. At the present time, I'm using a Sempron 2200+,
which shows a speed of 1.5ghz. Pretty slow compared to what I should be
using in this board.

I had no problem flashing the BIOS for the Sempron. I thot it was weird
the board didn't have the BIOS ready for Semprons.....

Do you plan on upgrading to a 64 system soon?

Buying a Sempron was another mistake.

 

[seadubya]

I read all the replies to this thread and have the following question
regarding updating the bios. I have ordered an ATN8X-VM/400 and am
going to use a sempron 2800. The asus compatibility chart says that
the board will not boot up without upgrading the bios. My question
is how do you flash the bios if you can't boot up at least to dos?
Anyone? Thanks

 

[***** charles]

I read all the replies to this thread and have the following question
regarding updating the bios. I have ordered an ATN8X-VM/400 and am
going to use a sempron 2800. The asus compatibility chart says that
the board will not boot up without upgrading the bios. My question
is how do you flash the bios if you can't boot up at least to dos?
Anyone? Thanks

put a supported cpu in it first.

 

[J. Oram]

Since fall of 2004 we have had good luck using AMD XP-Mobile in most
mobo - exception is older ones like Shuttle MN31N which we built to
fit a particular size requirement.

see
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=property&DEPA=1

JohnO