Asus A7N8X Deluxe or Abit NF7-S Which? Choosing a MB.

[jim evans]

I'm trying to decide between these two motherboards:

Asus A7N8X Deluxe
http://www.asus.com/products/mb/socketa/a7n8x-d/overview.htm

or

Abit NF7-S
http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/techspec.php?categories=1&model=6

Any experience/opinions on these?

Is there another MP in this price range that's better?

jim

 

[James Paraskeva]

What separates the 2 for me is:
Abit has the active northbridge cooling fan and the P4 power plug.
Asus has the second LAN... I probably would have preferred the Abit but
I've used Asus in the past and they havent steered me wrong + I needed
the 2nd lan

 

[Andy]

I'm trying to decide between these two motherboards:

Asus A7N8X Deluxe
http://www.asus.com/products/mb/socketa/a7n8x-d/overview.htm

or

Abit NF7-S
http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/techspec.php?categories=1&model=6

Any experience/opinions on these?

Is there another MP in this price range that's better?

jim

I have not tried the Abit but do have on of the A7N8X Deluxes on a
workstation. It has been running 24/7 for about 3 months now without a
glitch.

Hope this helps

Andy

 

[Wes Newell]

I'm trying to decide between these two motherboards:

Asus A7N8X Deluxe
http://www.asus.com/products/mb/socketa/a7n8x-d/overview.htm

or

Abit NF7-S
http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/techspec.php?categories=1&model=6

Any experience/opinions on these?

Is there another MP in this price range that's better?

**** the Asus boards, they're shit. Get Gigabyte.

 

[Tomeks]

I'm trying to decide between these two motherboards:
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
http://www.asus.com/products/mb/socketa/a7n8x-d/overview.htm
or
Abit NF7-S
http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/techspec.php?categories=1&model=6

I had A7N8x Deluxe mobo, but beside of stability problems it died during
saving bios ( no flashing, just saving ).
That was my second asus mobo with serious problems ( previous was an a7n333
model with broken memory slot), so i'm trying to keep out from asus mobos.
Now i'm working on NF7-S with no problem at all, it's fast and stable as
rock. I havn't seen even one BSOD since the begining. Abit has also
PATA->SATA converter, so you can attach additional pata harddrive.

But the best mobo for me is Gigabyte 7n400 Pro ( not pro2), unfortunetelly
it's notavailable anymore in my country.
I had one, by my local store fry it during stability testing, so i got Asus
a7n8x deluxe insted and then finally abit

 

[dgk]

I'm trying to decide between these two motherboards:

Asus A7N8X Deluxe
http://www.asus.com/products/mb/socketa/a7n8x-d/overview.htm

or

Abit NF7-S
http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/techspec.php?categories=1&model=6

Any experience/opinions on these?

Is there another MP in this price range that's better?

jim

They're both fine boards. As with any board some folks have problems
but most think they're excellent. Having just gone through the same
choice (I got the Asus), there are a few differences. NF7 has more
options for overclocking but is being replaced and maybe discontinued?
It also includes a connector for using IDE drives on the serial
connector. That's useful and I wish I had it. Of course, you can buy
one if you really need it. It doesn't add performance but gets one
drive off the IDE if that's important. Or, buy SATA drives. That's
half the point of getting these boards.

A hacked bios for the Asus adds some of those options and I don't
think I'm going to OC to the edge anyway.

Asus has the dual lan connectors if you need that. I didn't. I wanted
a Zalman 7000AlCu HSF which would not fit the Abit (that's a very
quiet but efficient HSF). Abit can handle 5 bits of the multiplier
whereas the Asus can only handle 4. In practical terms that means that
the Asus can set the CPU multiplier from 12.5 and down while the Abit
can do that as well as go up from 13. But since the whole point of
overclocking is to raise the FSB and lower the multiplier if
necessary, there is little point to raising the multiplier over 12.5.
And, since Bartons are now multiplier locked and no one has figured
out how to get around it, that may mean nothing at all.

I finally got the Asus because, at the local PC Fair, 10 vendors were
selling the A7N8X Deluxe and only one was sellling the Abit. So I got
the more popular one. There are other differences but I can't recall
them right now. You can't lose either way.

 

[jim evans]

A couple of people have mentioned GigaByte. Is there any kind of
agreement that the GA-7N400 Pro is probably better than the Asus and
Abit boards I listed?

I realize opinions vary widely on products and I'm not trying to start
a flame war, but I would like to see if there's agreement on which is
the better board as long as I'm building a new system and there's
probably not $30 difference in price between all three.

jim

 

[Ric]

I'm trying to decide between these two motherboards:

Asus A7N8X Deluxe
http://www.asus.com/products/mb/socketa/a7n8x-d/overview.htm

or

Abit NF7-S
http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/techspec.php?categories=1&model=6

Any experience/opinions on these?

Is there another MP in this price range that's better?

jim

well, i like the asus. there's nothing i've used that's better for
overclocking: barton core 2500 at 200FSB and 3200+ performance with just a
tweak in bios...

 

[Bas Ruiter]

I have bought both the Asus and Abit motherboards. The first I bought in
December last year for a PC I put together for my parents, and the
latter I bought three months ago for my own new PC.

Last year the nForce2 motherboards were just available here, and I
didn't have much choice. My own preference at the time was for Abit or
EPoX, but only the Asus non-Deluxe was available.

Not that the Asus is a bad choice - it got first place in a comparison
of nForce2 motherboards on Anandtech at the time. (actually, it was the
Deluxe version they tested).

The Asus has worked flawlessly so far, and I can't fault it at all.


When it was time for me to build a new PC, I *was* able to get the Abit
I wanted. I chose the Abit because it's supposed to be more over-clock
friendly - you get more options in BIOS, and you can raise CPU and
memory Voltages higher in case it's needed than on any other
motherboard. On top of that the Abit *did* have SoundStorm, as compared
to the Asus non-Deluxe. It had the SATA->PATA converter. And it's
cheaper $60 cheaper than the Asus Deluxe (over here anyway).

One thing I have noticed, is that in the last few weeks the fan on the
chipset has begun to make a noise when the PC starts up. It only lasts
10-20sec, but it's sure to get worse from now on. That said, I purposely
wanted a motherboard with active cooling on the chipset.

 

[dgk]

I have bought both the Asus and Abit motherboards. The first I bought in
December last year for a PC I put together for my parents, and the
latter I bought three months ago for my own new PC.

Last year the nForce2 motherboards were just available here, and I
didn't have much choice. My own preference at the time was for Abit or
EPoX, but only the Asus non-Deluxe was available.

Not that the Asus is a bad choice - it got first place in a comparison
of nForce2 motherboards on Anandtech at the time. (actually, it was the
Deluxe version they tested).

The Asus has worked flawlessly so far, and I can't fault it at all.


When it was time for me to build a new PC, I *was* able to get the Abit
I wanted. I chose the Abit because it's supposed to be more over-clock
friendly - you get more options in BIOS, and you can raise CPU and
memory Voltages higher in case it's needed than on any other
motherboard. On top of that the Abit *did* have SoundStorm, as compared
to the Asus non-Deluxe. It had the SATA->PATA converter. And it's
cheaper $60 cheaper than the Asus Deluxe (over here anyway).

One thing I have noticed, is that in the last few weeks the fan on the
chipset has begun to make a noise when the PC starts up. It only lasts
10-20sec, but it's sure to get worse from now on. That said, I purposely
wanted a motherboard with active cooling on the chipset.

I checked around about the Northbridge cooling. Many replies were that
it is a cheap fan and will cause problems and that you really don't
need active cooling on the Northbridge unless you really turn up the
voltage. It does appear to be a cheap fan.

That said, I've also read that it's easy to just put some plastic
anchors (you know, the things you stick into the wall and then screw
into that) into the passive Northbridge heatsink on the Asus and throw
a 40mm fan onto it.

I have the Zalman 7000 HSF which overhangs the northbridge on the
A7N8X and there's also a case fan in the side that blows right onto
it. The thing doesn't get hot at all but I haven't pushed it too much
yet.

 

[Bas Ruiter]

I checked around about the Northbridge cooling. Many replies were that
it is a cheap fan and will cause problems and that you really don't
need active cooling on the Northbridge unless you really turn up the
voltage. It does appear to be a cheap fan.

I haven't upped the voltages *at all* but I am running at 190 FSB
instead of 133. I do intend to up the voltages at a later date, in case
it's needed, when I'm going to try to overclock it just a little further
- at the moment I'm running a 1700+ at 2350+ speeds. I want to get near
2700+ performance at 200FSB.

I've already looked at alternate (passive) heatsinks for the chipset:

http://www.zalman.co.kr/product/zmnb32j.htm

 

[AJ]

well, i like the asus. there's nothing i've used that's better for
overclocking: barton core 2500 at 200FSB and 3200+ performance with just a
tweak in bios...

Same. I'm running 2500+ @ 3200+ on two A7N8X DLX. The second one was
rebuilt and I got it for $59 at newegg. Just changed FSB to 200. All
stock voltages so I don't understand all this talk about other boards
having more options. Both run 24/7 at 100% CPU usage.

 

[jim evans]

Many thanks to everyone. You've helped a lot. At this point I'm
going with the Asus.

jim

 

[Wayne Youngman]

Many thanks to everyone. You've helped a lot. At this point I'm
going with the Asus.

Hi,

I missed most of this thread. But the NF7-S is the better board! This has
been discussed plenty here in this N/G. From what I hear ASUS make a better
INTEL mobo, but ABIT rule the roost over ASUS when it comes to AthlonXP
chips. . . . .
--
Wayne ][

Barton (AQXEA) XP2500+ @ 2.2GHz (10x220) - 1.775vCore
CoolerMaster Aero 7 Lite - 3,200rpm
ABIT NF7-S (v2.0 - BIOS#14)
512MB Dual TwiSTER PC3500 @ DDR440 1:1 (9,3,3,2.0 - 2.7v)
Sapphire Atlantis 9800 - 3.3ns Samsung
240GB (2x120GB) WD-SE SATA RAID-0 (16k Stripe)
Antec SX630II Mini-Tower Case Inc 300w PSU
WinXP-PRO-SP1
Cat 3.7 - DX9.0b

 

[dgk]

ABIT NF7-S (v2.0 - BIOS#14)
512MB Dual TwiSTER PC3500 @ DDR440 1:1 (9,3,3,2.0 - 2.7v)
Sapphire Atlantis 9800 - 3.3ns Samsung
240GB (2x120GB) WD-SE SATA RAID-0 (16k Stripe)

How do you like the Sata drives? Right now I'm just running on a
single PATA deathstar but I'm going to Raid-0. I was thinking of the
Raptors but I hear the 36g ones have an annoying noise. Plus they're
really expensive. But maybe worth it with a 5 year warranty. Raid-0
you don't want either drive dying!

 

[scott c.]

Hi,

I missed most of this thread. But the NF7-S is the better board! This has
been discussed plenty here in this N/G. From what I hear ASUS make a better
INTEL mobo, but ABIT rule the roost over ASUS when it comes to AthlonXP
chips. . . . .

Agreed. I've built 6 systems using 3 A7N8X-Deluxes and 3 NF7-S's. I prefer
the NF7-S, considering:
3 stage vreg, CPU fed by 12v rail, uses additional 12v aux connector
adjustable vdd
vdimm up to 2.9v (overvolts ~ .1v)
higher vcore options
active Northbridge cooling
more multiplier options
stock out of the box with no vdd mod, the NF7-S easily hit 227 FSB, dual
channel, cpu/memory sync'd.

the only feature the A7N8X-D has over the NF7-S is an extra LAN port, which
I don't use. The A7N8X-D has a cold boot problem with high CPU overclocks
that require more vcore at boot-time than what is supplied with the default
CPU voltage setting (EPoX 8RDAs had similar problem that was addressed with
a BIOS update). One can work around this problem on the ASUS with a simple
vcore mod or modding the CPU to increase its default voltage.

 

[Wayne Youngman]

How do you like the Sata drives? Right now I'm just running on a
single PATA deathstar but I'm going to Raid-0. I was thinking of the
Raptors but I hear the 36g ones have an annoying noise. Plus they're
really expensive. But maybe worth it with a 5 year warranty. Raid-0
you don't want either drive dying!

Hi,
I am very pleased with the RAID-0 set-up on the NF7-S, and the WD-SE drives
are truely top notch. I haven't yet finished playing around with different
BIOS's and nVidia drivers to get the absolute max out of this set-up, but it
works flawlessly. The benchmark side of things wasn't quite what I was
expecting and I suspect that the nForce2's PCI add-on SATA implementation
isn't quite as fast as the INTEL ICH-5 *Native* SATA RAID-0, but I would
need to try a few different benchmarks to be sure. . . but 108.2mbps ain't
to shabby for a RAID-0 array

www.waynes.spamtrap.btinternet.co.uk/My_NF7S_RAID0_WDSE240GB.jpg

In actual use it's blazingly fast and will make you more *productive* if you
edit large .wav or .avi / .mpg files where you would normally have to wait
ages for them to save. . .also game installs and map loading are allot
faster hehe ;P.

Back on topic I would have to say the NF7-S is easily the best mobo I have
ever owned, and ABIT do make a fine mobo. . .my ABIT BE6-II v1.1 is still
happily working away right now, 4 years old dude and munching stuff in WinXP
Pro!

However a friend of mine who was new to overclocking and was attempting to
build his new P.C on his own managed to kill the mobo in just 2 days!!. I
paid him a visit and tried to *resurrect* his rigg (same spec as mine) but
it just wouldn't boot. The board was RMA'd as defective and the new one
worked fine, could be he fluffed some BIOS settings or as he said it just
*died*, could be a duff?

Peace all,
--
Wayne ][

Barton (AQXEA) XP2500+ @ 2.2GHz (10x220) - 1.775vCore
CoolerMaster Aero 7 Lite - 3,200rpm
ABIT NF7-S (v2.0 - BIOS#14)
512MB Dual TwiSTER PC3500 @ DDR440 1:1 (9,3,3,2.0 - 2.7v)
Sapphire Atlantis 9800 - 3.3ns Samsung
240GB (2x120GB) WD-SE SATA RAID-0 (16k Stripe)
Antec SX630II Mini-Tower Case Inc 300w PSU
WinXP-PRO-SP1
Cat 3.7 - DX9.0b