ASUS M2N Series mobos. What's the diff?

[Al Dykes]

I'm looking to put together an AM2-based system and I look to ASUS,
first. It's been about 3 years since I last built a system from
scratch.

I see that ASUS has several boards in the M2N series. For these
two the difference seems to be the flavor if NVIDIA chips.

M2N4-SLI NVIDIA nForce 4

M2N-SLI Deluxe NVIDA nForce 570


What is the practical difference between these chipsets and boards?

What is a decent PCI Express video card for 2D apps?

Will Corsair CMX512-2700C2 memory chips work in DDR2 slots?
If yes, it will help the cash flow a little and it's easy
to upgrade to current memory later and when I get a good deal.

FWIW; I'm looking for a fast, cost-effective system, not something on
the bleading edge. I don't do games or other 3d in any heavy way. The
machine works hardest when I'm running Photoshop and I play with
VMWare on the side. I'll put a generous amount of memory and several
fast disks on this machine.


Thanks.

 

[Wes Newell]

I'm looking to put together an AM2-based system and I look to ASUS,
first. It's been about 3 years since I last built a system from
scratch.

I see that ASUS has several boards in the M2N series. For these
two the difference seems to be the flavor if NVIDIA chips.

M2N4-SLI NVIDIA nForce 4

M2N-SLI Deluxe NVIDA nForce 570


What is the practical difference between these chipsets and boards?

What is a decent PCI Express video card for 2D apps?

Why are you even looking at SLI MB's if you aren't a gamer? The 570 is
the latest chipset. Differences can be found on the nvidia.com website.

 

[John]

Why are you even looking at SLI MB's if you aren't a gamer? The 570 is
the latest chipset. Differences can be found on the nvidia.com website.

Probably for the same reason I just built a new pc round the SLI delux
... because it had the features I wanted at a price I thought was
reasonable

 

[Wes Newell]

Probably for the same reason I just built a new pc round the SLI delux
.. because it had the features I wanted at a price I thought was
reasonable

Well, he already stated he wasn't looking for super graphics, and that's
the only reason to spend extra money and lose other options on the
board for SLI. So for him, it's a waste of space, features, and money.

 

[Al Dykes]

Why are you even looking at SLI MB's if you aren't a gamer? The 570 is
the latest chipset. Differences can be found on the nvidia.com website.

OK. I went back and looked at all the ASUS AM2 mobos and see a
micro-ATX board that has onboard video. For me, that's a plus. I
guess the SLI series is for gamers that buy the latest video card. I
don't need that. I tend to believe that mini/micro-ATX boards are for
cheap desktops but it looks like that's changed.

I'm looking at the ASUS M2NPV-VM board ($85) It's got GeForce 6150
video and the reviews seem to be fine for a 2D system.

I'm looking at the following processors. They will be used with
DDR2(800) memory. IMO, a 5% difference in clock speed is
imperceptable on a desktop. What's the diff on these chips and why
isn't the cheapest, with the 1MB cache the obvious choice?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Windsor 2.2GHz 2 x 512KB L2
ADA4200CUBOX $182.00

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+(65W) Windsor 2.2GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache
ADO4200CUBOX $179.99

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Windsor 2.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache
ADA4000IAA6CS $177.99

From reading, it seems that the chip that says 65Watts in an older,
hotter model. and to be avoided, right?

 

[Wes Newell]

I'm looking at the ASUS M2NPV-VM board ($85) It's got GeForce 6150
video and the reviews seem to be fine for a 2D system.

An excellent choice if you don't need more PCI slots.

I'm looking at the following processors. They will be used with
DDR2(800) memory. IMO, a 5% difference in clock speed is
imperceptable on a desktop. What's the diff on these chips and why
isn't the cheapest, with the 1MB cache the obvious choice?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Windsor 2.2GHz 2 x 512KB L2
ADA4200CUBOX $182.00

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+(65W) Windsor 2.2GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache
ADO4200CUBOX $179.99

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Windsor 2.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache
ADA4000IAA6CS $177.99

From reading, it seems that the chip that says 65Watts in an older,
hotter model. and to be avoided, right?

You can see all the differences in the cpu's here.

http://www.amdcompare.com/us-en/desktop/