Which Mobo From these 2?

[Ruel Smith (Big Daddy)]

Which of the following boards would you prefer and why?

1st :

Soltek SL-75FRN2-L "Golden Flame" (Socket A) Motherboard (MB-004-ST)
The Soltek SL-75FRN2-L features a striking "Golden Flame" mainboard
making it ideal for use in windowed or acrylic cases.

- nVidia nForce2 chipset
- FSB 333/266 MHz
- Supports Dual Channel DDR SDRAM @ 400/333/266 MHz
- Supports AGP 8X/4X mode
- Supports 2 x Ultra ATA 133/100/66
- Supports ABSII
- BIOS Vcore, FSB, AGP, DIMM Voltage Setting
- Supports USB2.0/1.1
- RTL8139C LAN onboard
- 6-channel Audio

Reviews - ClubOverclocker, CDRLabs.


Full Specification

Price: £45.00 (£52.88 Including VAT at 17.5%)

OR


Asus A7N8X-X nForce2 (Socket A) Motherboard (MB-028-AS)
The ASUS A7N8X-X Series has come out with another winner to offer
incredible value. The A7N8X-X, using the nForce2 400 chipset, is ready
for the newest Athlon XP processor on 400Mhz FSB. Other
industry-leading features include AGP 8x graphics interface, DDR400
memory, onboard 6-channel audio and a whole lot more.

- 3 x 184pin DDR-SDRAM ports (Supporting up to PC3200)
- 5 x PCI slots
- 1 x AGP (4x/8x) slot
- DDR400 support
- 2 x UDMA133 (supports upto 4 device)
- 4 x USB 2.0 ports
- 10/100 LAN
- 6 Channel Audio
- Nivida Nforce 2 400 Chipset


Full Specification

Price: £42.95 (£50.47 Including VAT at 17.5%)


Your thoughts appriciated

Generally, if I'm considering an Asus vs. anything else, and the price is
about equal, I'm getting the Asus.

--
Big Daddy Ruel Smith

My SuSE Linux machine uptime:
5:04pm up 4 days 17:35, 2 users, load average: 0.36, 0.30, 0.23

My Windows XP machine uptime:
Something less...

 

[pwrberry]

Which of the following boards would you prefer and why?

1st :

Soltek SL-75FRN2-L "Golden Flame" (Socket A) Motherboard (MB-004-ST)
The Soltek SL-75FRN2-L features a striking "Golden Flame" mainboard
making it ideal for use in windowed or acrylic cases.

- nVidia nForce2 chipset
- FSB 333/266 MHz
- Supports Dual Channel DDR SDRAM @ 400/333/266 MHz
- Supports AGP 8X/4X mode
- Supports 2 x Ultra ATA 133/100/66
- Supports ABSII
- BIOS Vcore, FSB, AGP, DIMM Voltage Setting
- Supports USB2.0/1.1
- RTL8139C LAN onboard
- 6-channel Audio

Reviews - ClubOverclocker, CDRLabs.


Full Specification

Price: £45.00 (£52.88 Including VAT at 17.5%)

OR


Asus A7N8X-X nForce2 (Socket A) Motherboard (MB-028-AS)
The ASUS A7N8X-X Series has come out with another winner to offer
incredible value. The A7N8X-X, using the nForce2 400 chipset, is ready
for the newest Athlon XP processor on 400Mhz FSB. Other
industry-leading features include AGP 8x graphics interface, DDR400
memory, onboard 6-channel audio and a whole lot more.

- 3 x 184pin DDR-SDRAM ports (Supporting up to PC3200)
- 5 x PCI slots
- 1 x AGP (4x/8x) slot
- DDR400 support
- 2 x UDMA133 (supports upto 4 device)
- 4 x USB 2.0 ports
- 10/100 LAN
- 6 Channel Audio
- Nivida Nforce 2 400 Chipset


Full Specification

Price: £42.95 (£50.47 Including VAT at 17.5%)


Your thoughts appriciated

paul

 

[Alex]

Go for the Asus.

 

[pwrberry]

Will the asus give me any grief with my existing hardware :

athlon xp 2400+ ( soon to be a xp2800+ barton )
512Mb PC2100 ( soon to be 512mb pc2700 )
sb audigy 2 zs
radeon 9800 pro 128mb
usb2.0 pci card ( might not need, but will put it in anyway )
liteon ldw-811s 8x dvd writer
plexwriter permium 52x32x52 cdrw
maxtor 80gb hdd master
ibm 60gb hdd slave
20 gig external usb 2 hdd ( backup drive )
belkin usb smartmedia reader
jetway pci tv card

according to the asus mobo newsgroup lots of people are having probs
with lite on dvd drives. Also at present i have ntl broadband and the
cable modem is connected via a pci network card. Will i be able to use
the onboard network card insted or should i carry on using the pci
card?

thanks in advance

paul

 

[Ed_]

Will the asus give me any grief with my existing hardware :

athlon xp 2400+ ( soon to be a xp2800+ barton )
512Mb PC2100 ( soon to be 512mb pc2700 )
sb audigy 2 zs
radeon 9800 pro 128mb
usb2.0 pci card ( might not need, but will put it in anyway )
liteon ldw-811s 8x dvd writer
plexwriter permium 52x32x52 cdrw
maxtor 80gb hdd master
ibm 60gb hdd slave
20 gig external usb 2 hdd ( backup drive )
belkin usb smartmedia reader
jetway pci tv card

according to the asus mobo newsgroup lots of people are having probs
with lite on dvd drives. Also at present i have ntl broadband and the
cable modem is connected via a pci network card. Will i be able to use
the onboard network card insted or should i carry on using the pci
card?

thanks in advance

paul

I have 2 A7N8X-DX mobos (with 2500 Bartons), both using the Nvidia onboard LAN
to connect to router/cable modem. I disabled the onboard 3com LAN. You won't
need the pci card.

Also using the M-audio Revolution sound card in both boards. Just make sure
that if you use the Audigy2 that you disable the onboard sound in the bios and
don't load the Nvidia sound software at installation.

If I were to buy a DVDRW today it would be the Plextor 7080A. I hear the same
bad news about the Lite-on but I have all Lite-on CDRW drives and they are
great. I think I will wait a little longer on the DVDRW.

I will be ordering another A7N8X-DX and another 2500 Barton next week. This is
a great motherboard.

Just my opinion and I hope this helps.

Ed

 

[BUFF]

Personally I would go for the Soltek as it has dual channel support which
the A7N8X-X doesn't (only worth a couple % but it is effectively free) & the
FRN2 supports 400fsb cpu's as well as the ASUS.
Actually I have just built 1 for a friend & it seems like a decent enough
mobo.

With either I would advise not to use the nVidia SW IDE driver but just to
use the MS IDE drivers.