Gigabyte GA-7VAXP, 1x512mbpc3200 Corsairxms platinum, and a amdxp2500+

[slickshoes]

well i was planning on buying a sound blaster audigy 2 zs, even sound storm is better then this sound card?

[Avid6eek]

Their Athlon 64 board does look really nice, but I would need more than 1 IDE channel as well. I guess I could hook my HD's up to a PCI card, but I would definetly perfer them to connect to the motherboard.

[Tetrad]

Well, there is no way I'm going to go out and spend 30-40 dollars on a pci card. And while I wouldn't necessarily need the second ide channel I just feel any board I'm gonna spend my money on should have it.

[Ginsu543]

I'm sure they're figuring that giving you all those SATA connectors makes up for the missing IDE channel. But don't they understand that the whole advantage of having SATA connectors is that you can have the hdd apart from the other IDE devices? With two IDE channels, that means you can have upto four devices (like DVD-RW, CD-RW, Zip drives, etc.) besides the hdds! That would give users so many options. I think having two SATA connectors and two IDE connectors would be better than the setup Leadtek decided on.

[slickshoes]

was wondering if anyone who also owns a rev 1.1 of this board, were u able to get the 400mhz for the ram speed working? i wasnt not able to. any help on what i need to do would be appreciated. <BR>tia

[Avid6eek]

What chipset does the board use? If it isn't a chipset that officially supports the 400FSB then I'm not surprised. Gigabyte boards usually don't overclock well.

[slickshoes]

its the kt400 one; my motherboard is rev 1.1, its suppose to be able to support ddr400 but the dip switch settings dont have the combo written down for that, but i saw somewhere on a site what combo it is to enable the ram to run at 400.

[danny16866]

see if you can set it in the bios <BR><BR>plus when it come to athlons its always a good idea to run the ram and fsb at the same speeds....if you dont it actually hurts performance

[Ghost]

<br><br><< <i>was wondering if anyone who also owns a rev 1.1 of this board, were u able to get the 400mhz for the ram speed working? i wasnt not able to. any help on what i need to do would be appreciated. </i> >><br><br>if i remember right that mother board support 333fsb <BR><BR>if you want 400 fsb you needed the kt600

[slickshoes]

fuxor. hmmz i may just get an epox kt600 or something, since i read on tomhardware that a nforce2 board is not really that much if an improvement. sigh, but id like to say gigabyte gave me the shaft big time, thats 2 times ive been given the shaft. one with a crappy mobo bundle, then i fixed that, by getting a new mobo, then it was the cpu, fixed that, now its back to the mobo *shakes fist* i need to stop jumping the gun when new shiz comes out and wait to see what happens.

[Ghost]

<br><br><< <i>fuxor. hmmz i may just get an epox kt600 or something, since i read on tomhardware that a nforce2 board is not really that much if an improvement. sigh, but id like to say gigabyte gave me the shaft big time, thats 2 times ive been given the shaft. one with a crappy mobo bundle, then i fixed that, by getting a new mobo, then it was the cpu, fixed that, now its back to the mobo *shakes fist* i need to stop jumping the gun when new shiz comes out and wait to see what happens.</i> >><br><br>via is the one that gave you the screws <BR><BR>second of all i would not believe toms hardware if you was the only one left in the universe <BR><BR>i have now a asus A7N8X nforce mother board <BR><BR>i had the via A7V133 which i had my t-bird on ,,and when the motherboard burnt up i bought this A7N8X motherboard ,,running with the same cpu and i noticed a large difference in performance <BR><BR>now i have the barton 2500+ running at 2.3ghz (yes that is higher the the 3200+cpu) and this thing is flying ,,performance wise via chipset isn't going to beat this mother board

[TranceJunkieXL]

Sorry to hear that slickshoes. I too have purchased a KT400 board, and have never been able to set FSB to 400. Right now my PC3200 CorsairXMS is running at PC2700 speeds.<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif" border="0"> Not for long though, as I just got my EPoX 8RDA3+!<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif" border="0"><BR>From the reviews I've read, the KT600 still lags behind the NForce2 chipset. The NForce has a much better memory controller.<BR>Gigabyte motherboards have a lot of features, but if you are into overclocking, they always seem to come out in last place (comparing similar chipsets).

[danny16866]

tomshardware is THE worst hardware review site that has ever been concieved......do not believ a single damn word tom sais......period!!!!!!............<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif" border="0">

[Tetrad]

my kt400 sucks at overclocking as well, i cant lock the agp bus.

[slickshoes]

holy jesus, r u guys serious!?!?! welp that site will now be flushed from my memory permanently. yah after i posted my message i was thinking maybe i should just get an nforce2 gigabyte mobo or epox. thos epox's r sweeet i hear.

[Ghost]

<br><br><< <i>holy jesus, r u guys serious!?!?! welp that site will now be flushed from my memory permanently. yah after i posted my message i was thinking maybe i should just get an nforce2 gigabyte mobo or epox. thos epox's r sweeet i hear.</i> >><br><br>gigabyte mobo mforce is good because it has a dual bios incase you mess the bios up,,my next two choices would be ausu a7n8x deluxe or Abit NF7-S

[GNXtreme]

Best nForce2 mobo....Abit NF7-S v2.0....<BR><BR>I have been to several forums and the general consensus it that the NF7-S is the best board for the socket A CPU right now...there are some that will argue that the Asus A7N8X Deluxe is the best, but my vote is for the Abit...although I have not used the Asus.

[slickshoes]

yes, i do like and rely on the option of a duel bios. im not getting a new mobo anytime soon as my next purchase will be a sound card so i do not have to use the crummy onboard. maybe like next month i'll be looking around locally for the abit epox asus, or gigabyte.

[Ghost]

niovidia on board sound is pretty good <BR><BR>better then the add on card i had in my last rig

[GNXtreme]

the nVidia Soundstorm is awesome for onboard sound...I suggest to you that you put up with the "crummy" sound you have now and get a better motherboard with soundstorm...I assure you, you will not be dissappointed in it.&nbsp; NF7-S.

[danny16866]

the soundstorm is more bang for your buck...very good sound(hell its even 5.1, and can decode dolby)<BR><BR>but the audigy2 is a better card.....but you are paying and extra couple hundred dollors for a minimal sound quality increase....but it will increase performance....slightly

[Tetrad]

I have an audigy 2 and mostly just use the onboard soundstorm now. It's supperior to most onboard sound options because it has it's own APU. Now you won't see rediculous performance reductions when sound is enabled. I've benchmarked with the Audigy2 and soundstorm and found the difference to be very minimal, sometimes in favor of audigy 2 sometimes not. Personally, I just like the sound and interface of the soundstorm better.

[danny16866]

then why in the heck did you get a audigy 2??

[slickshoes]

well my current motherboards onboard sound zapped away at my performance in games when i had hardware sound acceleration on. in tribes 2 i was only getting 30 fps with a g3ti200 but when i disabled it i my fps increased to 100+ fps depending on the maps id dip into the high 90s for a few secs. this is the reason why i am looking into sound cards right now.

[Tetrad]

<br><br><< <i>then why in the heck did you get a audigy 2??</i> >><br><br><BR>Because before the nforce2 all onboard sound options, that I know of anyway, didn't have a dedicated APU. This leads to drastic performance drops with sound enabled or when compared to performance with a sound card. Also, it used to be that onboard sound didn't sound too hot.... And if you have some cash to spend its just something to buy... I'll put it somewhere.

[danny16866]

<br><br><< <i>Because before the nforce2 all onboard sound options, that I know of anyway, didn't have a dedicated APU. This leads to drastic performance drops with sound enabled or when compared to performance with a sound card. Also, it used to be that onboard sound didn't sound too hot.... And if you have some cash to spend its just something to buy... I'll put it somewhere. </i> >><br><br><BR><BR><BR>i see.....so you got it before you got a soundstorm enables mobo

[Tetrad]

I got it before the nforce2 was out, back in the days when AMD first released the thoroughbred core and I picked up my 2600+.

[slickshoes]

yah that abit motherboard is very tempting, its been on my mind for weeks.......i may get one but not any time soooon i gotta get christmas shoppin done before i can spoil myself <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif" border="0">.

[therealwesty]

Get the Asus A7N8X... or better yet the A7N8X Deluxe. I love my Asus! The A7N8X has awsome performance and Asus is still the king of reliability. Ari will surely add that the Deluxe is too feature laden to pass up.

[danny16866]

except the ASUS doesnt use soundstorm.......It uses some other ghetto ass integrated sound

[ElrichMeister]

the asus also costs more, got with the abit

[slickshoes]

yah, i already have a sound card so the only thing that matters between the 2 is price and features and performance. between epox, asus, and abit who costs less and performs the best?

[danny16866]

ABIT!!!!!<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif" border="0">

[Tetrad]

Get the LEADTEK K7NCR18D Pro II Deluxe Limited. <a target=new class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=13-122-112-02.JPG/13-122-112-03.JPG/13-122-112-04.JPG/13-122-112-06.JPG/13-122-112-05.JPG/13-122-112-01.JPG">here</a>

[Ginsu543]

I also recommend the Abit NF7-S rev 2.0. It's the best overclocker of the lot.

[Tetrad]

I would argue that. There are a lot of outsanding boards in terms of overclocking, I don't think you can definitivly say one board is the best.

[Avid6eek]

The Abit NF7-S is definetly the best Sct A motherboard.

[Tetrad]

if you think so...

[ari4324]

We know Asus A7N8X Deluxe is 2nd best

[Avid6eek]

<br><br><< <i>We know Asus A7N8X Deluxe is 2nd best</i> >><br><br> Personally, I'd take the Epox 8RADA+ as second best. Just because it is the second best overclocker (to the Abit board), and it costs $50 less than the Asus A7N8X.

[Tetrad]

Give leadtek a chance! <BR><BR>I have a couple problems with it as far as layout goes but overall it is wicked board. Great options and overclocking performance and options.

[Avid6eek]

It really does look like a nice board. Unfortunately, Socket A is gonna start dying out, so it's too late for them to make any impressions in that area. They need to establish themselves in the 64 bit arena.

[Tetrad]

They have a couple 64 boards out but I'm a bit turned off that they only have 1 ide channel... yes, they give you 4 sata channels but maybe I dont have sata drives. How hard would it be to put the 1 more ide channel?

[slickshoes]

im sorry about wasting ur guys time about the comparison between abit asus and epox, but i found the best nforce2 mobo i think. the gigabyte GNNXP, tweaktown reviewed it and they were able to acheive a 452mhz fsb without any stability problems, there is one bad thing tho........its 160 bucks and up *cries*. hmm, maybe i better start keeping my ears open for sales at the places im getting presents for people.

[Tetrad]

I've reached a 500 mhz fsb with the leadtek... you need some good ram though.

[slickshoes]

o yah? like the only reason i chose gigabyte cuz i own one right now so im familiar with them and plus the GNNXP has 4 dimm slots i dunno of any other nforce2 mobo has that? the mobo is pricey tho i am getting second thoughts about it and the abit and asus r coming back into mind, but then i think what about the epox!?!?!? if i was a millionaire i would have them all that way i couldnt lose :.

[Tetrad]

I dont know how many have 4 dimm slots but for a guy so short on money, why would you need it?

[slickshoes]

for the future and all the times i said GNNXP i meant 7NNXP :. yah, well i talked it over with my friend who is more familiar with nforce motherboards, pretty much i had an idea that the 4 dimms i could get 2 pairs of duel channel ddr to fill the slots, but he said nah man it doesnt work like that. so im retarded :. the epox is starting to attract me again, 90 bucks. well right now i am not short on cash but its for the presents. hopefully i'll have some left over for myself, but i doubt it i usually give the best gifts.

[Avid6eek]

Someone in these forums is running 230FSB (460DDR) on their Abit NF7-S. If that Leadtek board is running a CPU FSB of 250Mhz, I'm gonna have to see screenshots before I believe it <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif" border="0"> <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">

[Tetrad]

I run my system constantly with a 240 with 1.85v. One day I put my AC down to 60 and raise my voltage to 1.90 and got the fsb to 250. I'll wait untill I get my new SLK-947U and AS5 before I try it on the average day. Should come sometime this week, but anyway heres me running at 240.<BR><BR><a target=new class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://bbs.pcstats.com/pcstats/messageview.cfm?catid=80&threadid=21944">here</a> <BR><BR>Edit: ahh what the hell, I'll do it for you shiz. Gimme a min. <BR><BR>Edit2: well at 245fsb right now... having trouble uploading an image. <BR><BR><img src="http://www.you-are-a-huge-nerd.com/public/freepix/bvj1.JPG"><BR><BR>yeah, i decided not to go to 1.9v on such a day but sometime ill post a pic....

[Avid6eek]

Drop the CPU multiplier if CPU speed is what is holding you back. Drop it to like 5, and then your only limiting factor will be your Northbridges ability to run the FSB at the designated speed.

[slickshoes]

u r awesome. does anyone own a epox 8RDA3+ in here that beat his oc?

[Tetrad]

<br><br><< <i>Drop the CPU multiplier if CPU speed is what is holding you back. Drop it to like 5, and then your only limiting factor will be your Northbridges ability to run the FSB at the designated speed.</i> >><br><br><BR><BR>True that... But 10 is such a neat number. I dare not stray.