amd motherboards

[e-ternity]

was wondering which companys are supposedly good amd mobo manufacturers
..heard asus, msi and i think epox..
are they? and are there others??

i know nforce type mobo are good for the amd.....

and kind of lazy... can the asus p2-99 mobo detect a 80gb hd??
/me hoping it would

was thinking about the uh... asus a7n8x-x... the nforce2 one
or if i don't got enough or... in my case.. i want to get my comp running again asap.. thinking about the a7v8x-x one
got any comments about em?

[Violineb]

asus a7n delx, abit nf7, epox, all good. me personally? i just took the msi one because it's one of the faster ones and prettiest too

[e-ternity]

one of the faster ones??

I just purchased an Athlon 64 CPU and an MSI motherboard to go with it. The MSI board seems like a very good one. Unfortunately, I haven't got it installed yet so I can't tell you how it performs. But this Saturday (10/4/03) I'm going to get both installed (CPU and Motherboard) and then I'll let you know how the board does.
sincerely,
sx/amiga

[e-ternity]

yes.. really curious about that but... uh.. how would it affect my poor lil athlonxp 2100+ pal? lol... with money these days for me... my next comp will prob have a barton maybe

[bahamut_2006]

i'd like to recommend the mobo im getting in march, the Albatron KX400-8XVPRO. the only thing you may not like about it is it doesnt use the nforce2 chipset, which i find unnecessary unless you need onboard video.

[e-ternity]

when they say the memory controller is designed for exceptionally high performance meaning...?

nforce2 chipsets has onboard vid?? crap... wonder if i disabled it in bios for friend.... wait... uh.. nvm

shows you how smart i am...

[Gamer1]

the asus a7n8x-x is a suberb mobo.

i personally going to get one myself, out of the reviews i've read for it, it performs close to it's dual channel sibling, only $60 cheaper. Bot no dual channel, sounstorm, and sata...

http://www.ocaddiction.com/reviews/mobos/asus_a7n8x/

[bahamut_2006]

Originally Posted by iEvolutions

when they say the memory controller is designed for exceptionally high performance meaning...?

nforce2 chipsets has onboard vid?? crap... wonder if i disabled it in bios for friend.... wait... uh.. nvm

shows you how smart i am...

afaik, all nforce2 mobos have an integrated geforce 4 mx. i dont know how you would enable/disable it in the bios as my mobo doesnt use that chipset

Personally I'd buy the Abit NF7 series. Abit has the best Overclocking board currently available

[e-ternity]

thx for the link, gamer
and thx chrisray for that info, never knew that

[fivefeet8]

Originally Posted by bahamut_2006

afaik, all nforce2 mobos have an integrated geforce 4 mx. i dont know how you would enable/disable it in the bios as my mobo doesnt use that chipset

Not all Nforce2 motherboards have integrated video. Mine doesn't. There should be an option to disable onboard video in the bios if the motherboard has it. You will probably want Nforce2 motherboards with "SOUNDstorm" audio cpu as not all of them have it. All the top end NForce2 mobos should have it though.

The reason why Nforce2 motherboards are so popular is because of "dual channel" memory and overclockability. Via kt400's will not overclock(no agp/pci lock) as much and lack the dual channel memory architecture to compete against nforce2's. Heck, even the newly released KT600 chipset hasn't taken the top spot from Nforce2's.

Originally Posted by bahamut_2006

i'd like to recommend the mobo im getting in march, the Albatron KX400-8XVPRO. the only thing you may not like about it is it doesnt use the nforce2 chipset, which i find unnecessary unless you need onboard video.

For that price you could get this Chaintech Nforce2 ultra400 motherboard. All you need is to slap in some ram, a video card, and your set.

Not all Nforce2 motherboards have integrated video. Mine doesn't. There should be an option to disable onboard video in the bios if the motherboard has it. You will probably want Nforce2 motherboards with "SOUNDstorm" audio cpu as not all of them have it. All the top end NForce2 mobos should have it though.

Are you aware that board with Soundstorm (Nvidia Nforce 400 Ultra) As to ones without soundstorm (Nvidia Nforce 400) Have performance difference.


Let me illustrate performance variables. And I kid you not on this issue.

Nforce 2 400 Ultra Single channel < Nforce 2 400 Ultra Dual Channel < Nforce 2 400 Single channel < Nforce 2 400 Dual Channel.


It's really strange but the soundstorm litterally does slow down these boards. I'm gonna ill myself for sayen this. But ultimately an Audigy 2 would provide higher performance... Tho the price will be quite a bit more.

i'd like to recommend the mobo im getting in march, the Albatron KX400-8XVPRO. the only thing you may not like about it is it doesnt use the nforce2 chipset, which i find unnecessary unless you need onboard video

Good Board. I have an Albatron KX400-8x That I'm gonna put into my secondary machine whenever I can get some more DDR333 memory..

Via kt400's will not overclock(no agp/pci lock) as much and lack the dual channel memory architecture to compete against nforce2's. Heck, even the newly released KT600 chipset hasn't taken the top spot from Nforce2's.

While Generally this is true. Via Kt400's are pretty durable. The PCI devices I've seen easily go up to 39 mhz, And the AGP to 75, Which can stillp give a pretty nice FSB overclock.

[fivefeet8]

Originally Posted by ChrisRay

Are you aware that board with Soundstorm (Nvidia Nforce 400 Ultra) As to ones without soundstorm (Nvidia Nforce 400) Have performance difference.

Let me illustrate performance variables. And I kid you not on this issue.

Nforce 2 400 Ultra Single channel < Nforce 2 400 Ultra Dual Channel < Nforce 2 400 Single channel < Nforce 2 400 Dual Channel.


It's really strange but the soundstorm litterally does slow down these boards. I'm gonna ill myself for sayen this. But ultimately an Audigy 2 would provide higher performance... Tho the price will be quite a bit more.

While Generally this is true. Via Kt400's are pretty durable. The PCI devices I've seen easily go up to 39 mhz, And the AGP to 75, Which can stillp give a pretty nice FSB overclock.

Where did you get those numbers from? I haven't looked into actual SOundstorm benchmarks, but without the Soundstorm APU your CPU would be doing the audio processing.

And yes, I do agree that Kt400's can overclock good(I use to have one), but not as much as Nforce2's can. And the dual channel memory on the Nforce2's gives it a noticeable performance lead.

[Gamer1]

http://www.tomshardware.com/game/200..._games-01.html

toms hardware is the only one i know that benchmarked sound solutions.

Originally Posted by fivefeet8

Where did you get those numbers from? I haven't looked into actual SOundstorm benchmarks, but without the Soundstorm APU your CPU would be doing the audio processing.

And yes, I do agree that Kt400's can overclock good(I use to have one), but not as much as Nforce2's can. And the dual channel memory on the Nforce2's gives it a noticeable performance lead.

I'm talking about "pure" Dual Channel/Single channel resource usage. The Soundstorm uses up some of the memory performance.

It's common knowledge on Nforcehq.com. Where you can find info floating about.

But here's a direct link comparison for you. So Yes. Any nforce 2 400 with soundstorm is actually slower than an nforce 2 400 w/o soundstorm.

So if you install an Audigy 2 on both boards. The Single Channel performance of the nforce 2 400 is "faster" than the nforce 2 400 Ultra. And the Dual channel of the nforce 2 400 Non ultra is actually faster too.

Believe me I was surprised when I first read it too. But its definately the case and its pretty verified. Its like a 1-4% difference. This as held too true to basically every nforce board with soundstorm...


http://www.amdmb.com/article-display.php?ArticleID=244

Basically. Look at like this

MCP-T = Soundstorm (good) audio
MCP = Generic Realtek Audio

MCP = Single/Dual Channel

MCP=T= Single/Dual Channel + Soundstorm.

P.S.S also take note. if you actually "use" the audio. It's going to be slower. But if both use Audigy 2. It will be faster. Strange is it not?

[e-ternity]

heh... always prefered sound cards over onboard..

hmm.. lookin at some prices i might be able to get a sound card...

Originally Posted by iEvolutions

heh... always prefered sound cards over onboard..

hmm.. lookin at some prices i might be able to get a sound card...

Personally. I am Fine with my realtek onboard audio. At least Nvidia chose a good Onboard AC97 solution.

But If I ever need those 15 FPS. I'll just get an Audigy 2. I'm just not that keen on super audio solutions. My Onboard Audio performs just as well as my Sblive. Which is Nice. My Sound Blaster Live 5.1 was the standard in which I judged all audio for a while now.

[e-ternity]

oic..

hey... what's the fsb for my athlonxp 2100 pal??

http://anitec.ca/productitem.asp??FundID=1&pid=612

it caught my attention...

from

http://www.amdmb.com/article-display...D=112&PageID=1

it says its stable.. so meaning that's alright for me.. i guess

price is pretty good.. looks tempting.. but its soo old

heck don't even remember what kind of ddr i got so =\

Originally Posted by iEvolutions

oic..

hey... what's the fsb for my athlonxp 2100 pal??

http://anitec.ca/productitem.asp??FundID=1&pid=612

it caught my attention...

from

http://www.amdmb.com/article-display...D=112&PageID=1

it says its stable.. so meaning that's alright for me.. i guess

price is pretty good.. looks tempting.. but its soo old

heck don't even remember what kind of ddr i got so =\

Heh My ECS K7S5a was the worst AMD motherboard I ever owned. It's one of the weakest Overclocking motherboards. Some people have reported great stability with it. I had no such Luck.

My Brother has had it as well. And thinks its a terrible motherboard./ Do Not buy this board. There are way better Athlon boards for a similar price.