which one is best?

[phill21]

hi
i have just bought a epox 8RDA+ nforce 2 board, but was thinking i might buy a ABIT NF7-S Version 2.0 board, as it seems to be up there with the best as well..
what does anyone think? any particular preferences anyone might have?
which one is the best for overclocking? apparently the revision 2 of the abit board is meant to be a great board.. anyone got any ideas about getting one? i have always had one and from what i hear about the epox boards, it dont really make me feel to confident about using it with people saying its dieing!!!
anyway, any comments would be great..
thanks to all !
ps it will be using one of the nice and overclockable xp1700s that are on the throughbred b core.. its a year 3 and week 8 cpu.. im hoping it will go far and last for long..

If it blows up? Opps.... I must have been doing something wrong

 

[TKH]

Are you going to exchange your Epox for Abit? It is not a wise move unless you want the mobo officially support 400FSB Athlon XP, but you want your 1700+ to last long so this won't be a problem. 8RDA+ is by far the best overclocker among all nforce2 mobo, and because of its superior overclockability people will tend to do some insane overclocking so you'll hear something llike Epox dying.

You never know how stupid you are until you have done something stupid enough for you to realize it.
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=22996" target="_new">My System Rig</A>

 

[phill21]

no i wanted to keep the epox, either way, i just wanted to see what people thought as i have been hearing that the new abit boards rev 2s are getting over 220fsb with no much problem at all. knowing my luck the memory or the cpu will be at fault and wont do what im wanting it too.. sods law really isnt it?
but yes, i have the epox, but i dont want to get rid of it.. i just wondered which people think would be the best.. like i said, i have been reading great things about them and i have always had a soft spot for them, as they are motherboard i have always had.. since day 2..
thanks for the help!!

If it blows up? Opps.... I must have been doing something wrong

 

[TKH]

220FSB on new Abit my be a conservative value. It officially support 200FSB, so a 20MHz adjustment is within normal range, I expect it'll go at least 233FSB or higher.

You never know how stupid you are until you have done something stupid enough for you to realize it.
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=22996" target="_new">My System Rig</A>

 

[dashelj]

Is the abit NF7-S V2.0 just the new nforce2 northbridge stepping (A1 or C1 or something the one that supports 400 FSB) because in that case I think also other boards with this would be just as good. I think some asus dlx have the new stepping too. Probably all the new boards will now have it and be pretty good at getting to that with overclocking. I only read about this in a few places so I dont even know if it is true.

 

[vk2amv]

What revision do you have on your epox board? The latest ones also have the newer stepping northbridge. If it is an old one no matter there is a very simple mod to allow highe FSB speeds fairly easy. goto www.8rdafaq.com and have a loot at the VDD mod. I will tell the resistance value is not clear but what you need is a 1K 15 turn variable resistor. Hook it up set to around 90Ohms and turn it down to increase the VDD voltage as needed. I did this and it works great. I also did the VDIMM mod too and it works great as well.
AREA_51

'It's only when you look at an ant through a magnifying glass on a sunny day that you realise how often they burst into flames'

 

[phill21]

do you mean if the cpu allows along with the memory?
the fastest stuff i can see is this pc3700 stuff, but that has fairly relaxed memory settings.. im looking to buy both i think anyway, gives the gf a chance to have something a little more up to date along with a faster cpu at some point.. like xp2600 or possibly a barton 2800.. we shall see what happens.. plus her old board is a kg7.. cant really do to must with that..

If it blows up? Opps.... I must have been doing something wrong

 

[phill21]

it says on the boards its a rev 1.1 so imagine that might be ok.. im just a bit considered at all the problems that the epox boards have been getting and since i dont have a spare tower to try it in its been sat in under my bed and will be there until i can get a case and some memory, and with not working for a little while, (i was laid off.. gutted) it making it a little worse.. but still never mind..
im not sure whether or not the board works, which is a bit annoying really.. im not sure about modding thing like that.. im not confident enough to be doing that!! i was gutted when i put a fan on (thermaltake volcano 7+, i dont recommend it) and the stupid thing wipped out my cpu, mobo and a few other things.. i was gutted even more when i was told it wasnt my fault that it did it as well.. god was i pi**ed..

If it blows up? Opps.... I must have been doing something wrong

 

[vk2amv]

I have the Rev 1.1 too. It is a very good stabe board but I am fairly sure it does have the older stepping of the chipset so that will limit your bus overclock to something like 210Mhz. They may release a bios version that will allow VDD adjustments but if not then you will have to mod to get more. I agree with the V7+ comment. Thermaltake Volcano`s suck. Anyway even if you dont mod you have a very stable and reliable board there that will be able to do at least 200Mhz FSB.
AREA_51

'It's only when you look at an ant through a magnifying glass on a sunny day that you realise how often they burst into flames'

 

[phill21]

well im not so worried about what it will do after 200fsb, im just hoping that my xp1700 'special' will get to 200fsb with no problems and with that, overclock it to at least 2ghz, if i can get anything faster, i will be happy, 2.2 or 2.4 will be most nice
well the thing with the fan was ironic.. people recommended me the fan and when it came to, i installed it, blew up my pc and then i bought apparently, a cheap fan that does a better job cooling it and it was half the price.. crazy.. it was a spanner fan i have now.. great little one those are

If it blows up? Opps.... I must have been doing something wrong