A7N8X-X and 2500+ Mobile

[rrace]

Hi,

I'm considering building a new pc for gaming(doom3, hl2) and due to budget I'd like to get the most out of my cash. Here is what I am considering...

Antech Super LANBOY
A7N8X-X
Athlon XP 2500+ Mobile
Corsair Value Select 256MB PC-3200 DDR400 SDRAM
Seagate 80.0GB
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
...

Now I'd like to overclock the 2500+ mobile(1.8) to a 3200+(2.2?). I've never OC'd any of my PCs so please bare with me as this is new to me. I have read a bit on this and decided the mobile was the best choice for overclocking, but I am not certain if the motherboard will be an issue. I chose asus because my current asus board has served me well. I chose the a7n8x-x as it was the cheapest(!) and didn't include the many features of the deluxe I didn't need, sata, raid, wireless, etc. Are there any issues with this board and overclocking with the 2500+ mobile? From my understanding the 2500+ mobile has an unlocked multipler, which is safer/easier to raise than the fsb. So is it possible to do 13.5x166 with this chip and motherboard? Someone told me it is not possible to raise the multiplier over 13 on the asus board, is this true? I want to avoid raising the fsb as I understand it can damage other hardware components...

So does anyone have experience with overclocking on this board? Or which other board would you recommend? the abit nf7 is probably my only other choice. I have read about overclocking this chip on an epox board, however I don't know if I can find one of those where I live.

Also, what sort of cooling(hsf) would you recommend? I have read that air cooling would be sufficient for my oc speed of 2.2...

any help would be great

thanks

 

[Crashman]

Damage what? Isn't your board certified for 200MHz CPU bus clocks? You certainly have the RAM for it!

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[endyen]

The normal multiplier for the xp-m 2500+ is 13.5. The A7N8X board will support the xp2400+, that uses a multiplier of 15. There should be no problem running the xp-m 2500+ on that board at 13.5 multiplier, or even 14.
An fsb of 166 and a multiplier of 14 would give the same perf as an xp3200+.
Since the board can run at 200 fsb (less ia cooler for the n-bridge and v-regs) and has a lockable pci and agp buss, a medium setting around 13 by 178 would give a slightly better overall result.
I have an A7N8X nondeluxe board,which is very similar, and have had great results ocing with it. I am currently running an Abit NF7-S board, with an xp-m2500+ at 14 X 200.The v-core is at 1.775
I am using a Vantec aeroflow fan. It's a good combination of warm and noisey, without being too much of either.

 

[ChipDeath]

Asus boards aren't the best for overclocking - Most around here swear by the Abit NF7 series.

As crash says, you should be able to get a FSB of 200 easily. 200x11 will give you XP3200+ speeds, but a mobile 2500+ will normally go higher than that.

200x11 (2200Mhz) will give better performance than 166x13.5 (2241Mhz), because of the faster memory/bus speed.

Any NEW Nforce2 motherboard bought today should officially support the 200Mhz (400DDR) FSB speed chips, so 200FSB is within the spec of the board and running at that speed will not break it unless the board is defective. It's only earlier nforce2 boards (like mine :frown: ) that don't <i>officially</i> support 200FSB (although with a little bit of warranty invalidation I got around that one!)

I would suggest getting PC3500 RAM at least too - as the price difference is negligible, but it gives you a little headroom to go faster than 200FSB should you fancy it.

---
Epox 8RDA+ rev1.1 w/ Custom NB HS
XP1700+ @205x11 (~2.26Ghz), 1.575Vcore
2x256Mb Corsair PC3200LL 2-2-2-4
Sapphire 9800Pro 420/744

 

[rrace]

hiya guys

thanks for the input. I may go with the nf7..
is there much of a *performance* difference between the nf7 and nf7-s? the only difference are the soundstorm and sata included withe nf7-s right?

what about the performance between the a7n8x and the nf7? are tehre any sites that reviewed the two side by side? what do you guys think?

 

[ChipDeath]

There should be pretty much zero performance difference between them in benchmarks, <i>but</i> when running games the -S will be slightly faster (up to 5% maybe?) simply because of soundstorm. Nforce2 boards with soundstorm (mcp<b>-t</b> southbridge) have a truly cutting-edge audio processor, which takes the load off the main processor Tom's did a <A HREF="http://www20.tomshardware.com/game/20030405/sound_for_games-03.html#quake_3" target="_new">review</A> on this a while ago. A little old perhaps, but it illustrates how much better the Nforce APU is compared to a standard on-board audio codec (such as the realtek one in that review). Plus of course it supports all that EAX gubbins, which'll help enormously with atmosphere in creepy titles like Doom III.

I would pay the little extra for the -S myself. I'd probably also get a SATA HDD (just because I like the cables sooo much more than the old flat IDE ones!), so that would be another reason to get the -S.

So basically, yes the only differences are Soundstorm and SATA, but I think they're worth the $20 difference and then some.

---
Epox 8RDA+ rev1.1 w/ Custom NB HS
XP1700+ @205x11 (~2.26Ghz), 1.575Vcore
2x256Mb Corsair PC3200LL 2-2-2-4
Sapphire 9800Pro 420/744

 

[TheRod]

Abit NF7/NF7-S are better than A7N8X in any variant.

When I bought my MB, I got the A7N8X because it was available. A few months later I bought an Abit NF7-S for a friend and I can surely say that NF7 is bette r in most aspect (expecially overclocking). It have better better overclocking options and the northbridge is cooled with a FAN. Your first choice should be the NF7(-S). I agree with ChipDeath, if you want good audio support, get the NF7-S. If audio is not that important to you, the NF7 will be OK.

--
Lookin' to fill that <font color=blue>GOD</font color=blue> shape hole!

 

[ChipDeath]

The audio quality is better, but I was actually thinking more along the lines of how the far better Nforce APU takes the load off the processor, which effectively makes anything else perform better. According to the Tom's review I linked to above, Quake3 performed about 10% better with the nforce APU, compared to a Realtek Standard on-board jobbie. 10% potential speed increase could make a fair bit of a difference to DoomIII/HL2. EAX & better sound quality in general are just bonuses really

---
Epox 8RDA+ rev1.1 w/ Custom NB HS
XP1700+ @205x11 (~2.26Ghz), 1.575Vcore
2x256Mb Corsair PC3200LL 2-2-2-4
Sapphire 9800Pro 420/744