KN8 vs AN8

[pengwin]

the abit AN8 SLi seems good but it it worth that extra...20 bucks?

KN8 SLi vs. AN8 SLi

hard choice..

 

[sleepdeprived82]

well if your going to overclock the an8 is well worth the extra money. The uguru chip makes life simple for overclocking and imho is well worth the extra.

shame the an8's are discontinued

 

[pengwin]

hmm

ok

 

[jackieboy]

The kn8 board seem to be very very buggy.........just look at people with problems with them........from the sli versions to the single pcix version

 

[tehmonker]

i have a KN8 Ultra and i havnt had any problems with it, but now i think of it, i wish i would have gotten a DFI mobo instead for OC reasons, the KN8 does a good job OC, but the DFI (of course) does it better

 

[jackieboy]

Know what you mean.......Dfi....seems to be the best for now

 

[MU_Engineer]

I got the KN8-SLi and it works perfectly. Very quiet, capable board and well-designed if you don't use the FDD.

 

[pengwin]

ok

it sbetween DFI infinity and Abit KN8 now

 

[pengwin]

i need a beginners mobo like really easy to set up and stuff

 

[kemosabe79]

I cant say anything about the SLI version, but my KN8 is a excellent board. I havent had a single issue with it yet. Stable as hell and a very good overclocker. All the components are top-notch too...I.E. good caps, beefy voltage regulator, etc.

UGuru, IMHO, is absolute garbage...Use the BIOS and fine tune with clockgen and A64Tweaker. Dont buy the AN8 based on the addition of the UGuru chip (which is the only real difference between the two). It sounds good in theory, but the software is a bit buggy.

If you want a good OC board, the Infinity will probably net you some higher clocks, but I doubt you would be dissapointed if you bought the KN8.

 

[pengwin]

they ar epriced evenly i need the easie rboard to set up

i think im gonna go with abit their board seems "higher quality" than DFI's infinity, the infinity seems cheap compared tot he LanParty line

 

[kemosabe79]

and a very good overclocker.

You call 250Mhz FSB(HTT) high? 8O

The Infinity can reach over 300Mhz no problem. It's also easier to tweak because there are no hardcore memory timings to set like on LANParty.

This review says it all about the difference between LANParty and Infinity.


Um that's my daily speed. For some reason I cant hotlink an image so check this out:

http://img146.imageshack.us/my.php?image=image10yz.jpg

Yeah...I Know. My KN8 stinks :roll: I can run up to 330x9 before Im HTT limited :twisted: . I just prefer to be 1:1 with my ram. Better performance thataway.

EDIT: Here's a quickie @ 330x9:

http://img95.imageshack.us/my.php?image=apoint5wu.jpg

I can go higher...and with a DDR333 divider. Just a quickie to prove a point I gotta stand up for my board. I dont run at the higher clocks 24/7 because I need my machine to be reliable and fast in exactly that order. FX-57 speeds for $200 US I can dig for a daily driver.

 

[pengwin]

alrighty so this is what will go on it

6800GS (maybe)
Opteron 144 (i need to OC this a bit)
Some RAM DDR400 or higher maybe PC4000

so yes the 1.8Ghz opty will need OCing after a while

Also which cooler do u guys recommend?

needs to be in the 40 or below range, im lookin at the blue orb right now

 

[kemosabe79]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835118119

There's what I use...Works fabulously.

If I were you Id grab a 3700+ San Diego. Theyre coming out with some good steppings as of late.

If you go with a single core Opty, spring for the 146 if you can find one.

 

[pengwin]

146 is too expensive


as far as th ecooler goes

for 38 bucks i can find something FAR better with more fins etc...Blue Orb is 4 dollars more i get 140 fins and a 120mm fan and the blue light

i wa slookin for something really effective, good for Ocing

 

[kemosabe79]

146 is too expensive


as far as th ecooler goes

for 38 bucks i can find something FAR better with more fins etc...Blue Orb is 4 dollars more i get 140 fins and a 120mm fan and the blue light

i wa slookin for something really effective, good for Ocing

I can reach 3.1GHz with my chip @ 35C idle and 42C load with that cooler.

The reason I suggest the 3700+ is because some of the newer steppings are hitting really high clocks on air. Equal to and sometimes surpassing the 939 Opterons. Also its supported by Abit...The Optys are not.

EDIT: I didnt even think of the Big Typhoon, wusy. Excellent cooler my brother uses one.

 

[bwave]

We've used lots of both, the KN8 is a more stable board.
Either Abit or DFI, stay away from the Asus A8N.

 

[bej]

I have this board, the Abit K8N SLI along with 2GB of OCZ Ram 3200, 7800gtx and amd 4200 but I haven't had much luck learning about how to overclock. I read and read sites but I'm still not sure about what to do. Can you recommend a straight forward step-by-step guide for this particular motherboard. It works great, my cpu temps at load are only 38 with stock cooling and sits at about 32 when idle so I think I have some room to speed things up a bit.
Thanks

 

[choknuti]

Have to agree with kemosabe79 here. Go for the ABIT. If you are planning to overclock the best way (the only proper way IMHO) to do it is in the bios through softmenu and not through some windows utility.

A little harder but you wont regret it in the long run.

 

[kemosabe79]

I have this board, the Abit K8N SLI along with 2GB of OCZ Ram 3200, 7800gtx and amd 4200 but I haven't had much luck learning about how to overclock. I read and read sites but I'm still not sure about what to do. Can you recommend a straight forward step-by-step guide for this particular motherboard. It works great, my cpu temps at load are only 38 with stock cooling and sits at about 32 when idle so I think I have some room to speed things up a bit.
Thanks

Sure Here you go:

http://forums.pcapex.com/amd_cpu_motherboard_oc/38227-amd_64_performance_oc_guide.html

I find this guide to be the easiest to follow. Plus the writer is a stand-up guy

Have to agree with kemosabe79 here. Go for the ABIT. If you are planning to overclock the best way (the only proper way IMHO) to do it is in the bios through softmenu and not through some windows utility.

Dont get me wrong...The DFI is a very capable board. Its just got a little more of a learning curve on it. If your new to overclocking, the BIOS may be a little difficult to learn. With patience, and a little luck, I guarantee you the DFI will give you a higher stable overclock.

 

[bej]

That's great, many thanks. I'll take a look and see if I can sort out better performance for my system.
Cheers

 

[choknuti]

Should have know better a little googling showed that the former chief engineer of ABIT is now at DFI and their latest boards are his babies.

Guess even though ABIT makes goods boards they haven't come out with any new innovation recently. Now I know why :twisted:

 

[58engr]

and a very good overclocker.

You call 250Mhz FSB(HTT) high? 8O

The Infinity can reach over 300Mhz no problem. It's also easier to tweak because there are no hardcore memory timings to set like on LANParty.

This review says it all about the difference between LANParty and Infinity.


Um that's my daily speed. For some reason I cant hotlink an image so check this out:

http://img146.imageshack.us/my.php?image=image10yz.jpg

Yeah...I Know. My KN8 stinks :roll: I can run up to 330x9 before Im HTT limited :twisted: . I just prefer to be 1:1 with my ram. Better performance thataway.

EDIT: Here's a quickie @ 330x9:

http://img95.imageshack.us/my.php?image=apoint5wu.jpg

I can go higher...and with a DDR333 divider. Just a quickie to prove a point I gotta stand up for my board. I dont run at the higher clocks 24/7 because I need my machine to be reliable and fast in exactly that order. FX-57 speeds for $200 US I can dig for a daily driver.


Isn't that 1.525 vcore a little high for a san diego?, or is it the bios itself, I know other folks with other boards and they went 1.425 at the highest...

 

[BUFF]

Isn't that 1.525 vcore a little high for a san diego?, or is it the bios itself, I know other folks with other boards and they went 1.425 at the highest...

Not imo for an overclocked 3700+ especially with good cooling.

 

[PArr]

Have to agree with kemosabe79 here. Go for the ABIT. If you are planning to overclock the best way (the only proper way IMHO) to do it is in the bios through softmenu and not through some windows utility.

A little harder but you wont regret it in the long run.

I've been using Abit for the past 7 years, I've never had a bad one yet. Everytime we go with the over-clocking it's always been better to use what comes with the board. I'm not saying that there aren't good programs out there, but what comes with the boards has already been tested and certified.
My company runs the Abit series Mobos, as well as Asus, and 1 is running on the DFI. Currently I am still on the older KW7, but have ordered the KN8 SLI, mainly because I have an Opteron 180 I'm going to run in it, with 4GB PC3200.
We just partnered with NVidia, so I have to go SLI, although up to now I have always used the ATI X-series. From all the research I've been doing and with all that Abit has told me, it's the board to go for stability, until it's time for the AM2 boardset. But that will come when I get another CPU from AMD to test.

Abit KN8 SLI
AMD Opteron 180
4GB Infineon PC3200 Dual Channel
2 X SATA Seagate Barracuda Perp. 320GB RAID 1
XfX 7900GTX in SLI
Creative X-Fi
2 X LiteOn DVD R+/-RW 16X
Windows Vista Beta 2
http://www.arr-tek.com