A7N8X Possibly the Best AMD Board Ever!

[Makaveli]

I Finally bought the A7N8X Deluxe. And I must say this is the best board I've ever used for an AMD setup. No more Via chipsets for me, This is the most stable board I've used on the AMD side yet. I also bought a Stick of OCZ 512MB PC2700 DDR with Copper heatspreaders. And man what an increase in speed from my SDRAM board. I previously had the A7V133, and the SDRAM was killing my performance. With this board I got a 1500point increase in 3dmark. And thats at 133/133 with the Fastest Ram timings Cas 2 2-2-5 1T. I'm planning on unlocking my XP chip in the next week so I can run a 166 FSB. But even without my chip unlocked I already had it running stable @ 145/145 and a 1.775 Vcore so that took my XP1800 to 1.667 or XP2000 speed and system was rock solid. that overclock alone gave me another 1000 points in 3dmark.

Good bye Via and good ridens! Now all I need is another stick of OCZ memory and a XP2600 333fsb .

I don't think I can say anymore about this board other than it Awesome and I recommend it to anyone out there looking for new motherboard. Once you go Nvidia you won't want to go back to Via!

Also I noticed about a 8c temp drop in my idle reasons which were 42c and now 34c. But I think the reason for this is reading are now coming from the thermal diode in my XP1800.

Can someone who owns one of these boards how do you disable the Serial ATA controller?

My specs
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=16172" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=16172</A>

My new 3dmark score with Everything @ stock speed
Xp1800 @ 1.53 Radeon 8500 275/550 Catalyst 2.4 Drivers
<A HREF="http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=5263880" target="_new">http://service.madonion.com/compare?2k1=5263880</A>

 

[halkebul]

Goodbye VIA!

There is a Jumper on the motherboard to enable/disable SerialATA.

<i>It's your world kid!!!</i>

 

[gregp]

Yeah, it's a great board until you find out that there is apparently no way to get DMA working under Win2K on this board right now. The nForce2 driver set does not contain an IDE driver and defaults to the slow-ass Microsoft driver which only uses PIO. SiSoft Sandra benchmarks my ATA133 7200RPM drive at 3 MB/s. Pathetic ...

 

[toss5000]

The jumper is right above the chip that has S-ATA on it, you move it one pin to the right...that will disable serial ata.

- - - -
Kill a man and you're a murderer;
Kill many and you're a conquerer;
Kill 'em all and you're a god.

 

[Makaveli]

Hmmm I'm using Windows XP and no issues with DMA.

 

[Dreadnaught]

and the mobo wont boot from my raid card either, i have a workaround but its annoying. also after gaming, i am feeling that ill have to stick my audigy platinum into the computer, its better than this mobos onboard sound.

 

[tombance]

Will Win98 still work with the A7N8X? Or was there some sort of problem with DMA with that aswell?

 

[gregp]

Makaveli,
Yeah, I've heard that maybe XP users aren't having the DMA issues that Win2K users are, basically because the XP nForce2 driver set includes an IDE driver (although some people claim it's just the MS driver renamed).

Tombance,
AFAIK, there aren't any Win98 DMA issues with this board.

 

[shoel]

Any chance you are looking to get rid of the A7V133 cheap? I want to make a CS server for my school LAN and have everything except the motherboard..

let me know.

-Cratos

 

[Spitfire_x86]

I am using a nForce 420-D mobo for few months with Win2000 Pro SP3. No DMA issue so far. With both 1.05 and 1.13 drivers

Let us know <A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/community/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=25703#25703" target="_new"> What File compression format you use? </A>

 

[Makaveli]

hey download version 2.0 of the Nforce drivers off Nvidia's site. It has an IDE installer that is not present in the drivers off the CD. However these drivers don't work with the Onboard sound with the Asus board or the chaintech.
so if you using onboard sounds stick to the Drivers off the CD or the manufactures website

 

[Raptorz_Wrath]

Just so you know that board supports dual channel ddr. I think you said you got one stick. If you would have gotten 2 sticks of 256 it'd be even faster. But you have to have 2 sticks (i'm not sure if they have to be equal size or not) to work.

http://www.intelhate.com

 

[Makaveli]

I know the board supports dual channel. But I went with 1 stick of 512 so I can put all 512 sticks in. After Xmas I'll buy a second Stick and have 1GB of ram. Which is better than going with 2 sticks of 256Ram. I can wait for the dual channel. Will be better to go with the bigger sticks in the long run!

 

[halkebul]

I know the board supports dual channel. But I went with 1 stick of 512 so I can put all 512 sticks in. After Xmas I'll buy a second Stick and have 1GB of ram. Which is better than going with 2 sticks of 256Ram. I can wait for the dual channel. Will be better to go with the bigger sticks in the long run!

I concur.


<i>It's your world kid!!!</i>

 

[xerid]

I've often wondered why memory modules only go up to 512MB. I see manufactures stating that "this board can have a max of 3GB of ram," but I never see 1GB modules. I would like to buy two 1GB modules of DDR400, wouldn't you?

 

[halkebul]

Greetings. Could one benefit from that much memory, 2GB, either now or in the future? Just curious as to your thoughts. 768MB - 1GB memory is plenty for now and in the future (til at least 2004) IMO.

<i>It's your world kid!!!</i>

 

[xerid]

Well, i don't know. Just wondering. They should make them, though.

 

[deadjo]

yeah, thinking of getting this board, doing the same with the ddr ram sticks too, 512 now, reap the benefits later!
has anyone an idea to switching off the onboard sound if using a quality souyndcard?

i like to play...

 

[deadjo]

here u go, found this - 1Gb sticks
http://www.eclipse-computers.com/cgi-bin/CheckOut4Pro/bin/nowcgi.cgi?mode=java

i like to play...

 

[RCPilot]

Yea I can but 1 gig sticks locally. They are available for sure.

Skinny

Signature, I'm still learning & having fun doing it!!!!!!

 

[groth2757]

A lot of people wouldn't buy 1GB sticks because of the cost. That's probably why you don't see them everywhere.

Top Processor=$799
Mobo=$150
RAM=$300
Video Card=$500
HDD=$120
Case=$180
DVD-ROM=$50
DVD-RW=$300
Putting it all together and hearing several loud pops=Priceless

 

[Flyboy]

I'm glad to hear it Makaveli! My A7N8X should be in today or tomorrow. The only thing I dislike about AMD right now is the noise. My new P4 machine is soooo quiet. The computer I'm building now will have an AMD XP2400, and I bought one of those CoolerMaster HHC-001 noise makers to keep the heat down.

But, I wanted to save the $$$ so went with AMD. I too am only using 1 stick of PC3200 Corsair XMS until I can afford another stick. How bout' posting some benchmark scores? I don't expect mine to do all that well because right now I'm stuck w/ my Asus GF2 MX400 videocard.

 

[kinney]

I just ordered a Epox 8RDA+ and am glad to hear (again) that the nforce2 is a stable chipset.

I too am tired of messing around with via and I was saving up for a P4 setup until i heard so many good things about the nforce 2.

In my current computer I have an audigy and decent nic so I waited a long time to take the plunge in a nforce but I figure that from the benchmarks i've seen via has held back the athlons for a long time now and we're probably finally seeing the maximum performance that athlons are capable of, I can get rid of my audigy (bye bye creative!) and my two crucial pc2100 sticks (2x256mb) will be put to good use.

Athlon 1700+, KT266A, 512MB PC2100, Geforce 3, Audigy, Z560s

 

[Makaveli]

This reply is for the other guy up there and yourself to do with the an external soundcard. Keep your audigy I did. I know the onboard sound on the Nforce 2 is excellent. But I like my audigy so I just disabled onboard sound and use it.

All you have to do it go into the bios and it can be disabled very simple!

 

[Makaveli]

As for the noise its not that bad. It depends on the CPU HSF you buy. I'm using a Volcano 7+ and usually leave it on the medium fan setting and its perfectly fine for gaming and other Cpu intensive task. I only set it to high during the summer when temps are up. But Also I have 3 Thermaltake 80mm Case fans in my tower and might be adding a 4th soon.

But if I do i'm thinking about getting a Fan control in my 5 1/4 bay cause now the case fans are surpassing my CPU HSF on the Low setting. Which is great if you sleep in the same room as your computer.

my Case fans are rated for
2900RPM but run at around 3300
37CFM
30dB(A)

The dB(A) levels are good but when you have 3 of them it gets slightly noticable.