I will be receiving my A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard on Thursday.

I will be using an AMD Athlon 2700+ Retail Version CPU with two sticks of the Kingston HyperX Series 256MB DDR434 (PC-3500) DDR RAM.

Is the AMD Athlon 2700+ Retail CPU's Heatsink and Fan good enough, or I should purchase a higher end Heatsink and Fan Unit?

What is the best BIOS Software Revision that I should use for the ASUS A7N8X Motherboard?

What are the best ASUS A7N8X Motherboard BIOS Settings that should I use?

Should I insert the two sticks of Kingston PC-3500 DDR RAM in Slots 1 and 2, and 1 and 3, or 2 and 3?

I plan on using the ASUS Motherboard's on board Sound instead of my Sound Blaster Live Card.

Which of the two NIC Port's should I be using for my DSL Connection?

Are there any other of the ASUS Motherboard's Hardware Settings that I should be using?

Jonathan


Jonathan

1) Never use that included HSF that comes with Athlon, use a decent one like Thermaltake Volcano 7+ if you don't mind the sound or the more expensive Thermalright AX-7 but you'll need to buy a separate 80mm fan.

2)The latest BIOS version is 1001G, download it at <A HREF="http://ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Socket_A/NVIDIA_Chipset/nForce2/A7N8X_Deluxe/" target="_new">http://ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Socket_A/NVIDIA_Chipset/nForce2/A7N8X_Deluxe/</A>

3)Insert the two stick of RAM in Slot2 and Slot3 (the blue ones)

BAD IDEA! SB Live! is still far more suprior than A7N8X's onboard sound.

5)Any two NIC port will do


<font color=red><b>If Micro$oft is sooooo smart, how come SP1 works on my Windows XP Corporate Edition huh?</b></font color=red>

I have to disagree with you on a few points here.

1) If you're not going to be overclocking or anything like that, the retail processor and fan should be fine as long as you put thermal grease down.

2) SB Live! cards suck. The onboard sound is awesome. Don't worry about losing anything as far as sound quality.

3) Be forewarned about the bios temperture readings. My bios misreads the temperature by about 45F. If it's not hot to the touch, it's not running at 70C idle like mine reads, haha.

4) You're gettin a friggin awesome board

Just my opinion, others are welcome to disagree and share thier thoughts. Merry Christmas All

Correct Idea! He can even think about dropping Audigy for nForce audio

Let us know what is the Best Chipset of 2002 in your eye.<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/community/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=26410#26410" target="_new"> Click </A>

Use the stock heatsink & fan. I would remove the pad that is attached to the heat w/ lighter fluid, then clean w/ alcohol. Then apply a very thin layer of artic silver on both the heatsink & processor.

In what way is A7N8X's onboard is suprior than Audigy?
Or even SB Live! for that matter.

<font color=red><b>If Micro$oft is sooooo smart, how come SP1 works on my Windows XP Corporate Edition huh?</b></font color=red>

SB live is not far better than Nforce2 onboard audio. don't know where u got that silly idea.

the onboard sound supports 6 point surround, supports EAX, takes up very little cpu and it flat out sounds awsome after you update the drivers. some good commands too. yeah the audigy is good, and aud 2 is really good but i myself decided to leave my audigy platinum in my other pc and go with the nforce2 sound system, and i do 5.1 for my pc. it does rear channel audio much easier, has some great tools for how to set up your system as well.

i dont think you would go wrong with either an audigy or the onboard but the sblive? baa ive got one that is collecting dust on a shelf somewhere.

<A HREF="http://www.trsclan.com" target="_new"> Clan TRS is Back </A>

yeah i agree, i don't feel the need to buy an expensive Audio card when the On-board audio is fine.

This Community is like a Second Family!!