nForce2 Board and PCI ATA Controller

[hawkeyeJN]

All,

I'm looking to upgrade my KT400 board to a new nForce2 board. Despite the rave reviews on the nForce2 I'm loathe to give up the great integrated ATA/RAID controller I have on my GA-7VAXP, and the four extra ATA channels it gives me. Since there's a dearth of on-board RAID/ATA controllers on the nForce2 boards, I have the following two questions to steer my purchase:

- What is the best nForce2 board to buy, less the need for integrated video (unless it has a DVI connector, which I've yet to find)?
- What's a good ATA controller card, running primarily as an ATA function and not needed as a RAID controller? (I'll boot from IDE0, so no need to boot from the controller unless someones suggests otherwise.) I have a total of four ATA100 hard drives and two optical drives that I'm looking to connect.

On a side note, does anyone know of a video card that is fanless, and under a couple of hundred bucks with a DVI connection? I know the Sapphire Radeon 9000 non-pro is, but I've read bad reviews compared to my current 8500LE. Any other options out there?

Many thanks in advance,

hawkeye

 

[Pilsnerpete]

I think I would--and I will--go with the a7n8x (dlx) only because I've not had any problem at all with 3 Asus
systems I've built. RAM is harder for me to choose. Kingston, Mushkin, Corsair?? Heard Crucial has
trouble with nForce2.

On your side note:


I think with one of those sweet Zalman vga heatpipe setups, just about any card could be made fanless.

Extreme quiet is a bit more expensive though. But cheaper in the long run (you can actually think instead of
being bothered with the noise). Would you rather give up a few more greenbacks or have your peace of
mind slowly whittled away? jk.

I modify all of my fans to be as quiet as possible w/o compromising perfomance. Just did a 60 or 70mm
today! Turns out it's a nice ys tech fan. OC'd system is still extremely stable and very quiet.