What would you buy?

[joshmroest]

ABIT

ASUS

This is for a Athlon 64 X2 3800+.

Thanks.

 

[mode101wpb]

ASUS

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Between the two, the ASUS, just as long as you want to replace the fan and get firewire.

But you're comparing a $120 ultra board with a $102 non-ultra board .

A fairer comparison is ASUS A8N-E ($120) and ABIT AN8 Ultra ($122)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813127212

The ABIT AN8 Ultra is passively cooled, overclocks better, has firewire and looks cooler .

-The Pentium Guy

 

[joshmroest]

Okay, the original ASUS or this:

ABIT

 

[mode101wpb]

You could just spend a little more money and get the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium no chipset fan to worry about.

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: mode101wpb
You could just spend a little more money and get the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium no chipset fan to worry about.

Is the A8N-SLI Premium really worth it ? I've been trying to talk myself into this board because it's fanless, but I don't ever expect to run two Video Cards (planning on 7800/r520), and it's close to $100 more than the plain nForce4 Ultras.

 

[jlbenedict]

I have the Abit AN8.
Its a very stable board at stock speeds. I haven't figured out the overclocking yet, so we'll just leave it at that.

If I had to do it over again though, I would have purchased the AN8 Ultra though.. but I have no regrets..

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Originally posted by: wanderer27

Originally posted by: mode101wpb
You could just spend a little more money and get the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium no chipset fan to worry about.

Is the A8N-SLI Premium really worth it ? I've been trying to talk myself into this board because it's fanless, but I don't ever expect to run two Video Cards (planning on 7800/r520), and it's close to $100 more than the plain nForce4 Ultras.

Over the buggy and noisy A8N-SLI Deluxe? Hell yes. It's only $15 more I beleive than the A8N-SLI Deluxe.

Over the A8N-E? I would ask you to consider other alternatives if you prefer something less noisy. But it's still a great board if you aren't looking to overclock or don't mind the noise (however that fan has a tendency to fail after a few months, so be aware).

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Originally posted by: joshmroest
Okay, the original ASUS or this:

ABIT

You linked to the same boards .

 

[wanderer27]

Well, I've looked at DFI Ultras, and they just seem to be too picky with BIOS and HW.

Looking at MSI, I'm aware they have a few issues of their own - Fan, Mem divider, voltage(?), etc.

Then I've got the A8N-E and the Premium. The A8N-E has possible fan noise/dying issues, so I'm not sure I want to go that route.

I like the Premium, but I don't like the price. I'm not really aware of it having any real issues, but I'm still digging on this and some MSI boards.

 

[mode101wpb]

Originally posted by: wanderer27

Originally posted by: mode101wpb
You could just spend a little more money and get the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium no chipset fan to worry about.

Is the A8N-SLI Premium really worth it ? I've been trying to talk myself into this board because it's fanless, but I don't ever expect to run two Video Cards (planning on 7800/r520), and it's close to $100 more than the plain nForce4 Ultras.

Yes I second that, it's definatley worth the price. I went with the board with no intentions of going full blown SLI immediately, but I wanted to have the ability down the road to add it. The Chipset Heat Pipe is a big improvement over the Deluxe.

 

[wanderer27]

Sorry Joshmroest, I seem to have Hijacked your thread

I've also checked out the ABIT AN8-SLI. It has the Heatpipe/Heatsink like the ASUS Premium, which is a plus.
Unfortunately, it seems to be suffering some BIOS issues still Plus it sounds like there may be some mounting issues with fans and Capacitors getting in the way.

I'm about 80% sold on the Premuim, I just need to make sure there are no real issues with it, or that I don't run accross something better.

Dang, this build is going to cost me more than I planned

 

[The Pentium Guy]

I'm about 80% sold on the Premuim, I just need to make sure there are no real issues with it, or that I don't run accross something better.

Just don't get a SATA drive. I heard that board is really finnicky with those (they're hard to set up). Btw there's an AN8-SLI Heatpipe cooling edition, but I personally feel that if you aren't overclocking a lot, the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium (heatpipe) will be a better choice.

Dang, this build is going to cost me more than I planned

Ah the pangs of a budget.

~Downgrade to Value Ram if you haven't already
~Downgrade your CPU to a 3000+ Venice and then overclock it
~Look at ZZF intead of just neweggg. You'll save more especialy since many of the items are cheaper and you get free 2nd day shipping .
~Surf the hot deals forum daily of course.

-The Pentium Guy

 

[wanderer27]

The RAM I have already, it's running in my MSI KT3 Ultra XP 2000 - Corsair PC3200 TWINXL. I'm using a Ti 4400 for Video - yeah I know, it's almost 4 years old, an eternity for Computer

CPU is probably going to be the 3700, maybe 4000 if prices drop some more. I've never really done any OC'ing, but I may do a little if I get the 3700.

I've bought some parts from ZZF, eWiz, and Shop4Tech. I like Newegg and I've bought lots of stuff from them before, but right now they're not running the best prices on what I'm looking for. When they do have the best prices, their shipping is knocking it out

 

[doc2345]

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy

Just don't get a SATA drive. I heard that board is really finnicky with those (they're hard to set up). Btw there's an AN8-SLI Heatpipe cooling edition, but I personally feel that if you aren't overclocking a lot, the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium (heatpipe) will be a better choice.

There's no problems with SATA drives. They are not finnicky or hard to set up!

 

[mode101wpb]

I had zero issues with SATA and my board, I installed a Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 SATAII. The only issues I heard about was using Plextor's SATA Optical Drive. The only way to make it work was to use the SATA 300 ports not the SATA RAID 150 ports.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Originally posted by: doc2345

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy

Just don't get a SATA drive. I heard that board is really finnicky with those (they're hard to set up). Btw there's an AN8-SLI Heatpipe cooling edition, but I personally feel that if you aren't overclocking a lot, the ASUS A8N-SLI Premium (heatpipe) will be a better choice.

There's no problems with SATA drives. They are not finnicky or hard to set up!

Yeah I searched around, sorry. Most of the issues were from the DELUXE edition with *Maxtor* SATA drives. Again, sorry for the confusion.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=29&threadid=1646828&enterthread=y

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=29&threadid=1570825&enterthread=y

 

[McArra]

ASUS SLI premium.

 

[wanderer27]

Originally posted by: McArra
ASUS SLI premium.

I see you're running an MSI board.

Why are you voting for the ASUS Premium ?

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Originally posted by: wanderer27

Originally posted by: McArra
ASUS SLI premium.

I see you're running an MSI board.

Why are you voting for the ASUS Premium ?

Because he's got a Neo2 not a Neo4..... I'm not too sure if Neo4 is the best choice for NF4 anyways. Neo2 was a good choice for NF3 (best overclocker).

Besides the Premium is a kickass board.

 

[Xenoboy]

The ABIT AN8 SLI is only $13 more than the Ultra version. Personally I'd get that over the other boards as I have seen some good reviews on the AN8 SLI and the passive cooling looks REAL nice.