Abit NF7-S or Asus A7N8X Deluxe

[Cruz]

I'm planning on purchasing an nforce2 board, but I can't decide which one and ask for your opinions.

I like the Asus over the Abit because of the passive northbridge heatsink, but from what I read on the net, the Asus has a big problem with losing the BIOS if overclocked too high.

I like the Abit over the Asus because I want a toslink connection. I want to connect my system to my home stereo, but it's pretty far away, and I don't want to use coax (as would be the case with the Asus' digital coax connection) for something of that distance. What I don't like about the Abit is that it has a fan.

Noise is a BIG issue to me. I will be using my two sticks of Corsair XMS3200LL 256MB, GF4 Ti4200 (replaced fan with Zalman HP40 passive heatsink), Seagate Barracuda 120GB, Samsung 32x CDRW/DVD, and Athlon 2100+ (cooled by Zalman Cu6000 flower heatsink in silent mode), all powered by a Enermax 350W Whisper. That's all. No other fans. Don't need them, my system temps right now (with MSI KT3 Ultra2) run at CPU:33 SYSTEM:35).

Once I buy the board, I will buy an Athlon 2400+ and lower the multiplier and set the FSB higher. I don't want to run the cpu any faster though because I don't want to raise the voltage.

I was considering the Abit and replacing the northbridge fan with a Zalman northbridge heatsink (already tried one, works great), but I was wondering if that might prevent me from reaching 200FSB (which is my goal). So with all that in mind, Abit or Asus? I won't go with any other brand anymore.

[stncttr908]

Well, personally I'm going with the Asus, but either would be a solid choice. I'm going to use the 2 10/100 connections on the asus board to piggyback my xbox on it with ICS. But, if you don't need stuff like that, the Abit is cheaper.

And just to add, in all of the nforce2 roundups, these 2 boards have been 1 & 2. :D

[Cruz]

Yeah, almost all reviews and roundup that I've read have places either the Asus or the Abit as #1.

My reason for only sticking to Abit or Asus is not because of that though. I gave other manufacturers a try. I'll just stick to these from now on.

I like Asus' dual nics, and I could probably use it later, but my biggest like with Asus is the passive cooling. But it doesn't have a toslink spdif connection.

That's what I like about the Abit, the toslink. But it has an active heatsink. No fans for me. Decisions, decisions!

[SavagePaladin]

I like Abit.
I just....like them. So claim bias or something and ignore me <g>

The thing with the ASUS is if you don't use THEIR drivers, the audio setup gets screwed.

[pelly]

Er....if you use the Asus Deluxe model, you're using SoundStorm so using the NVIDIA reference drivers shouldn't be a problem.

:confused:

[SavagePaladin]

ASUS audio config is changed around a bit. Normally, it isn't a problem, but it can be.

They have some very specific changes from the defaults, but the dd5.1 stuff should be perfectly normal.

The 2.0 audio drv won't install on it (automatically, it will manually) but the next NV driver should. (So NV has said to me)

[StuRReaL]

i recommend the Abit NF7-S :)

used an Asus and Epox nforc2 boards and i definatly favor the Abit Rock solid platform imo. **** quick with my Radeon and Quadro :)

[Dazz]

I heard the ABIT NF-S to be very cramped.

[StuRReaL]

Its ok tbh is there anyway in particular where its supposed to be cramped ?

[iamanewuser]

I've got the Abit and I love it. The new rev 1.1 board is out now and its got the mounting holes around the socket if thats important to you. Overall its a really stable board.