went for the asus a7n8x-x.

initial impressions

nice board well laid out. came with the latest revision of the bios (Phew). fitted ram and processor while the board was out of the case. my case fan lead was not long enough to reach the power block in the middle of the board:( No probs fitting in the case(probably because its a monster case). surprised that there was no additional ac 4 pin power block somewhere on the mobo coz i know that sometimes athlons need some more juice. Big fcuk off heatsink on what i assume is the northbridge. i know i was asking alot of winblows xp pro but i powered up the machine anyway. didnt recognise my barton 2500 right away. being used to the abit softmenuIII i found the menu system not as slick as the abit one. managed to up the FSB to 166 (333)and adjust the memory for more aggressive clock rates. barton then recognised as an xp2500+ running at the correct clock rate 1.83MHz. PC2700 ran memory no probs. really surprised as it is TwinMOS stuff (2x512)

machine hung at this point so i decided to reformat and stick on the streamlined version of xp pro with integrated SP1. Quick formatted 80 gig in NTFS and xp went on no probs. rebooted after all had finished and i was well surprised that my router and cable modem worked FIRST time.

Then I remembered........i didnt back up my favourites folder DOH! DOH! DOH! what a dick. sh1t happen i suppose. ah well now that i have the pc the way i want it i think i will ghost it and span the image across a couple of blank dvds.

Would like to thank all the bods who recommended the asus board, it looks like its gonna be a good one. 400 FSB should hopefully future proof the board somewhat. just have to wait for the 3200 xp to come down in price now :)

cheers

big sinky

I've had this board for around 6 months - rock solid, I like having 8:eek: usb ports LOL

May even give the serial ATA a go if drives are cheap enough.

Not sure if I'll use BOTH:eek: LAN ports

Not found a use for the firewire yet (came with my GEFORCE4 FOC)

:D

WWSD - I think you may have the deluxe board m8. i got no extra usb cabling, no network, and no serial ata on this board.

is your board not this one

cheers

big sinky

Glad yer sorted Slinky. :)

That A7N8XX really is a top board!

I'll be looking at the current Nforce Asus mobo when I undertake my next build, for sure.
Cheers
JR

I've also got a A7N8X deluxe with a thoroughbred 2400 in an 1GB ram (Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200 TwinX (2x512MB) CAS2) and it picked up all the correct settings and has been rock solid from day one :)

Sinky if you ever want to OC this mobo check the North Bridge and see if its hot.

If it isnt hot to the touch then its not doing its job and drawing away heat. You should pop it off (I used a hair dryer to heat it up first) and put some A/Silver or Shin-Etsu paste on it. Mine was pretty cool to the touch and when I took it off there was only a small sh***y bit of thermal goop on it which was missing from half the NB.

I could never get my Barton 2800 to hit a stable 200 FSB until I sorted this, now its rock solid @ 11 X 215 with dual chanel enabled.

[Edited by Jye - 7/24/2003 1:25:13 PM]

Jye

I take it the northbridge is the one with the big heat sink on it? If so how do i pop it off, and more to the point how do I get it stuck back on with a load of thermal grease?

you think it might be worth investing in good memory (corsair, oz etc). how do rate the TwinMOS stuff, will it go much beyond 166 mhz?

cheers

sinky

am i right in thinking that with the cut-down board you don't get the decent on-board sound??

Dom - nope you get the same on board 6 channel sound out of the Realtec AL650 chip.

cheers

sinky

nice one bigstinky just need the asus i panel ;)


http://homepage.ntlworld.com/simon.s...ery/xp2500.jpg

Si

ohhhh nice where can i get one of them please.

cheers

big (Now read this carefully) S - I - N - K - Y

not Slinky or Stinky http://www.stopstart.freeserve.co.uk/smilie/madgo.gif

[Edited by bigsinky - 7/24/2003 3:29:43 PM]

Really sorry bout that, i would say i was dyslesic but i'd be lying stoopid would be a better answer :D

i panel

Si

Yeah Sinky thats the one, it's held on with little plastic pins, they need to be squeezed off from the back of the mobo and if your carefull no one will ever know, i.e. no RTM problems. The same pins will hold it on again after putting some 'decent' thermal material on it.

Twinmos is OK for the cash I guess, dunno if it will run as well as the bigger manufactures ram, I'm using this atm -

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/product.php?view=5229



[Edited by Jye - 7/24/2003 3:50:04 PM]

Jye

Is that 512 made up of 1 x 512 or 2 x matched 256 modules

damn good price for pc 3500

cheers

big sinky

Scan international

hmmmmmm............. £15 for the product and £15 for postage and packing to Northern Ireland......NOT

yeah i only but in bulk from them, get to about 200 quid then go for broke :)