new motherboard advice
 

ok, looks like i'm going to be buying a new board here pretty soon, methinks. got an offer on my existing setup.

looking at the following boards:

msi kt4 ultra-fsir

abit at7-max2

gigabyte ga-7vaxp


which one should i get? i'm kinda leaning towards the abit, because of all the goodies (including firewire). i don't have any serial ata drives, but it might come in handy. the onboard sound is useless, but it also has a plethora of onboard usb. all 3 look like pretty good boards, but the gigabyte looks the least appealing. the firewire would be nice too. of course, it's going to be overclocked.

id recommend you get the asus a7n8x, rock solid, fast, plethora of useful features, amazing onboard sound, and its a great overclocker.

hrm.. that one looks nice too, and the 3com nic on-board would improve it's freebsd compat...

they're all similar prices and features, so hard to decide!

I second the Asus a7n8x. Either that or the Epox 8RDA+.

Both are excellent choices....

Just so you know, it is official, the 8rda+ does NOT give the end user temperatures from the on die diode. It was stated such by EPoX Tech at the amdforums. It DOES, however, read the diode for BIOS shutdown temps.
Supposedly EPoX was afraid that users were getting scared away from their boards due to high temp readouts.
But aside from that, the EPoX 8rda+ is the fastest board out, and is rock solid stable too.
-Zoson

ahh... excellent, add yet ANOTHER board to the list


i appreciate the suggestions, i will take all into account with my decision! :)

I have to support the A7N8X, its the best i've seen so far!
Check out www.gamepc.com in the In the Labs section for a review.

If you are looking for dual LAN, go Asus. If you want to overclock, go EPoX. It has a larger range of BIOS options than the Asus, and clocks much better. I've installed five of the suckers now and they're doing great. YOU WILL NEED A NORTHBRIDGE COOLER ON BOTH OF THESE BOARDS. They both have these crappy tin things that suck the big one. If you are using a GF4TI4600, though, you will need to be careful installing it if you go the EPoX route, though: there is a component on the card that tends to get snapped off against one of the RAM slots.

hrm... epox, eh? i'm not using gf, radeon 9700 pro 128. i'll check it out.

I got the A7N8X at 207 FSB with a NB cooler (and PC 3200 Corsair). Great board, nice BIOS.
If you're more inclined towards Epox get the 8RDA+ as it's just as good as the Asus one.
On both boards: CHANGE the northbridge heatsink, even before mounting the mobo. Both have insufficient - hmmm totally crappy northbridge heatsinks. Watercool it or use a *good* HSF. Ah and flash the bios, too (for the Asus get the 1002)

Yeah, BIOS flash ... 8RDA2C16.bin is the best currently on the 8RDA+ ... I've pushed over 215 on mine with PC2700 ... I get a better overall overclock at a lower FSB, though.

I should mention that if you decide to go with the Epox 8RDA+, wait till V1.1 comes out. Reason being is that V1.1 is suppose to include a BIOS adjustable Vdd setting that will help you a lot when going for extreme FSB. V1.0 you need to do a Vmod (not a problem if you dont mind doing a bit of soldering :D )

Epox is still a great buy.

BTW Radeon 9700pro 128mb works great on the Epox. Mine does at least :D

awesomes. i need to start to play with overclocking the video card. never tried that. any suggestions?

so, even if price isn't an issue, the epox would be the way to go?

EPoX, definitely. Get one for $97 at mwave.

Thx airspirit!!!:cool:

If this helps, I just installed my new 8RDA+ instead of 8K9A2, and all I can say is - this mobo fly. Much better - smooth, works with no prob's with my radeon 8500. Currently on 12 x 166 at stock voltages, tomorrow will show the rest...:D

Cheers!

After I tried A7N8X with jiuhb 1700, and now 8RDA+ with another jiuhb 1700, I'm definitely voting epox. Great oc'er, with 60mm fan on 7V over the stock nb cooler, perfectly stable on 12x196, 1.85V vcore, mem on stock voltage (kingmax 3200).

This thing cries for a nb wblock!:)

Both mobos are great, as lot's of ppl here said...tough choice...:cool:

Little update here about my experience with the Epox 8RDA+.

Just modded the board for 1.82V on the chipset and currenty running (2) Corsair PC3500 256MB sticks @ 210FSB. Total clock speed as of right now = 2310Mhz @2.0V I must admit that it is not completely stable but it is burning in and seemes to be getting more stable the more I use it.

(I think my problem is that my PSU is not getting enough current to the chip. My +5V rail is between 4.79-4.83V, need to fix that)

Soooooo, the Epox is a very nice board.