New Socket A Motherboard

[Allen]

Thinking about the Abit NF7-S, but then I see the Abit NF7-S2G a bit cheaper. This is leading me to think that it's not as good as the original NF7-S, but I can't see what the differences are.

Anyone know?

Anyone have any other suggestions for a Socket A motherboard? And please don't say "get a Socket 939 motherboard and Athlon 64" as I've just lost my job and money is an issue at the moment!

:edit: Sorry, it will be running an XP-M 2500+, 2x512MB Crucial RAM, XFX 6800GT 256MB AGP, 2xSATA HDD's and the norm. Don't really need onboard sound but would be preferred, needs onboard LAN.

[Smokey21]

You can't really go wrong with the NF7-S, though they are hit and miss for FSB clocks.

The DFI infinty is nice but it's a bit more pricey. The Epox Nforce 2 is also a nice well rounded board.

id probly just grab the Abit myself. Least you have the multi to play with not like A64's.

[Allen]

Not too worried about overclocking, I'm happy with a 200MHz FSB to get 2.2GHz (3200+ speeds).

Just need to know the difference between the NF7-S and the NF7-S2G now.

[Smokey21]

Hmmm, seems like it's just got more RAID options. NF7-S 2.0 it is.

[Allen]

I'll keep the Abit in mind, but mine seems to be suddenly working again.....

Damn PC's, get you in a right state sometimes!

[BUFF]

Thinking about the Abit NF7-S, but then I see the Abit NF7-S2G a bit cheaper. This is leading me to think that it's not as good as the original NF7-S, but I can't see what the differences are.

>:edit: Sorry, it will be running an XP-M 2500+, 2x512MB Crucial RAM, XFX 6800GT 256MB AGP, 2xSATA HDD's and the norm. Don't really need onboard sound but would be preferred, needs onboard LAN.

S2/S2G uses a different southbridge with far better SATA but loses Firewire & Soundstorm Audio. G has Gigabit ethernet.

It was also built as a general office use type of mobo rather than overclockers tool. As such it lacks items like the ability to adjust multi in BIOS (to be fair all new desktop chips were locked by the time it was launched) so unless you feel like pin/socket modding you really don't want to use 1 with a Mobile.

[Nox]

You can also get a bios saviour - won't help this time but will for the future, unless you get it with a pre-programmed BIOS - may well be faster than sending your chip off.

Nox

[adsmithy]

I'm having real problems wth my NF7-S v2.0 running 200MHz FSB. I've just replaced the board with another and still getting erros in MemTest. Running out of ideas now. I'm using TwinMos PC3200 memory 2x512 dual channel mode.

[listy]

sure its not your ram thats busted?

tried one stick at time in memtest?

[jimbouk]

I had more luck with my Athlon-M at 166MHz fsb rather than 200MHz. In a SN45G Shuttle (nforce 2 Ultra) currently at 1.6GHz, gone above 2 but this is a second PC for my mum's house now.

[adsmithy]

sure its not your ram thats busted?

tried one stick at time in memtest?

This was my initial thought, and the memory is the only thing I haven't replaced. I originally had an Athlon 2500+ but swapped it for a 2500-M because these are supposed to be better clockers.

Anyway, on my old board. One stick at a time in DIMM3 @ 200FSB ran OK with memtest. Whenever I ran with both sticks [dual channel] I got errors. So I thought maybe the motherboard was at fault.

So I bought another [used] motherboard and today I've just installed it and I'm getting exactly the same problems. Either this new motherboard is faulty aswell or it's the memory but why do they work fine individually but not together

As a side note, the best I can get [to run memtest without errors] with both sticks [dual channel] is 180MHz FSB.

[Max Tractor]

there was issues with twin mos and nf2

[adsmithy]

It works Flashed a bios which had CPC disabled and I can now run 200FSB, left memtest #5 on all night with no problems.

It looks as if 512mb sticks in dual channel can be tricky with the NF7-S. So I now have a Barton XP2500+ and a secondary NF7-S motherboard which are obviously fine, so I'm thinking of getting some PC4000 and seeing how high I can get the FSB, so I can give the mobo/cpu/mem i'm currently using to my dad.