Motherboard Upgrade

Current specs:

ECS K7S5A mobo
AthlonXP 2400
512MB PC2700 Crucial


If I was to upgrade to an ABit NF7-S, how much would I gain in terms of performance? Please advice! :)

Also has anyone heard of the manufacturer ASRock?

Thanks

Howard

ASRock are the budget version of ASUS

Quote:

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Originally posted by Howard
Current specs:

ECS K7S5A mobo
AthlonXP 2400
512MB PC2700 Crucial


If I was to upgrade to an ABit NF7-S, how much would I gain in terms of performance? Please advice! :)

Also has anyone heard of the manufacturer ASRock?

Thanks

Howard

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depends on a number of issues:

1. is that 512Mb two sticks? (needed for dual channel)
2. is that xp2400 already unlocked, and running at 166FSB, in sync with the ram? (jump from 133 to 166 FSB in sync mode should give a nice perf yield)

One stick
and no I don't know if it's unlocked but I can change the FSB in my bios. Doesn't boot higher than 143 though. I assume with the new mobo I can do multiplyer changes for better overclocking.

heh Asrock a beinga budget board is an understatement, really regret getting mine, only came with ide/floppy cables and there are 0 o/c features.

You need to unlock it and get another stick of ram to truly see a good boost.

If you get the new mobo.... you could lower your multiplier to 13 (from 15 I assume) and jack the FSB up to around 166+ and you would probably notice the system being faster. Personally, I think your graphics card is the weakest point in your system and could probably use upgrading.

Want to buy a GF4ti4600? I'm thinking of upgrading to a 9800 Pro :)

I'm gonna buy an ATI 9600Pro soon. Don't want another nVidia. I've been told by numerous people that an Abit NF7-S will provide a good all round performance boost.

Well, as its more than likely a Thourobred{sp} you wont need to unlock it. Nf2 boards will unlock them automaticallly.

AMD introduced the feature of auto-unlocking in the Tbred series (both A and B). My 2400+ is running at 2138Mhz, 133Fsb with 16X multiplyer, at 1.6Vcore, all at 51^C. I can get it faster, which makes more noise... nasty you can hear it in the bathroom downstairs. and also cooler, with the previous comment still holding true.

They are great boards, really are, you can get some good deals on them as well, as long as you look around for them. I got mine off of Aria when they first came out. Best board, EVER imho..

Lol :)

Cheapest place to get one?

i think they are deal o the week at komplett,it might sound backwards but if your cpu isnt a tbred b core sell it and buy an xp1700 or 1800 dlt3c

It's a Tbred B. I'm not selling it :p

I just bought my nfs-s from CPU city - I cant find the invoice atthe moment but they were the cheapest at the time.

even a kt600 would show a big performance increase. From your mobo, to the KT333 Epox mobo a few months later, all same stuff, i saw quite a jump in performance, better hdd performance, ram worked faster. Everything was just a whole lot smoother and nicer. A good chipset is essential to a good computer, a 3200+ and 9800 pro and so on, would basically suck on that mobo. (not really, wouldn't work in it, but you get teh point).

A nice Kt600 would give you a nice boost, and offer upgrade paths, better cpu's, 200Mhz fsb and so on.

A nf2 would be slightly faster, and even in single channel would be a fine upgrade. See what you think with your current ram in, if you don't feel its as good as it could be, sell it and get 2xPC3200 twinmos.

ECS K7S5A = barely any faster than AMD760, so an NForce 2 board will give a signifacant and very noticable boost. You will probably also notice less system lock up and lag for the brief moment a CD writer demands that your whole system stops multi tasking etc - that sort of thing. I've used Ali magic, AMD760, KT266a/333 systems and both my NForce 2 boards (abit and asus) blew them away for OS stability/usability.

ECS K7S5A boards often fell over at 140 - 150 mhz, so your current limitation of 143fsb is probably due to the awful SIS board. Its possible that your 2700 crucial ram may do 200fsb at 2.5/3/3/6 settings, so I wouldnt rush out and buy new ram till you have tested your current stuff in the new board.

Consider the NF2 cut down cheap as chips non Dual DDR (someone help me out with the exact name!) chipset variant boards before you go KT600.

I am not going VIA. They're crap. I'm going to buy an NF7-S. Nforce2 > All :p

And I'm not buying any new RAM or anything, except maybe another identical 512MB stick for Dual Channel

www.overclock.co.uk has the NF7-S 2.0 for £88 inc vat, but then you've got shipping on top.

I brought an NF7-S (v1.0) from aria.co.uk. Had lots of problems with it, as it was the first one out. In early Feburary. It broke in the last couple of months. got it RMA'ed and the kind people sent me an NF7-S (v2.0) OWNAGE :)

Havent had a chance to try it out, case -> li-lian PC-60 and psu -> levicom 450watt coming on monday....whoop.

Should be cool :)

Will

p.s. just need to get that corsair 2x256 pc3200LL twinx stuff!!.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Howard
And I'm not buying any new RAM or anything, except maybe another identical 512MB stick for Dual Channel

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here have a look at this. 2nd from bottom item is listed as.

"SoA nForce 2 ATX A L" - The blurb calls it the NF7 (note the lack of the "s") at £65 - no doubt you can shop around for it etc.

Listed as having MCP-T so you get the proper NF2 sound chip and networking, but seems to lack SATA socket and Dual channel (which you dont need as you have a single 512 dim).

There is also the ASUS A7N8X-X at £65. yes here we go. It calls it the "nForce2 400 chipset".

Which is the better board? A7N8X-X or the NF7-S?

The NF7-S is.
The A7N8X-X has the non dual ddr chipset hence why its cheaper :)

What I was suggesting was that if you only have 1 stick of ram and no need for SATA then you dont necessarily have to go for a fully featured NF2 board.