What "nForce 2 Ultra400" mobo to choose?

[tweak]

My old mobo is dying; at least it looks like it …
(Lost power to the heat sink fan, and temperature reading is fluctuating with no change in load from 60-75C though I believe the real temperature is lower...)

Anyway, it smells like new components…

Thinking to go with:
CPU: Athlon XP 2500+ Barton;
Memory: Corsair TWINX 512-3200LL;
Motherboard: Asus A7N8X Deluxe or
Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 or
Gigabyte GA-7NNXP

The question is motherboard. I do want to run that at 400 MHz FSB, but stability is more important than performance…

Any suggestions?
Any other mobo to consider?

Thanks

tweak

[Google]

[alexvdl]

Why not the DFI Lanpart NF2? Nice looks... great board.
_________________
__________[(Crayola)]>_____________
Althon xp 2100+ @ 2100+, DFI LANParty nForceII Ultra Rev. B, 512 of Kingston, and an Evil Wizard Radeon 7500!

[tweak]

Yes, it does look nice, and also has a lot of posibilties for overclocking, but Northbridge chip sits extremely close to the CPU socket. I am not sure if an oversized aftermarket heat sink will be able to fit?

[Diales]

Hey Tweak

This week I'm going to build a new computer using the following components:

CPU.............AMD ATHLON Barton XP 2500+ Stepping: AQXEA (if you're interested in overclocking (OC) buy the AQZEA stepping - they send me the wrong one)
CPU cooler......THERMALTAKE Volcano 7+ (CPU cooler)
Thermal paste...Artic Silver 3
Motherboard.....ABIT NF7-S Rev. 2
RAM.............512MB (2x 256MB) DIMM DDR PC400 CL2 Corsair (TWINX512-3200, dual channel)
Graphics card...MSI Geforce Ti 4200
Harddisk........Western Digital Caviar WD1200JB 7200rpm IDE 80GB, 8MB cache special edition
MIDI-Tower......CHIEFTEC Dragon Midi-Tower DX-01B-D-U /black
PSU...................350W (included in case)
Software...........XP Home, SP1

This might also be something for you, but it's more a reliable OC system. As soon as I get all parts I will test the system and post the benchmarks.
_________________
Malware: http://www.tweaknews.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3395 | https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ehowes/www/main-nf.htm

Benchmark Software: http://www.benchmarkhq.ru/english.html?/b_e.html

How to build your own computer: http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/

[[TN] Nathan]

I'm going to be reviewing the DFI Lanparty Nforce 2 this week guys
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[tweak]

Thank you Diales.


[quote="Diales"]

CPU.............AMD ATHLON Barton XP 2500+ Stepping: AQXEA (if you're interested in overclocking (OC) buy the AQZEA stepping - they send me the wrong one).[/quote]

Can you tell me more about stepping and where can I order processor with AQZEA stepping?

What about other steppings?

[Diales]

Thanks Nathan for the DFI review.

Tweak: There're different Barton Steppings:
newer ones: AQZEA, AQXEA
older ones: AQXDA, AQUCA, AQXCA

Keep on stock cooling it should be possible to overclock AQZEA up to 2.6 GHz and AQXEA to 2.5GHz. The other ones a bit less. So if you have to pay more for a AQZEA stepping (just ask your supplier) let it be - 100MHz more is not a big thing :-)

I've trouble with ABIT NF7-S mobo - I hope I can fix it soon.
_________________
Malware: http://www.tweaknews.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3395 | https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ehowes/www/main-nf.htm

Benchmark Software: http://www.benchmarkhq.ru/english.html?/b_e.html

How to build your own computer: http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/

[alexvdl]

Nathan reviewing an AMD product? Stars and gartarers. Stars and Garters.

What the hell is stepping and what's it do for me?
_________________
__________[(Crayola)]>_____________
Althon xp 2100+ @ 2100+, DFI LANParty nForceII Ultra Rev. B, 512 of Kingston, and an Evil Wizard Radeon 7500!