Best nForce 2 board currently available....

I

iczelion74

Weaksauce
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Apr 3, 2002
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Im running a Athlon Xp 2800(barton) on a Soyo Dragon Ultra and I was thinking about moving to a dual channel board, something like the Asus a7n8x-E Deluxe. So whats the best nForce2 based board out there. Id prefer to keep ot around 100 bucks and I dont need a raid controller. Also is the gain obtained by moving from a single channel ddr board to a dual channel board worth the time and expenditure??? Thanks....
 
DFI NFII Ultra Infinty, $95 at newegg.com.

Tons of features, great overclocker, support forums with dfi reps at amdmb.com.

It has sata raid, you may want to upgrade one day... who knows.

As far as a performance difference, I really don't know. But I just switched from one stick to two and my system feels a bit more responsive.
 
Unless you plan on overclocking, there are no real worthwhile benefits of switching to a Dual channel nforce2. Dual Channel doesn't nothing for Athlon XPs.

nForce2s are special becuase they lock the PCI/AGP buses allowing for higher FSB speeds. Dual channel is just a plus, that gives like a 2 - 3% boost in system overall performance...but doesn't improve memory bandwidth

So it's hardly worth the time and money, unless you're into overclocking.


blah...overclocking or no overclocking...get it anyway :D
You'll need two sticks (preferably of equal size, speed, brand, etc) of memory for Dual Channel to work. Or you may choose to use a single stick of memory only (on the nforce2).....you'll be running in single channel mode.

For mobo..DFI Infinity NFII or LanParty B NFII is best.
Both boards are basically the same, except the Lanparty glows in the dark, has gigabit LAN, and comes with a ton of accessories like rounded cables, UV, etc.
 
does geil memory work in the DFI boards? It's not on geil's list of compatible boards :[
 
Originally posted by Ugly_Jim
does geil memory work in the DFI boards? It's not on geil's list of compatible boards :[
Click to expand...

Is Geil compatible with anything?

I hated that crap every moment i had it.
 
No i tested in my Epox and Shuttle nforce2. Utter crap, i got rid of it long before i got my Infinity.
 
GEIL will work in the NF2 boards from DFI. Blue shield GEIL has a problem in most of our boards (as with ASUS and others) but I have had it working in the Ultra-AL and the LP-B. I don't suggest it as memory to purchase though.

my suggestions:

OCZ Gold EL
Buffalo (Winbond or Samsung)
Mushkin Level II Black (Winbond BH-5's, works awesome in the Infinity and LP-B boards)
HyperX (great timings, toss-up on whether they overclock well..the BH-5 flavors of course overclock excellent)
Corsair XMS/TwinX (again, great timings, but I've had bad experience trying to get them overclocked)

Differnce between Infinity and LanParty is as Dris says...you pay about $50-$70 more for the LanParty, but you get all the UV reactive stuff, rounded cables, FrontX, lan carrying strap, etc etc.

Both boards share the same PCB design, BIOS, and voltages (3.3v vdimm!).
 
I believe the concensus about NF 2 ultra 400 boards boil down to three brands (in aphabetic order) Abit, Asus, DFI -
Some also suggestion EpoX -
Now, I believe the DFI lanparty NF2 Ultra B ( correct me Angry_Games if I got the name wrong) which is one of the newest nf2 ultra 400 boards out has got game. It is a little pricy but it has TONS of stuff with it (like a case carrier and glow in black light slots for windowed case maddness) and from what I have read - runs overclocked like a rocket. Stable too. But again of the three you cant go wrong.
(not affiliated with DFI, Asus, or Abit - but wish I could be someday...)
And if you want the BEST performance for socket a dont bother with anything else than the Nforce 2 ultra 400 -
if you do want to get very close performance to the nf2 ultra 400, without extra expense see if you can find a nforce 2 400 - it doesnt have the dual memory bus but still rocks.
 
I recommend the A7N8X-E because I'm pretty sure the "lanparty" probabily doesnt have nearly all the features.
 
Originally posted by kronchev
I recommend the A7N8X-E because I'm pretty sure the "lanparty" probabily doesnt have nearly all the features.
Click to expand...

the Lanparty has more...ALOT more.
 
Originally posted by Drisler
the Lanparty has more...ALOT more.
Click to expand...

the only difference I see is that the lan party has the worst color scheme I've ever seen, is $40 more, and has two more SATA ports.
 
another vote for the A7N8X-E Deluxe.. It was already a kick ass board, but the -E version fixed pretty much any problem that the previous versions had.. I have an original A7N8X Deluxe (rev 1.04) and it's been one of the best boards I've ever owned..
 
LanParty NF2B and the Infinity NF2 boards share the same PCB design, same BIOS, same voltages. LanParty comes with all the goodies (which the Asus board does not come with nearly the amount of extras that the LP boards does), the Infinity is a stripped down version.

Again, same bios, pcb, etc, same overclocking features and abilities, but with standard flat ribbon cables, no UV reactive stuff etc.

Asus is a nice board, as is the Abit. But neither come with the amount of accessories that the Lanparty does. They are more like the Infinity boards. This doesn't make the LanParty board better, just makes it more expensive and usually the customer purchases the Infinity if they do not need all of the extra accessories.
 
angry_games, few questions for you.. Is the onboard Audio Soundstorm certified, and will the board support 3 dimms running at DDR400?
 
I'm alittle hesitant of the NF7-S as on abit's specs for it, it says running the memory at DDR400 speeds, your limited to using 2 dimms... I have three.. don't feel like buying new memory again.. ;)
 
The DFI's have soundstorm. They use the mcp-t chipset.

It is surprising the number of people that confuse the Lanparty and the Infinity when clearly stated that they are different boards (same overall design) and one is NINETY FIVE DOLLARS! :D
 
Abit- NF7-S, maybe the AN7.
Asus- A7N8X Deluxe, A7N8X-E Deluxe
DFI- ULTRA INFINITY, LANPARTY NFII ULTRA B
Epox- 8RDA3+
Gigabyte- GA-7NNXP
Boards by Abit, Asus, DFI, and maybe Epox all look like a winner. IMO I like both Abit and DFI, going to get a NF7-S for my rig and an Ultra Infinity for a HTPC setup. I think all board have the MCP-T chipset too.
Albatron looks to be making some good boards as well as Shuttle and MSI. Although based purely on features and extras I would get either the LanParty Ultra B or the A7N8X-E Deluxe.
 
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