NF7 v2.0 vs. NF7-S v2.0

I'm considering putting together a new system.
I already have :
1) Athlon 1800+
2) Alpha PAL 8045 Heatsink
3) Turtle beach Santa Cruz Sound Card
4) matrox G450eTV Video card
5) Adaptec 2940 U/UW SCSI Controller
6) Quantum 36 gig Ultra wide scsi

Everyone is talking about the performance of the Abit NF7-S.
But considering the components that I have already, would I be better off with just the NF7 v2.0 (NON S) as oppose to the NF7-S?

Essentially, what are the basic differences between the two boards. Is the performance the same??

Thanks

Performance is the same, they use the same C1 northbridge. The 2 differences are SATA raid, firewire, and soundstorm. If you do not plan on using the SATA or soundstorm, then you would be better off with the non -s version.

The soundstorm technology is better than that soundcard you have, but it doesnt look like youll be using IDE technology. If youve got good speakers and you care about sound quality, then $20 more for the -s may be worth it.

Also if you have any firewire devices and want to use that, then the -s is probably worth it as well. USB is superior and all the new stuff is featuring it, which both boards offer, so if you dont currently own a firewire device, youll find this feature worthless.

Which vendors are selling the NF7 v2?

excaliberpc is the only place I know of that lists the revision. Some people have gotten revision 2s non -s from newegg too.

Rocko, thanks for the info.

Since I'm going SCSI, I guess I shouldn't worry too much about the issues sorrounding the SATA. Also you're saying that the soundstorm is superior to the PCI Santa Cruz I have. I didn't know it was that good.

I also forgot to mention that I have this PCI SIIG Firewire card I purchased about a year ago.

So lets see, your saying that there's no difference between the two boards except, firewire, SATA, and superior sound on the NF7-S. Am I to understand that even though the NON S version has on-board sound, it's not as good as the NF7-S?

I also noticed that excaliberpc is selling the NON S version.

But this is the first time I'm hearing that others have gotten the NON-S from newegg.

Again thanks.

The onboard sound on the non -s is just AC97 codec crap. Its 6 channels of complete crap. The -s version uses the codec, but its powered by the nforce APU.

The general agreement is that the nforce APU is slightly better than the Audigy 1, but falls slightly behind the Audigy 2. Considering however the APU is onboard for $20 (assuming SATA and firewire are useless), its still much cheaper than an $80 OEM Audigy 2. You can go here and read more about it: http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=apu

Also theres some reviews I've seen but dont recall where of the APU vs an Audigy2 etc. Those have some useful information as well.

Honestly if youve got a good set of speakers, it is probably worth it to upgrade tothe -s. It's only $20 more, and you could prolly sell your sound card and firewire card for that anyway.

Thanks Rock.