Which board? Soltek or Gigabyte...

I'm in the market for a new AMD board (have to replace my old KK266). I'm looking for a high-performance, quality board w/ lots of features (onboard IDE Raid, good sound, SATA), and something that will last me for a while without costing an arm and a leg. I've been looking closely at the Soltek SL-75FRN2-RL $99 Newegg and the Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro $119 Newegg. I like the dual bios of the Gigabyte, and from what I've read it has the MCP-T while the Soltek has the MCP. Sound is not the greatest concern (I only have 2.1 speakers), but I want something that won't take 15% of my processing power to process the sound in a game. Is the Gigabyte worth the extra $20? I also want it to be a pretty good overclocker (of course)... What do you guys/gals think? Are there any other boards that I'm overlooking? Thanks...

I think feature wise the Asus nforce2 board (too many damn numbers and letters to memorize) it has practicly everything, but the Abit NF7-S is pretty loaded and arguably the best AMD board out right now in terms of stability and OCing)

Both are good boards. I would go with the Gigabyte. They make a quality product and the onboard sound and dual bios is worth the extra $20.

I would take the Soltek. I'm very happy with mine. It replaced an EPoX 8K7A+ and I think that it has just as many features as the EPoX. The only thing I miss tís the ability to go higher than 1.85 on the Vcore. Other than that, I think it's a great cheap and stable board.

I'd go with the Gigabyte, I just cant bring myself to replace it even though I could o/c more with a new one. Nothing beats it for stability and quality.

The Gigabyte is an Ultra 400 chipset, and it has the MCP-T (soundstorm as I understand), the Slotek is $20 cheaper and has the C1 Nforce 2 chip and only MCP (no soundstorm I guess). Both boards have all of the features that I want: Raid, FSB 200Mhz, Sound, USB 2.0,... Both boards also appear to be of good quality although I've never owned a board from either company. (Gigabyte) Do you guys think the MCP-T (soundstorm) and the ultra-400 chipset are worth the $20? (performance-wise) Will I notice a difference with/without them? (Soltek) Or will I be limiting myself with the C1 Nforce 2 chipset and MCP? Side note: whichever board I get will HAVE TO accomodate my Thermalright SK-7 (I love it), and I don't mess with the voltage much, so that's not really an issue. Thanks for the help and the excellent responses!

Actually I'm pretty sure none of the nForce2 Giga-Byte boards have the soundstorm. They all have realtek sound, which isn't bad IMO.

If that's the case, I may as well save the $20 for a sound card, unless the Ultra400 chipset really outperforms the C1 stepping of the original huh? Or is Gigabyte $20 better? I know to some $20 is nothing but I'm on a budget, and my wife will kill me if I don't get a CHEAP, good one that will last me a while...

Well if your not going to use the sata and duel lan and firewire just go with the lite version of it the GigabByte, It's much cheaper and has the same chipset just less features.

The Abit NF7-S v2.0 is the board to purchase at the present time.No compromise with this board. The bonus is that ExcalberPC.com has undercut Newegg and is selling it cheaper that either of the two your considering. How bout $89.00 !!!

The NF7-S looks good, but I want someting with onboard SATA and IDE Raid for at (or around) $100, these two boards were the two best options that fit my criteria. It's so close that it's pretty much a toss-up between these two, both of these boards look great. I'm thinking of upgrading to a Radeon 9500, would there be any problems with either one/both of these boards? Which one is considered to be a better overclocker? This is a tough decision...

Went to ExcalberPC.com to check out the Abit NF7-S v2.0, the $89 is not the 2.0 (the $109 is), but what I found interesting is that it said it had Soundstorm. Then I went to Tom's to check the features/specs table on his latest 10 board Nforce2 Ultra 400 roundup (included Abit NF7-S v2.0 and the Gigabyte) I noticed the sound chips were the same (Realtek ALC650), and both had the MCP-T. After a bit of research I found this page at Rojackpot ( http://www.rojakpot.com/default.aspx?location=3&var1=20&var2=0 ) It certainly cleared some things up about the whole Soundstorm thing. Since the two boards both have the same audio chip, dolby 5.1, and the MCP-T; I assume the sound quality should be similar at least, and with all of the goodies it comes with, I'll probably splurge for the Gigabyte board. This is not to say that the Soltek board is not a great board, but I'm pretty certain that I will be purchasing the Gigabyte board very shortly (this weekend). I appreciate the help, and any further suggestions, insight and/or experience(s) is certainly welcome, Thanks!

Also: Any Ram suggestions (and cheap places to buy) are welcome as well.

I have the soltek. Its a great board. It has plenty of overclocking features. Its not an Epox 8RDA+ or an Abit Nf7-S, but its still a great board for overclocking. I would def. recommend it.

Just Ordered the Gigabyte from Newegg $119 (free S&H), I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks...

I've had a good experience with Gigabyte, especially with their Customer Service Staff and Technicians. They let me bring the board in since the company HQ is a 10-minute drive from where I work. The technician brought me in and showed me that my board was, in fact, working properly and invited me to bring it back if I had any further problems. I'm happy to say that everything is running great with the board, and a company with staff and service like that gets an A in my book.

"Amen" on the service you got from the factory ! Big plus living that close to them.

I remember people not being able to get even an e-mail reply to solve a problem with some manufactures.