mobo buying.

I am looking for a nforce2 board.. What are some of the new revisions/boards available??

The first on my list is the asus a7n8x deluxe or the E-deluxe.. the only diff seems to be the wi-fi on the latter, the rest seems to be identical, is this true, or does the new E-deluxe offer some more features for the overclocker in me?

Finally, what other boards would compare to the above board? Basically I need:

on board LAN (1 is enough, although the 2 that asus offers is quite a bonus for internet sharing without a router)
1394 on board for digital cameras and such
on board audio (surround is a bonus)
usb 2.0 (4 is enough, although more is nice)
fsb 400
dual channel ddr400
ultra133x2 and 2xserial (minimum)

and FINALLY, pci/agp lock, which is a must for any overclocker..

For purely overclocking purposes, people on here seem to prefer the ABIT offering of the nforce2, is there a reason for this or just because its cheaper? as far as features go, can't beat asus (at least abit can't)..

I am just looking for a list of boards that support the above, then I'll do research and decide, although personal opinions are always welcome.

EDIT: Just found the Abit AN7 board, looks promising.. Seems like its the same as the NF7-S, but inlcudes onboard LAN and 1394, which is exactly what I need.. is this board otherwise the same as the NF7-S? thanx

The NF7-S has onboard LAN, SATA, and one of the best onboard sound cards in the business. A lot of people also reccomend the DFI offereings too.

ANy nforce2 board will lock the PCI and AGP.

and FINALLY, pci/agp lock, which is a must for any overclocker..

Click to expand...

no

I'll admit the lock helps, but there are some components out there that can take out of spec bus speeds. Most of the stuff I have can go above 40 PCI bus except for my 800JB and the GF3 series cards are known to take up to 90, sometimes even 100 mhz.

It also seems most of the newer stuff will not tolerate out of spec buses due to most chipsets having the locks execept for VIA. Will they ever get with the program?

I was weighing the same options, but chose the ABIT because it had exactly what I needed for $30 less than the ASUS. I couldn't justify spending more $$ for things I didn't need on the board. Figure out what you need, find the board with the stuff on it and pull the trigger on it.