Best of the Best?

Im quite new to all this stuff about motherboards and the like and i have been reading through to see what everyone thinks of the different ones out, but im really confused as to what really is the best out there, im planning on getting a new motherboard very soon and I could do with a hand in making the right choice.

I have heard good things about a lot of mobos, but which really is the best in terms of overclocking performance? What im really confused about at the moment is which of the new motherboards really is the best, you have the NF7-S of which the rev 2 is apparently very good, theres the A7N8X deluxe rev 2 which is also good apparently, not to mention the to-be-released A7N8X Ultra, and the Soyo boards, and judging from this thread the Soltek SL-75FRN2-L model is worth a look too...

Also what is "A1 Stepping" (or any types of stepping for that matter!) Does it make an important impact on the overclocking potential? Another thing, is it worth waiting for ultra to be released or should i try and find a rev 2 board and not wait?

Thank you for your time in reading this, and thanks in advance for any light you guys can shed on my questions

From what I can gather the Abit NF7-S rev 2 is the best. As far as stepping goes I don't really know what it is, but I do know it does have an impact on overclocking. As far as waiting for ultra, thats up to you. You could wait for it to come out the pick up one of todays board at a lower price, but once again thats up to you.

most times it comes down to personal preferance as to whats the "best"
what to look for in a great ocing mobo.
1.high voltage options in bios
2.ability to run high fsb
3.ease of use without modding it.
4.stability
5.extra options like sata and such
everyweek there is a new "best" mobo so waiting wont help anything imo,id be waiting forever to get the "definative" oc mobo.none are perfect.
the A1 chipset revision only affects high fsb running. yes thats important to me.before this revision it came down to what mobo had the vdd options to raise the voltage manually to get high fsb.now most mobos with this chipset are almost all equal.

id rule out soyo for any hardcore ocing,thats just my opinion.
asus isnt bad if they ever decide to put some higher voltage options on it.the soltek might be lacking these also.
epox has the 8rda+ out with the A1 and its doing nicely.my 2nd fav mobo.

the below is just my opinions.
the nf7-s is just drop down take a hammer to the cpu kinda mobo.
it will do what you want and more.and enough voltage options to fry anything you have guts to try.
even with the soltek lacking some voltage options dont rule it out as very few really ever use 2.2vcore.i do so its a must
i still rank them like this.
1-nf7-s rev1.2/2
2-soltek nf2-epox 8rda+ a1 /8rda3+ even tho its not out its gonna be good.
3-asus for lack of voltage

Soltk or Epox. I still think Asus got stability problems and they dont offer as many features as the two other. I know nothing about the Abit.

Thanks for your help guys, your information has been invaluable! Now that you have recomened the NF7-S so highly it does look pretty good! My overall goal obviously will be to overclock my system to hell so if this board is able to help me acoumplish that then im getting it! Its also more than £20 cheaper than the A7N8X Delux board...is that because its missing various features of is it because its just well... cheaper?

I was using a FIC for a while, and it's the same as the EPoX (They had a joint design team) so I think that I can judge the cheaper nForce2 EPoX as being good, but lacking in features. The board had up to either 2.2v or 2.3v for core voltage, and had up to 230FSB, I think.. It's been a few weeks, sorry

No, the NF7-S isn't missing features! Make sure you get the Rev1.2 or Rev2, as they have holes and updated ****. My friend just got the Rev2 and it has a load of features.

My vote is for the Asus A7N8X Delux because its Asus and seems to be hella nice from what I have seen. The ABit comes in for a second and the EPoX as a first for OC'z or a thrid for features / overall.

actually the nf7-s has soundstorm and the asus kinda has it but didnt pass nvidias standards.point for abit.
it also has sata raid,which is rather buggy but is fast as heck once its setup,not advised newbs try this.
it also has active cooling on the north bridge.
the bios and overclocking is actually a joy as failed atempts at ocing dont hard lock the pc.just hit the reset and off you go without clearing the cmos.ive cleared the cmos once since i put the rev in.and i maxed it and my ram out for testing.

so as you see it actually has more features than asus also.

btw ive owned these mobos:
epox 8rda
asus a7n8x
nf7-s 1.2 and rev2
and i speak from testing and useing them the asus was the mobo i hated.thats from a hardcore ocing standpoint.

but i do recomend it at times also.but not for hard ocing.

Ok, excellent, from what you guys have said the NF7-S really does sound like a champ, and it costs less than the A7N8X (which was the previous motherboard i was most attracted too). The site that im going to get it from does guarantee it to be a rev 2 board (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Abit.html) and it costs less than the A7N8X anyway!!!

Thanks guys, you have been a lot of help!

Oh, one last thing....It does have dual ddr ram support doesnt it? And does it have raid capabilities?

MetalStorm said:

Oh, one last thing....It does have dual ddr ram support doesnt it? And does it have raid capabilities?

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of course
it has both actually.

look up in the abit threads and see my post on the raid0.
it has a benchmark i took of mine running sata raid0! fast as hell too.
but very buggy and unless you are used to setting up raid0 i highley suggest its not a beginers job to try.but once up and running its a demon!

Yes, it does. All nForce2 SPP's have it. SPP is in referance to the northbridge chip.

For the board.. Make sure its at least a Rev1.2 if not a Rev2. Rev2 would be ideal Hella nice, my friend just got one

SiGmA_X said:

Yes, it does. All nForce2 SPP's have it. SPP is in referance to the northbridge chip.

For the board.. Make sure its at least a Rev1.2 if not a Rev2. Rev2 would be ideal Hella nice, my friend just got one

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agreed the rev2 has a large improvement in high fsb stability over 210fsb and also runs dual channel on mine at least 20fsb higher.
my 1.2 did 230fsb single channel, and 210 dual channel.
my rev2 does 230 single channel,229 dual channel.

Damn nice OC'z. BTW, what RAM should my friend buy? He needs some new **** for his Rev2, and I'm voting OCz PC3200EL/PC3500EL (1x256MB stick for now) but perhaps something else is better and cheaper..?

good timing on the question
i just added kingston hyperX 3500 with my corsair xms and it does just as high but at lower voltages.
230 2.8vdimm 2.0-3-3-7
225 2.8vdimm 2.0-2-2-5
and also is $20 cheaper for a 256 mb stick and they have just as good of warrenty and customer service.HIGHLEY recomended ram!

i like it better than my more expensive corsair so kinda speaks for its self.
ocz el ram has been doing well but consistancy can be spotty and also its not cheap.ocz warrenty and customer service kinda sux ive read.ive not tryed there ram tho,but for the reason stated above i doubt i ever will.
plus they would need a miracle stick to out run my hyperx or xms.
i think i paid $72 for a 256mb stick
the pc3000 thay have is liek $50 and oc's above 200 fsb ive been told.but go 3500 if possable.

Thanks for you help guys, its very much appreciated!

Seeing as you are now on to the topic of ram, I had planned to get my self 2 sticks of Corsair DDR XMS2700 ram (256MB) so i can take advantage of the dual channel capabilities of the board...from what you have said though, if i can get the fsb past 200MHz, should i go for PC3200 instead? I dont really understand how fsb and ram speed go together, so im kinda guessing here...

Also, is it worth getting the Corsair stuff? which manufacturer do you recommend?

well if your intentions of getting the best ocing mobo possable that also means you want high fsb.
ive heard the xms 2700 doesnt oc well.
so at a minamum get the xms 3200
but on the extream cheap side the hyperX3000 is supposed to oc well and into the low 200's
if you can afford the 2x hyperx3500 on a nf7 rev2 would be best.
if you buy 2700 and decide to go with a 200fsb chip its gonna be hard to get some 2700 that high.

yes corsair is worth every penny!
kingston hyperX 3500 is just as good mabey a tad better for me but is cheaper by $20 on a 256mb stick.

I read a review of the NF7-S which said that it doesnt have mounting holes around the CPU? but im not sure if they were refering to the rev 1.2 or 2...does the rev 2 board have mounting holes for the larger heatsinks?

Also, regarding ram again I initially chose the XMS2700 because it was reasonably cheap (£40 per 256mb stick) but as you have said that it wont be able to OC far, then I have been looking at the XMS3200 stuff, but damn that is expensive! its £59 - thats almost £20 more per stick! i know that getting it would be worth it, because i would be able to overclock much further...but im going to have no money left!
Im really looking for a fsb OC of at least 200, so If you say that the hyperx3000 can get in to the the low 200s then i might get that...it would be cheaper anyway, but it really dont want to be limited by ram after spending so much on a pimping mobo

I have found some Kingmax memory (PC3200) for £43, and I have also just found some PC3200 "non parity CL3" ram from crucial, what does "non-parity" and "CL3" mean? (its also £43)

but how well does they OC? Is it worth getting Corsair stuff over it at for +£20?

Also when it says 400MHz DDR, how does that relate to your fsb...as the fsb is not going to get anywhere near the 400MHz mark?

Thanks again!!! Im really making a lot of progress here!

I'm using the Gigabyte board now and I would stay away from it.
I am going to try the Abit NForce board next. I need to lock the PCI bus to get to a higher FSB it seem's.
Good luck.

MetalStorm said:

I read a review of the NF7-S which said that it doesnt have mounting holes around the CPU? but im not sure if they were refering to the rev 1.2 or 2...does the rev 2 board have mounting holes for the larger heatsinks?

Also, regarding ram again I initially chose the XMS2700 because it was reasonably cheap (£40 per 256mb stick) but as you have said that it wont be able to OC far, then I have been looking at the XMS3200 stuff, but damn that is expensive! its £59 - thats almost £20 more per stick! i know that getting it would be worth it, because i would be able to overclock much further...but im going to have no money left!
Im really looking for a fsb OC of at least 200, so If you say that the hyperx3000 can get in to the the low 200s then i might get that...it would be cheaper anyway, but it really dont want to be limited by ram after spending so much on a pimping mobo

I have found some Kingmax memory (PC3200) for £43, and I have also just found some PC3200 "non parity CL3" ram from crucial, what does "non-parity" and "CL3" mean? (its also £43)

but how well does they OC? Is it worth getting Corsair stuff over it at for +£20?

Also when it says 400MHz DDR, how does that relate to your fsb...as the fsb is not going to get anywhere near the 400MHz mark?

Thanks again!!! Im really making a lot of progress here!

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The NF7s after 1.0(1.1+) got the mounting holes, so 1.2 and 2.0 definitely have them. You wouldn't want anything less than 1.2 anyway.

Also, I personally like HyperX memory and Mushkin. However, if you're looking for cheap, don't look at Mushkin. Also, don't look at the Crucial RAM... CL means cycle length or CAS latency, whichever you like more. It has to do with how long the system waits before carrying out a received command. CL3 is the slowest you can buy. The HyperX and Corsair modules are rated at CL2 (I'm pretty sure). If you want performance, don't go for CL3 RAM. Also, I would avoid the Kingmax... almost every review I've seen with it has had trouble getting it to run at even 200mhz with rated timings.

So... I'd say if you want the absolute best chance at 200, go for Corsair or Kingston... the HyperX 3000 comes in a far second to the PC3200 sticks, though.

Thanks for than info dude! Very helpful indeed! I think my mind is pretty much made up now! just got to do a little bit of hunting for the best prices! Again, thanks alot to everyone!
(now all i have to do is find a 1700+ t'bred B!) which actualy brings up another question! (sorry!) do i have to unlock the cpu to access all the multiplyers, or will the mobo do it for me? I thought i heard that some did that? If not, then im sure its going to be fun trying! :S