[Trypt]

I already posted a similar request in general hardware, but this is a bit different and more specific. I want to upgrade my board (sig) to a board that is similar in all aspects, but it also locks the agp/pci bus. I made a mistake when I bought the kt600 chipset, which although great, does not lock the pci/agp bus. I am under the impression that all nforce2 boards lock the agp/pci bus, is this correct?

I'd like to upgrade to a board that has onboard audio (5.1 or 6 channel), SATA, usb 2.0 (the more the better, mine has 8, although I'll be happy with 4+), and definitely onboard LAN..

Also, i need some info on performance gains for dual channel ram.. Should I worry about that at all and go to 2x256 ocz pc-3200 or pc-3500?? will I notice a big increase from my ram? I know there probably won't be much of a diff with the cpu I run now, but I am planning on a tbredB or barton 2500+ which I will run at over 200fsb.

That being said, which companies and revisions of mobo's should I look at? I see that the asus is very popular as is the abit nforce2, so I just need to know the pros and cons of these boards, and which is the best (for overclocking purposes and features)

Finally, should I upgrade my mobo/ram at all? I mean my mobo/ram is pretty new stuff, and I could just upgrade my chip and make sure I get an unlocked one, and then just stick to 210fsb, which is the highest I'll go considering the pci/agp bus is not locked, and I am on a multiplier..

Thanx in advance.

[Trypt]

ok, I've done some research, let me know what you think of the following, and what the diffs are, if any, i will include the prices for comparrison purposes:

abit an7 ($145 CND)
abit nf7-s ($139 CND)
asus a7n8x ($117 CND)
asus a7n8x-E deluxe ($165 CND, what is the diff between this one and the a7n8x?)
MSI K7N2-DELTA-ILSR ($154 CND)

the above are all the nforce2 boards at one store, i'll find some more at other stores, especially gigabyte which i hear good things about.

[apenland01]

The best board in those you listed is the ABIT NF7-S. It has the SATA, onboard soundblaster, LAN. It's also the least expensive which is why I chose it since it had all the features I wanted. Avoid the ASUS X version since it doesn't have the onboard LAN or SATA if I remember correctly. When researched boards a few months back, I immediately discounted the ASUS X version from my list as it didn't have what I needed.

Check out ASUS homepage to compare for yourself.