athlon xp mobo

[RIPSTER]

am looking to upgrade my current system i just cant afford a new 754 or 939 system and I am so desperate to upgrade so i am just gonna buy a new athlon xp setup and i need some help choosing a motherboard

I need something with good overclocking abilities and very stable and i would like it to be able to last me without haveing to upgrade to soon

Here are some of the mobos ive been thinking about:

1- DFI Ultra Infinity (im just not paying 30 quid extra for uv reactive slots carry case frontx and cables)

2- Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe

3- Abit NF7-S VER 2.0

 

[Hughhefner]

I have 3 systems using the DFI ultra infinity and can say nothing bad about them. Very nice bios settings, can overclock the fsb higher than any other NF2 board I have seen. Just make sure to get some high clocking ram or the the 240-260 fsb will be a waste. The board supports up to 3.3V on the dimm which is incredible --especially if you find some Bh-5 ram around.

The only downside which isn't really that bad is the limit of 2.0V on the CPU core, you will need to have the board modded if you plan on putting some EXTREME cooling and want to take a Mobile XP to perhaps 3.0Ghz.

 

[RIPSTER]

what ram would you recommend thats would be stable and acieve a high overclock

 

[Fangs404]

i personally enjoy the nf7-s, and that's what i recommend. the nf7-s has the best onboard sound made. both the dfi and the abit are great overclockers and extremely stable. i love the bios setup and bios mods for the nf7-s that merlin/tic-tac make. i recommend the nf7-s.

 

[Fangs404]

what ram would you recommend thats would be stable and acieve a high overclock

go for some low latency pc3200.

 

[RIPSTER]

could point me towards a specific brandand model and explain what kinda latency im looking to get ive never fully understood what latency gives you better/worse performance or better worse timings

 

[RIPSTER]

is this ram any good at what u said low latency

Corsair (VS512MBKIT400) 512MB (2 x 256MB Matched Pair), DDR400 / PC3200, non-ECC, Unbuffered, CL2.5, Lifetime Warranty

 

[||Console||]

what cpu are u getting? (MOBILE)!!!

 

[sprocket87]

I wouldn't recommend the A7N8X. I have the HP "LA" version (which is just like the E apparently??), and it's a decent board. Pretty stable, but its very limited when it comes to OCing I think. I'm no expert when it comes to that though, and it might just be my HP version. Also it has some funny memory controller problems and is very picky about what kind of memory it supports. Anyway, just my input.

 

[RIPSTER]

im not gonne be getting a mobile yet

im gonna use my crappy proc in my sig i just needx to upgrade the bare esssentials

 

[Jeff7477]

Anything on this page would be good. I've heard good things about the PQI stuff, and of course corsair is a good brand.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=property&DEPA=1

Edit- ok so newegg won't link, just go to the memory section there and type in 2-2-2-5 as the keyword to bring up low latency memory.

 

[Fangs404]

could point me towards a specific brandand model and explain what kinda latency im looking to get ive never fully understood what latency gives you better/worse performance or better worse timings

the latency has to do with the delay of information getting from the memory to the processor. the lower the latency, the shorter the delay of informaton, the better the performance. latency isn't so important with pentiums, but with amds, it's extremely important. i'd recommend something with a cas latency (CL - the most important number of the 4 lantency numbers (i.e. 2-3-2-6, the first 2 would be the cas latency)) of 2 if you have the money. generally, that's gonna be more expensive ram. ocz low-latency, kingston hyper-x, and corsair xms are all great low-latency chips. for example, http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=20-146-883&DEPA=0 would be some great ram for an athlon board that's relatively inexpensive compared to some other brands. that stuff actually runs the same timings i'm on right now. for more information on ram latencies, read over the memory forum.

 

[RIPSTER]

hey guys im over uk here so newegg and stuf like dat arnt available to me

 

[RIPSTER]

is this any good

 

[Fangs404]

hey guys im over uk here so newegg and stuf like dat arnt available to me

doh. i don't know what places will ship to you, but look for similar ram. i'd try to stick with a mainstream brand - ocz, mushkin, kingston, corsair. like i said, go for some low-latency stuff. search around, and if you find something you think looks good, post the link here, and one of us can look it over for you. how much are you willing to spend on ram? also, i'm guessing you're looking to buy 1gb (2x512 of course, for dual-channel). would that be reasonable?

 

[RIPSTER]

well i cant realy afford 1 gb now im just gonna go with 2x256 check the link i gave in my previous post looks good.

 

[Susquehannock]

same here ... wouldn't recommend the a7n8x if you want to OC.

Not sure if they are available in England, but if so you should look
at Soltek too. It quite common for the FRN2 boards to break 250fsb. And they
only have 2.8v DiMM too. With hard mods you could go much higher.

 

[Fangs404]

well i cant realy afford 1 gb now im just gonna go with 2x256 check the link i gave in my previous post looks good.

yeah, that ocz stuff will rock. you'll love it.