ASUS A7N8X-X Vs ASUS A7V600-X

[sithspawn]

Im building a new system with pretty average speds. These two boards seem to be the cheapest on the market, while still having pretty good specs. Im having trouble deciding between the two.

Im wondering if anyone has either of these boards and can tell me whether or not one could be better than the other??

Its basically a comparison between the nforce2-400 chipset and the KT600 chipset (north bridge).

here are the respective websites:

ASUS A7N8X-X

ASUS A7V600-X

[Demalii]

get the a7n8x-x with the nforce 2 chipset, or if you can find it, get the a7n8x- deluxe

[sithspawn]

yeah i am able to get the deluxe however it is $50 more expensive and im kinda on a budget right now

[sithspawn]

Also, i have heard that the nforce 2 chipset has poblems with certain kinds of ram. does anybody know this to be true?

[gkathe]

see my post on RAM issues with the nForce2 and Asus mobo:

http://www.tech-forums.net/showthrea...threadid=18993

[c_ro11]

working at a tech center, I can confirm that the Nforce chipset USED to have problems with ram when it came out, but for the last 2-3 months havent seen the problem reoccuring.. might of been fix (new BIOS or Version of the board)

[gkathe]

My boards were purchased 2 months ago. Somethin's up anyway: Asus has posted then removed a BIOS rev 1010 and they cannot even properly post the newest rev 1011 (incomplete file name). My systems have been stabilized with the new RAM and BIOS rev 1008.

My repeated requests to Asus on a specific DDR400 RAM to use still have gone unanswered. Taiwan is on holiday again.

Frankly, Asus and nVidia have dropped the ball. Granted the RAM makers should be clear about the incapabilities their lower grade stuff. But, its Asus and NVidia's product that need the high grade RAM and they need to be more helpful in recommending RAM that really works.

AND, its really all Bill Gates' fault, isn't it !!

[buka]

Have been looking at building a backup PC sice my 2 yr old Gigabyte GA-7VAXP died with 5 domed capacitors...
Was looking at ASUS but....
Trolling through various forums point to much debate on fixing probs with both ASUS A7V600 & A7N8X-X series boards and
a lot of frustrated owners -ASUS seems picky with BIOS, memory and video, and over sensitive to overclocking -eg:
http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic16119.html among others

While I note fewer less favourable comments withthe ABit NF7-S
http://www.duxcw.com/digest/Howto/mb/abit/nf7-s/

Am leaning to ABIT...
buka

[PizzatheHut06]

sithspawn, I would agree with everything buka said. I have the A7N8X-X, and have had a few problems with it. Here is my two cents.

Pros:

-Very stable, I've never had it give me any trouble since the initial start up

Cons:

-Picky, and even sometimes incorrect BIOS. My CPU VCORE temp reads 1.71V in Everest Home, PC Wizard, CPU-Z, and on the BIOS. When I set the temperature to the default of 1.65V, it still reads 1.71V and will not go any lower.

-Poor overclocker. As you can see in my sig, I have an AMD Athlon XP 2500+ CPU, which is supposed to EASILY overclock to 3200+ speeds. However with this motherboard, the highest I've been able to achieve is 191 MHz FSB, instead of 200 MHz.

-Picky with RAM. As mentioned below, I would not purchase this motherboard if you intend on using ValueRAM. I originally purchased Kingston ValueRAM, but had to switch to Corsair XMS when the Kingston was not being read properly.

As you can see, there are quite a few cons, and I would not recommend getting this board, there are others out there that would be better in my opinion. I built a computer for a friend using the Biostar M7NCD Pro, and it was great. It was very stable, and used ValueRAM in dual channel, something the A7N8X-X cannot do.