Question about the A7N8X motherboards

[Meteor_of_War]

I am going to purchase one of these nforce2 boards but i have a question i want to be sure of first. I can get the Asus A7N8X Deluxe for about $120, but there's this other A7N8X-X series board for $84. My question is what's the difference(s)? One thing i noticed was in the links below that list specs of the two boards the Deluxe's AGP slot is labeled "AGP Pro/8X" and the x-series is just "AGP". Now i know both these boards are AGP 8X, so what gives?

A7N8X-X

A7N8X Deluxe

Thanks for any help.

 

[dawdler]

Dont know about the AGP thing... But one thing I do know is that the -X doesnt have the SoundStorm chip! It has some Realtek sound. If you want to use the onboard sound, the deluxe is definetly better. If you dont want that, then maybe the cheaper one is better.

If you have the money, go with deluxe

 

[Sgt.Igneri]

Well the chipsets are different. The a7n8x deluxe has MCP-T and Ultra 400, which is what your going to want.

But how bout you forget about asus, head over to www.abit-usa.com and take a look at the NF7-S. All the features of the a7n8x deluxe, but more stable.

 

[thenerdguy]

The AGP pro is a bigger agp slot. Its made for graphic cards that need a higher voltage. The standard 3.5 Volt cards will work just fine but make sure that you have the back agp cover on.(its a piece of plastic that fits in the agp slot.)

Go for the 8X deluxe!

 

[Meteor_of_War]

So no info about the Pro/8X? And yeah, i was thinking maybe the Deluxe had better onboard audio, that's not an issue for me i have a decent sound card already. And about the NF7-S, i like Asus a lot but i'll look into it...thanks for the suggestion. If anyone else has any more info that may be useful feel free to post.

[EDIT] Thanks for the reply thenerdguy!

 

[Steven Q Urkle]

http://usa.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=A7N8X-X&langs=09
it does have 8X

the deluxe has soundstorm, x doesnt
the deluxe has IEEE and SATA and all that, but a basic user has no need for them

its your call.


id second that you look into the NF7-S

 

[Meteor_of_War]

Well yeah Steven Q Urkle, i assumed all the A7N8X boards had 8X AGP. Isnt that what the 8X in A7N8X stands for?

And Sgt.Igneri, when you say the NF7-S is more stable, how do you mean? Do you consider the Asus boards unstable? I've had three different Asus boards including a A7N266-C nforce and never had any problems with them.

 

[Sgt.Igneri]

When i say stable, in a nutshell i mean its can hold a better OC.

 

[Meteor_of_War]

I have one more question about the A7N8X Deluxe vs the cheaper x-series version. How much difference would there be in performance results between the two boards in 3dmark tests and games like UT2003?

Other specs i'll have:

AthlonXP 3000+ 400FSB
1 gig pc3200 DDR RAM @ 400MHz
ATI 9800 Pro

 

[Spitwad]

ive heard that the a7n8x-x doesnt have dual channel support

 

[MacGraham]

The a7n8x-x isn't an Nforce2 board!! Its cheaper cause its a budget version, therefore its the GF 4MX of asus boards

 

[Meteor_of_War]

Originally posted by Spitwad
ive heard that the a7n8x-x doesnt have dual channel support

You're right Spitwad.

Thanks for bringing that to my attention.:cheers:

I definitely want the dual channel support for the RAM.

Originally posted by MacGraham
The a7n8x-x isn't an Nforce2 board!! Its cheaper cause its a budget version, therefore its the GF 4MX of asus boards

MacGraham, i think it is an nforce2 chipset.

Refer to the link i gave in my first post.

 

[Pagy]

Originally posted by MacGraham
The a7n8x-x isn't an Nforce2 board!! Its cheaper cause its a budget version, therefore its the GF 4MX of asus boards

that's completely incorrect

the a7n8x-x is an nforce2 single channel board. It doesn't do double channel memory, which isn't very valuable on the nforce2 chipset.

The a7n8x-x's performance is almost exactly the same as the deluxe. In any case, if you don't want sata, dual lan, soundstorm or dual channel, the x version is the one to get.

btw i think asus sucks

 

[Meteor_of_War]

Originally posted by Pagy
that's completely incorrect

Yeah, i just edited my post replying to that.

BTW why dont you like Asus? Bad experience?

 

[Pagy]

Originally posted by Meteor_of_War
I definitely want the dual channel support for the RAM.

Why?
Soltek's single channel board
http://www.amdmb.com/article-display.php?ArticleID=244
It's faster sometimes

Dual channel isn't what its cracked up to be on the nforce2 chipset. It is with p4's and nf2 integrated video boards.

Judging by your specs however, you should prolly want to keep the doors open for the extra stuff the deluxe board offers

 

[Pagy]

Originally posted by Meteor_of_War
Yeah, i just edited my post replying to that.

BTW why dont you like Asus? Bad experience?

My a7n8x dlx runs fine, but if i had better ram/more time to order i would have gone with a overclocking board like an epox or abit.

A friend had some problems with it though, which didn't impress me.
Don't fret though, most people are happy with it. 2/3 computers i built this summer with a7n8x dlx's are running flawlessly.

 

[Meteor_of_War]

Originally posted by Pagy
Why?

Damnit i wish i had both boards to do comparison benchmarks.

 

[Pagy]

Originally posted by Meteor_of_War
Damnit i wish i had both boards to do comparison benchmarks.

they are out there, i'm sure of it

though you'll have to dig it up, i can't find it

 

[theGreenBunny]

I own the x-series one. I compared RAM benchmarks on another comp with an MSI dual channel board, and it only shows like 1-3% performance increase when dual channel is turned on.
So if you don't want the fancy features, go with the x-series one. Same performance, lower price.