Asus A7N8X Motherboard? 2

[looney2b]

I just purchased an older Asus A7N*X-UAy Motherboard. This will be my first time building a computer and although I know some of what I will do I'm hoping I can get some help!
In the box there are 2 different plugs or I'm sorry I'm not sure what they're called. They would screw into the side like where the pci cards would go in, but they wouldn't go in the pci slots. Can anyone tell me what these are for? I can't find anything about these. The other ? is I also bought a Western Digital Hard Drive 7200 8MB cache 80 Gigabytes. It says on the box I might have to buy a Ultra Ata Controller Card if I have windows 98SE/Me which I am running Windows Me. I have a 60 gig drive and never have had to have this so can anyone recommend a card? One more ? I believe this motherboard has sound built in so would I need to buy a sound card?

 

[looney2b]

Sorry about the misprint I meant the motherboard is a Asus A7N8X-UAY

 

[ceh4702]

Sometimes some extra PCI brackets are provided. Often they are USB and maybe a serial port and (MIDI) game port. If you dont need these right now, then they are not that important. Some people use a lot of devices that use USB ports. Example: USB Mouse, USB Keyboard, USB flash drive, USB Printer, USB photo Scanner, USB External drives, etc.

Some people have reported problems with the Asus A7N8X motherboards when trying to use Windows 98 or Windows ME. The Chipset that motherboard uses works better with Windows XP. You may need to find some patches or special settings to get that chipset/motherboard to work with 98/ME. I strongly recommend using Win XP. I have been using the Home Edition at home and it seems to work just great.

The sound on the A7N8X is pretty good. I would try the integrated sound and the integrated NIC (Networking) card built into the motherboard. The drivers should be on the CDROM that came with the motherboard. Normally you install the Operating System and then immediately install the chipset drivers before you install any other drivers. Some information is on the that CDROM, with the drives about what order to install the devices and how to do it.



If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[looney2b]

Do you know if I would need a to buy a Ultra Ata Controller Card for the hard drive I have now? Thank you for answering my other questions. I really appreciate your help

 

[MrGreenleaf]

I have the a7n8x-e duluxe board and it is a very stable board, although there have been some chipset issues. I am running it with 1gb of kingston pc3200 (DDR 400mhz) in dual channel mode. The two connectors you are referring to I believe are the SPDIF Audio Connector panel and the Extra usb Panel with game/midi ports that come with most late model asus motherboards, (as my p4p800 deluxe board, and my p4b533, and even back to the cuv4x-c (which is a p3 board) all use these connectors. They are clearly stated and marked in the motherboard manual as to where to plug these additional panels in the board if you choose to utilize them. My advice about your operating system problem THROW WINDOWS ME IN THE TRASH and buy xp home, and consider the 89.00 cost of home preventive maintenance for future migraines associated with ME. Grind your ME install disk into a million pieces and mail it back to bill requesting your money back. See what happens. No im just kidding, but really ME is junk. It will all be smooth sailing with xp, and you can ensure compatibility for all the features that come with the motherboard. Hope this helps on your first run, let me know what you find out.

 

[looney2b]

I purchased the Windows XP Professional just this last week and should be getting it anytime, so I hope it's as good if not better than the Windows Home Edition. Since you have this motherboard, can you tell me if I install Windows XP Professional would I need to buy a Ultra Ata Controller Card for the Western Digital Hard Drive 7200 8MB cache 80 Gigabytes ?

 

[MrGreenleaf]

I use those western digital drives all the time. I have installed several wd160jd or jb whatever. The 120, 160, and 200 gigabyte 7200rpm drives with the 8mb cache, and never have I had to install and third party software with xp, other than for a serial ata drive which is normal. You should be good to go! Good Luck!

 

[looney2b]

MrGreenleaf, THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!