Motherboard decisions

[smaxted]

I was wondering if I should buy an Asus A7N8V or buy an ECS K7S5A. The Asus board has AGP 8X and USB 2.0, serial ATA as well but the ECS has none of these. I was hoping that the board would last me along time (2 years). I know it has a low bus speed compared to the Asus but I didn't know if it would be worth buying the Asus because i doubt the ECS would last that long being so outdated. Any opinions or suggestions would be great..thanks! Scotty Mac a.k.a smaxted

"Another day, another problem"

 

[pmonett]

Just my two cents, but AGP 8 is probably going to mean something in no less than two years. If you expect to hang on to the board only that long, I wouldn't fret over buying a board that does not have it.
As a side remark, you need a recent graphics card to take advantage of it (meaning GF 4 TI 4600 or Radeon 9700 Pro). Besides which, having the board and the card does not actually mean that your system will perform much better than a good old AGP 4 would with the same 3D card.
I recently bought the A7V8X and it works like a charm. The only reason I would have to change it now is if I absolutely had to get the dual DDR management of the NForce. But with quality DDR333, I have no such need at the moment.

 

[paparazi]

Your choices are extreme, the aging budget SIS chipset
K7S5A (there are much better budget choices by the way) and the bang up to date, Nforce 2 board the Asus A7N-8X, there is a middle ground as well, plenty of quality boards out there that won't break the bank.
Gigabyte GA7-VA
MSI KT3 Ultra
Abit KD7
Stick to a main brand (definately not ECS)
Soyo, Abit , Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, etc
The A7N-8X is apparently a great motherboard but at the moment I have having a nightmare with one that won't run at anything over 100fsb with an XP2.4 and 3200DDR memory, everything BUT the motherboard has been swoped for brand new components, so it isn't all roses.
Martin


Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[rxpete]

I agree, stay away from no-name brands like ECS. I've used a few of the MSI boards and found they're pretty decent. AGP 8 is something to look for if you're going to take advantage of it with the right vid card but don't convince yourself you have to have it just cause you can get it. Same for USB 2.0 although that one is nice to have if you use attached storage.

 

[MrMMills]

I already bought the Asus A7N8X Delux and it works smooth like most Asus products. You canonly use the SATA connections or the Parrall IDE connections but not both simultaneously. On another note the SATA has to go through the PCI bus so even though the SATA drives can go ATA 150, it will bottleneck on the PCI bus and not go more than ATA 133, and even ATA 133 is bottlenecked on a typical PCI bus at 32bit 33MHz.

SATA drives will not be a good choice unless you are running them through a controller card on a 64 bit bus. We are forced to wait until a chipset is developed that integrates SATA for standard motherboard use...

 

[ceh4702]

Unless you have tested SATA Drives don't make any assumptions about the speed.

According to

http://www.tomshardware

it is hard to stress out even 4 hard drives running at 100 Mbps. They questioned the need to even use 133Mbps interfaces for hard drives. The reason is the delay on the write speed versus the transfer rate of the bus.

I think the SATA drives are not ready for todays computers. Your bus speed may be faster than 33 also. Older computers use to be 33/66 depending on the slot.


Maybe we need some data writing speed tests to test this out. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[jonhiker]

How does your budget affect your buying decision? I just purchased a SOYO Dragon Lite and am real happy with it. It has the 500Mhz FSB/support for RAID,ATA133, built in sound, AGP4X. If you're a power user, skip the ECS and look at the ASUS or something in between.

 

[CitrixEngineer]

If you're on a tight budget, consider Gigabyte, Chaintech - or even MSI (a little more expensive, but well worth it, IMO). Stay away from SiS chipsets - the performance is lacklustre to say the least. The KT400 or NForce2 are well worth the few extra $$$.

The NForce2 chipset is the current crown holder for speed, but most manufacturers cut the features to save money, such as IDE RAID, GBit LAN and Firewire ports (Headers are usually included, but headers are not quite the same as ports - you need to buy additional hardware to use them). KT400 boards tend to be packed with features.

When choosing a motherboard, IMO, it's features, features and features, since the chipset is usually as good on any board (with a few notable variations). What do you want from your board now, and what are your plans for the future?

Out of the two you've posted, there's no contest. ASUS. If they both had the same chipset, I'd still choose ASUS.


Hope this helps CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk

 

[smaxted]

thanks for your responses...i will take a look at the MSI, I've heard good things about the ECS board thats why I was looking at it but other than that I will probably look at something I little higher up. Scotty Mac a.k.a smaxted

"Another day, another problem"

 

[digitalmaster]

Smaxted, check out my FAQ "Tried and Tested Combination"

 

[smaxted]

I think i am caught between the MSI KT4VL and the Asus A7N8X. The MSI is amazingly well priced but I havent used it or heard anything about it. Has anyone tried it out?? Does anyone know anything about it??? Scotty Mac a.k.a smaxted

"Another day, another problem"