Best Socket A Board

SLOTh · Post by **SLOTh** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 6:56 am

I need to do a final upgrade on my socket A system, I need a mobo with agp 3.0 and 4-5 pci slots not really much more demanding than that

. any suggestions?

(currently have an asrock k7vta+)

OHH one more thing: Must be able to run a mobile chip

usb 2.0 = +

DonQ · Post by **DonQ** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 7:53 am

SLOTh wrote:I need to do a final upgrade on my socket A system, I need a mobo with agp 3.0 and 4-5 pci slots not really much more demanding than that . any suggestions?

(currently have an asrock k7vta+)

OHH one more thing: Must be able to run a mobile chip

usb 2.0 = +

Being extremely happy with my Abit NF7-S ver 2 (NOT NF7-S2, which cannot for all intents and purposes run the XP-M chips since you can't adjust the multiplier or FSB speeds or voltage; I don't remember which), I would not hesitate to recommend it. Do replace the North bridge fan, though; the Zalman NB47J works for me.

I have a 2500+ XP-M chip running at 200x11.5, 1.575V, with 2 GB OCZ CAS2 RAM, Gigabyte 6600GT, and I can play most games with quite high settings (for example BF2 at 1024x768 with 4x anti-aliasing). It runs Windows and Linux very well. It stays up 24x7 and have no problems.

Have had it for two years and plan to keep it another year once I get a hold of a 7600GT AGP passively cooled card.

jojo4u · Post by **jojo4u** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:33 am

Regarding disconnect (THE proper way to save power on socket-A) have a look at http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... 687#169687

natethegreat · Post by **natethegreat** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:25 am

Another vote for the NF7-S ver 2.0 / Zlaman NB47J combo

openwheelformula1 · Post by **openwheelformula1** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:03 pm

Abit NF7-S v. 2.0

I am proud of it running my HTPC duties. My HTPC is extremely quiet with very low ventilation. My XP2500+ Barton is undervolted as well. You can say better parts handle heat better cause the Abit doesn't miss a beat. Almost everything is passive in there: Northbridge, Southbridge, Graphic card, tuner cards. The CPU fan is at 5V.

inti · Post by **inti** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:48 am

Good luck finding any Socket A board at retail. I managed to buy one of the last Gigabyte boards in February 2006, but I cannot see anything now in my country (apart from the cheap boards bundled with the AMD Geode NX processors, which are basically underclocked Athlon XP-Ms I think).

For a used mobo, a DFI NFII Ultra (either LanParty or Infinity badged, its the same board) is the one to go for if you can find it, it is stable, cool-running, feature filled and has the best selection of clock speeds and voltages in the BIOS. The Abit board already mentioned is an excellent alternative choice.

I still have my DFI board with an XP-M 2500+ and it is a lovely computer: quiet, fast, stable, with great audio and connectivity. I "upgraded" this year to an A64 in one of the best socket 939 boards (Asus A32R-MVP) but it did not make for a significantly better PC. To be sure, benchmarks and video encodes ran faster, but other aspects are not as good: the A64 is hotter than an XP-M; modern audio is not as good as nForce2 with its ability to encode all its output to AC3; and there are some hard drive speed/compatibility issues with my motherboard (reportedly even worse for nForce4 motherboards).

Ragnarok · Post by **Ragnarok** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 9:12 am

I've found The DFI lanpaty or Infinity ultra NF2 boards to be excelent. Once you have installed the best bios, Mine has been much more tweekable and just as stable as my old Abit Nf2-s and it has more sata ports. Also with the added bonus that it already has a passive northbridge cooler!

Like others have mentioned, Good luck finding one of these!

mattthemuppet · Post by **mattthemuppet** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:35 pm

another vote for Abit NF7-S - runs my Sempron 2400+ (1.66Ghz) at 1.375V v. happily. Also has the NB47J NB heatsink. Only downside is that, because it's NF2, you can't dynamically change multiplier using CrystalCPUID or RMClock which was a real shame as I've unlocked the multiplier on my chip. Dynamic FSB changing using 8rdavcore didn't work v. well either, though I did get down to [email protected] though.

I'll hopefully be getting a passive Gigabyte 7600GS later in the year so I can see this system lasting a fair while more

Kipperfer · Post by **Kipperfer** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 9:03 am

The Abit AN7 is another NF2 board to consider. But whether its DFI or Abit you'd have to look in the 2nd hand market. In the UK such boards are changing hands at around Â£40 on Ebay with the NF7-S v2 being the favourite.

These boards very stable under Windows or Linux and you can underclock and undervolt.

Good hunting.

Best Socket A Board

Best Socket A Board

Re: Best Socket A Board