the best
Written: Aug 18 '03 (Updated Aug 19 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: plenty of feature,over clock capable, 2 NIC, SATA,
Cons: none that I can think of
The Bottom Line: The best AMD board with no competition, for now.
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| phuong_nguyen's Full Review: ASUS A7N8X Deluxe (A7N8X/DELUX D) Motherboard |
This is the most popular and the best AMD mother board right now. If you are planning to build a midrange -> high end AMD box, this board is for you.
Notable features:
-support DDR 400 dual channel
-support SATA
-support AGP pro 8x
-voice bios error code
-dual nic build in (3com and nvidia)
-6 usb port
-2 firewire (back plate included)
-5.1 sound output + spif
-over clock friendly
I got his board from newegg for $123. Here is my configuration:
A7n8 deluxe
Amd barton 2500+
Cooler Master silent heat sink + fan
Gainward geforce 3 ti 200 64mb
WD 80g 7200rpm 8mb
512 mb corsair xms pc 3200
enermax case with 350w ps
Installation was a breeze (if you are experienced with mother board installation). The manual that come with the board is very detail, even a beginner can follow install everything with ease.
To start out I set my bios to:
Cpu clock 166mhz * core 11, default volage, memory by speed, video card at stock setting
Install win xp pro and drivers with out problem. All the driver/tools that you need is included in the retail box. I ran 3d mark 2001se and got 8000 point. Cpu temperature around 43 idle and 46 loaded (this because I choose a weak silent HSF instead of a noisy loud one).
Now I try a bit over clocking, set clock to 200mhz core 11, increase the voltage to 1.75(very important, the system would not run stable at stock voltage of 1.65) board post up as a xp 3200, I also used the softmod that come with the Gainward card to increase the clock speed on the card. I ran the bench mark again and got 9600. I stressed the system for a while and it run very stable. Cpu idle about 48, load about 52.
Future improvement to the setup: SATA drive, another memory stick to run dual channel,
Note: use the Nvidia Nic instead of the 3com nic, it is faster, I get about 9MByte/sec transfer with this NIC
Complain: the winbond voice editor tool included let you edit the bios voice so you can make it says “Hail master” when the computer turn on. However it take forever for the tool to write to the eprom, (like 10min or more). And the tool max out processor so you can’t do much else while it burning the rom
Note: This board is used by northwest falcon, the most exotic gaming computer maker.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 123
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Epinions.com ID:
phuong_nguyen
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Reviews written: 7
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