ABIT NF7-S vs. GigAbyte 7N400 Pro2

[MegalosSkylaki]

Narrowed field for planned "lead computer" --also a Media Center..

Abit at $95 and GA at $105 at NewEgg -- not a big deal co$t dif..

Newbie builder may get older and wiser--so upgradability some concern. Ease of building. Idiot proof. Useful utilities --as opposed to useless ones

Will mount up to THree Hard drives as needed, starting with 2 Maxtor 120G 8Mb cache EIDE..Barton 2500+ CPU. 1024MB PC2700 Crucial Memory on hand... To run at FSB333

Which would you make a case for ? Why ?

Any better non 64-bit choices out there, will consider... Would an N3 Platform 150, with same memory make any difference, anyhow ?

DOOOOOOG

[tgxiii]

It's a question of stability vs. overclockability.

Gigabyte for stability, Abit for overclockability. (Not to say that Abit isn't stable, but Gigabyte is more.)

[The Terk]

Originally posted by MegalosSkylaki
Any better non 64-bit choices out there, will consider... Would an N3 Platform 150, with same memory make any difference, anyhow

i believe the nforce3 is for 64bit, if i am not mistaken i am forced witht the same question, but i am going with the abit nf7-s because i want to be able to OC that same proc to 3200+ w/ FSB

[dafanman]

MegalosSkylaki
I also would tell you to go with the gigabyte for stability purposes based on first hand knowledge.

The gigabyte will also be ideal if one intends on having alot of storage/optical drives.

It is not among the top tier of overclocking boards! and its multiplyer selection must be done via dip switches on the board.

A good power supply is a must, as well as good quality ram.

Here is a source where you can check both mb manuf forums
Amdmb Forums
Just scroll down to the abit, and gigabyte forum and you can find all the info about both considerations, good and bad.

Hope this helps,
Laterz,
dafanman

[Starfury_2260]

i would get pc3200.

[Tazzin]

Gigabyte

I have the GA-7N400 Pro (not Pro 2) and I love it!

[poopeyhed2]

Originally posted by Tazzin
Gigabyte

I have the GA-7N400 Pro (not Pro 2) and I love it!

Yea but the Pro 2 motherboard isn't quite as good as the Pro version. The Pro version is a 6 layer PCB motherboard while the Pro 2 (correct me if I'm wrong) is a 4 layer motherboard, therefore, you lose alot of features of the Pro2 vs. the 7NNXP.

I personally don't like the GigaRAID found on the Gigabyte board, but the Promise SATA RAID controller is excellent. I have used both motherboards, and I find that the Gigabyte may boot faster/run applications faster than the NF7-S, the Abit board overclocks way better and is a great board. The only problem I found with the Gigabyte board is no 4 holes mounting and the capcitors are extremely close to the socket, I had to bend a capcitor to fit the Vantec Aeroflow on it.

[Atomic Rooster]

I've had my NF7-S v1.0 since February 2003 and it's been rock solid. The on-board Nvidia SoundStorm is awsome. It doesn't come with any useless utilites other than Hardware Monitor which works ok. You can attach four IDE devices to the two IDE controllers, and two HDD's to the two SATA connectors using the included Serial port adaptor. (Makes for a nice RAID setup.) Drivers/BIOS are easy to get and update from Nvidia and Abit.