NForce2 board with 8 IDE onboard?

[Eli]

Hopefully this will be an easy one. Is there an NForce2 based board out there that will take the 400MHz FSB Barton chips and has four IDE channels (ie. 8 devices) onboard? Hopefully a decent overclocker too...

I've been considering a version of the MSI K7N2 and an XP2500+ to upgrade from my P3V4X/Celeron 1G but while I'm looking at new boards, I might as well try to get all of the features I want while I'm at it.

[Kuasimodem]

This looks pretty promising, GA-7N400 Pro2. It's got 4 IDE ports, Serial ATA ports, onboard LAN, sound, Firewire, and you can overclock from the bios

NewEgg has it for $117 shipped.

[Eli]

Thanks, I just noticed that one myself. Any experiences with it?

I'd already be all over it if I didn't have something against Gigabyte. Their tech support e-mail response of "It should, but it is not working" and nothing else when I was trying to get a K6-2 400 to work left me rather bitter.

[stroyal]

Get a PCE/ IDE 2 channel controler, and you will have alot more choices in motherboards

[poopeyhed2]

I have the board, I just got it. It's an awesome board! I have mine set in a RAID 0 array Like Kuasimodem said, the Pro2 board is a nice one, it's full of features and doesn't have the DSP. Only problem with this board is there's a REALLY close capacitor next to the socket, and I had to bend my capacitor in order to get my Vantec AeroFlow to work. I got my board at monarchcomputer.com and they ship to Canada.

[SiliconJon]

I would like the same. Those PCI RAID controllers aren't cheap (new, from a reliable vendor). But I'm having even more phun trying to find one with SoundStorm and RAID. I prefer the SoundStorm over the RAID, which gives me a couple more options than if I just wanted RAID...but I can't find one that has both (IDE RAID)

I think I'm just going to go with the K7NCR18D-PRO II and try to trade or just break down and buy a RAID controller card. I have no need for SATA as they're just a bit insane on the price side. I need storage more than I need performance, and SATA doesn't cut it in that department.

The last nForce2 I bought was LeadTek, and that guy loves his computer (and I've been jealous ever since!)...very nice boards.

[SiliconJon]

Yup, that's what I'm gettin'...

Now I just need to figure out if I really think I can get any extra umph outta PC3200 2-2-2-6-1 vs PC2700 2-2-2-5-1 ...and if it is worth $70 (2 x 512MB Kingston HyperX )...doubt it, but I'm going to check out some benches just to make sure...

sorry...crapped yer thread...stupid coffee & shopping got me all excited

[Eli]

Poopeyhed2, thanks for the advice. How well does it allow for overclocking? Think it'll let a 2500+ make the 3200+ jump? I'm not too worried about the cap. If it gets in the way I'll just mill a slot in the heat sink like I did for my ECS S370 board.

I want the RAID onboard so I won't need to buy an extra card. Like I said, while I'm shopping for a board anyway I might as well go all-out and get what I want. Why stick in an expansion card if you don't have to? I can order it on this side of the border for $170 Canadian+taxes, and I haven't even shopped around yet.

[poopeyhed2]

I'm not really pushing it on OCing, however, I'm just messing around with the RAM timings on my generic PC2100, and it seems to be OK, I had it on 170 MHz FSB. Takes a while for the video signal to come after the messing around, typical of OCing. I don't think this board will do very far.

[Eli]

Any idea what sort of FSBs, etc.. it offers? I read one review that said it overclocks great, and another that said it didn't. lol