Asus A7N8x

[Admiral558]

I'm thinking about upgrading my computer over Christmas break or next semester, whenever I get some more $$$...

what is a decent mobo that can be used with AMD xp2600+? I hear that Asus A7N8X is pretty decent for the price, but has a built in video card(not that I'm going to use it). Getting an ATI 9200 128MB in a few weeks for around 45 bucks at a computer show so goodbye to the old 7500 64 MB.

My current mobo doesn't even have the correct number of pins to hook up the the power switch led...needless to say it has to go.

Any ideas? any help appreciated

 

[Cosmic~Fury]

Asus A7N8X is perfect! I myself am getting the deluxe for the USB advantages...

 

[Admiral558]

usb advantages? Isn't usb 2.0 a standard on motherboards these days?? or are you referring to the number of them, my current board has only 4 usb 2.0 ports and they are sufficient for what I do (mouse,gamecontroller,printer,ati remote) what else could you possibly put in them...maybe a digital camera or 2 but my ideas have run dry.

it does have nice dual-channel ddr so I can transfer my ram til I upgrade to a new cpu...and also the built in sound is nice but is it better than the old soundblaster live?

what is the use of all the pci slots I see in mobos these days, mine has 3 and I still have 1 empty one, with new technology AGP is taking over video streaming and the only other devices I can think of to put in pci slots are sound cards and modems(56k/lan what have you)...

* you could get a usb pci card to gain 4 more usb 2.0 ports but I only see you needing that if you don't have 2.0 to begin with*

as you can tell it has been a while since I've made my own computer, last time I bought individual parts RAM came in sticks smaller than 32MB and they were expensive as hell and cdrom drives were affordable new technology(btw that was on parents old 486 in the early 90's )

 

[mikesgroovin]

The Asus mobo that you referenced is a sweeeet board....

To add to some of your thought....just some ideas coming from my current setup....

USB - Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick, Camera, Printer, ATI remote, UPS controller for those "unexpected" Maryland power outages, and a 16MB memory key for all those files that I need to grab on the way to work.

On Board Sound - This was good for me until I really started to play games a lot online.....Battlefield 1942, Warcraft, etc. Some of the sounds out of the game sounded like "The Chipmunks Christmas Carols" until I added a better soundcard.

PCI - 2 Network Cards, Sound Card, RAID controller, Modem, FireWire Card, USB Card..etc.

Geeeez, I can totally relate to the days that you speak of with the whole RAM thing......I can get a little worse, but I'd rather forget those days......

-Michael

 

[daveppeters]

That is definitely a sweet board!! The A7N8X Deluxe uses the Nvidia Soundstorm Audio, whereas the non-deluxe version uses a C-Media or Realtek Audio Setup (can't remember which). If your into digital audio - the Soundstorm is the only audio solution currently on the market that will encode dolby digital 5.1 (SB Live will not). I have heard a lot of good things about the Deluxe. It also has two onboard NICs and several USB 2.0 ports - useful for scanners also. That board also has SATA support for faster hard drives. Anyway, I would recommend getting the Deluxe version if you plan to buy the A7N8X.

P.S. - Send me one while your'e at it!!

 

[kboy]

Asus A7N8X-Deluxe Rocks!!!

 

[Admiral558]

thnx for the help everybody. just added another item to the christmas list