This review came about as somewhat of a fluke, since this wasn't the motherboard that I had planned to get for my bro's PC. I was actually looking for an Epox 8RDA+ as an nForce2 Ultra400 replacement for the already installed Asus A7V266-E that was performing quite well in some respects considering it's age, but we wanted more - especially since the new Radeon9500Pro, RAM and AthlonXP1800 were showing much promise in the overclocking department, and certain benchmarks scores were decidedly on the low side.
The A7V foiled our overclocking attempts on several fronts by not having enough frequncy dividers
for the AGP/PCI to FSB ratios, not having enough voltage adjustments (and none for the DDR or
AGP/IO voltage, pretty much only the CPU), left us with a max FSB of 140Mhz stable giving a
CPU speed of a little over 1.6Ghz (11.5x140=1610Mhz). At first, this seemed like the max the
CPU would do at this multiplier since the temps were climbing to around 130F using a
SwiftechMCX462 and a screaming Vantec Tornado fan. We were also hesitant to unlock the
processor, in part because it's not a quick or simple process for what seemed like a dubious gain at
this point. The RAM was purring along happily at even the highest FSB we managed on this mobo
at the most aggressive settings that were available - 154MHz at CAS2-2-2-5-1; nothing to sneeze at,
and SiSandra was reporting a 97% efficiency of the bus's max theorhetical throughput. Very good
there indeed. 3dMark around this point was a tad over 1900 - completely underwhelming for this
vid card and CPU combo.
So, after battering the system with various utilities and benchmarks, the motherboard seemed to be
the weakest link.....so, buh-bye. I was also *very* impressed at the scores floating around the web
for the nForce2 boards (and the KT400a's too), particularly the A7N8X and the 8RDA+. The Asus
seemed to be the board to have, sporting all the goodies but the 8RDA+ was no slouch either and
the $45 difference was the deciding factor between the two.
A trip to Fry's to pick up an 8RDA+ proved fruitless - they only had one left. It had the "infamous
Red Sticker of Death (IRSD[TM]). The sticker also said "missing IO shield--since the nForce2's
have decidedly nonstandard rear panels, so we ruled that out immediately. The Asus
A7N8XDeluxe was there, but it was $160. We decided on a board that we'd read no reviews on, or
really heard of before - the MSI K7N2G. What made us pick this board was;
1)It was red(!) and matched the 9500Pro (bling bling!)
2)it was an nForce2 (although *not* the new nForce2Ultra)
3)It had *WAY* more bundled/included features than any of the other boards that were under $150
4)It was only $99.90 :)
Don't get the impression that a red PCB is a *really* important factor for us, but I *will* say that it
definitely made us look more closely at it than if it was the ugly brown-gold color. Plus, bling bling
is always nice to have! heheheh. Getting it home and looking through the box, I was pleasantly
surprised to see the right amount of included connectors/cables/goodies.
