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My old A7N8X-Deluxe rev 2.0 seems to be heading south (purchased April 2003). So far I have lost 2 USB ports and 1 NIC port. I don't know what is causing it and I really don't care ... I do however, wish to replace it soon with a minimal investment of cash since I will be going to AMD64 within 6 months. It would also be nice to be able to replace the board without reinstalling the OS. Problem is that the exact model (A7N8X-DX rev 2.0) is no longer available. I would consider a different mainboard and even a different manufacturer if I could get one for a good price. Here is what I have to work with :

1) AMD 3000+ Barton processor (333 FSB)
2) 1 GB (2 pcs 512) DDR400 TwinX1024-3200LLPT Corsair RAM.

Here are a few questions I have :

A) Could I use the A7N8X-X or A7N8X-E mobos and skip the OS reinstall?

B) For an extra $182 I can get a 3200+ Barton with the 400 Mhz FSB to match these mobos. Would that give me a significant performance boost relative to my current 333 Mhz proc (consider that I will keep this for approximately 6 months b4 I upgrade)?

C) I plan to keep my existing RAM and possibly my existing CPU. If I did would I be better off going with a different manufacturer/model MB?

D) Any other ideas or suggestions?

Thanks guys,
Paul

probably not the answer you are looking for, but for 5$ you cna get a pci nic and for another 5$ you can get a pci usb card, and wait a few months to get your new motherboard Unless a critical part of your motherboard is dying, i don't see a reason to get a whole new motherboard you are not gonna keep for long.

Hell, your motherboard might work for another few years, you never know.

You can migrate it to any motherboard you want without loosing data other then all the MS updates.

Personally I'd tell you to get the Abit NF7-S ver 2.0 mobo. Many of us here use it and love it. Me, Krom, Rook, Punisher just to name a few.

As far as your OS is concerned, just grab the bootable XP disc, and boot from it after you have put all your drives nsht in place.

Load into the disc and get to the point where it tells you that is sees an existing OS and lists it below. Att his point, choose the option, "repair". There are two times the disc will let you repair. The first one is the recovery console, do not use that one. Wait for it to detect the OS and list it. that's the repair you want.

It will delete system files then start loading. sometimes this process will crash and not complete. Don't sweat it, just rinse and re-lather and it will work the second time.

After all is done, do your drivers all over again and then the updates/service packs from MS.

STRESSTEST wrote:Personally I'd tell you to get the Abit NF7-S ver 2.0 mobo. Many of us here use it and love it. Me, Krom, Rook, Punisher just to name a few.

I'll second that, my NF7-S 2.0 kicks.

personally, I'd hold out till you can afford the 64-bit chip.

as long as the PCI slots work, I wouldn't sweat the onboard stuff.

I see two of the ABIT MBs at NewEgg ...

A) $59.00 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 185&depa=0

B) $68.90 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 184&depa=0

Only difference I see is that (A) has onboard 10/100M LAN while (B) has onboard GbE LAN

Wazza dif?

[edit] Duh ....
10/100M = 100 Mbps Ethernet
GbE LAM = 1000 Mbps Ethernet and well worth the extra $10

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 166&depa=0

The two you listed are the NF7-S2, not the NF7-S rev. 2. From what I gather the S2 is more mainstream-oriented, and since youre only going to be using it for a few months it should tide you over just fine.

The NF7-S rev. 2 is more performance oriented. I had one till i got my dually and it rocked. Its more expensive though, so you have to consider just how much extra performance/features youre gonna be using for 6 months.

Now, this might sound stupid but is that all you would need to do anyways stress? I mean, replacing a mobo that is. Say I wanted to get a new mobo that supported higher ram, had an agp slot (mine doesn't, blegh) but supported my already existing processor.

Could I get the new mobo, get new ram, a new vid card and just hookup my already existing stuff? PSU, PCU, Fan, HDDs, soundcard, nic etc? Then do the XP repair method?

Then just setup the BIOS with my already existing stuff and make sure everything is kosher? I've been thinking about revamping my existing box (new tower, mobo, ram, psu) and just switching everything over but haven't done it because I didn't want to mess with re-installing windows/programs or ghosting all that stuff etc...

yep

aight, thx man.

Actually, I recently migrated a system from an MSI board to an nf7-s 2.0 and windows booted up fine, minor reconfiguring and reboot, and all was well, I was actually impressed.

I love the nf7-s series boards, I've built lots of systems around it (including my own) and never had a single problem.

Well, I realize that my processor isn't exactly high end anymore but I'd still get some usefulness out of this PC if I had a board with an agp slot and an agp graphics card. That is a no brainer. The other thing is that though I have 512mb of ram its PC133 so...yeah.

Just thought it would be worth asking if I go that route, that way I'll have a decent PC for other uses if/when I build a brand new one anytime soon.

Krom is that 2500+ Barton you've been overclocking the chit outta based on the NF7-S?

It's not a 2500+ barton, its a 1700+ T-Bred B. But yeah; I'm using a NF7-S v2.0.

I use an NF7 for my work machine as well, its a nice board and no problems.

The 64 bit age is upon us though, and for that I shall entrust the MSI Diamond.

I wouldn't trust an MSI anything... had too many msi boards go bad.

I've got a 2500+ set up to 2125mhz just on air cooling on my nf7-s, another teammate with the same chip/board but with water cooling, has his at 2400mhz...

Capm wrote:I wouldn't trust an MSI anything... had too many msi boards go bad.

I've got a 2500+ set up to 2125mhz just on air cooling on my nf7-s, another teammate with the same chip/board but with water cooling, has his at 2400mhz...

I built my friend a system, A7N8X-Deluxe rev1, 2500 barton with an SLK900. Clocked it to 2.4 for him