asus a7v8x vs asus a7n8x

[elite_syntax]

not sure if i should get the Asus a7v8x DDR motherboard for $106.00 or this motherboard


Asus Motherboard for AMD Athlon/XP/Duron Processors, Model# A7N8X (support AMD XP2800) Retail
Specifications:
CPU Supported: Socket A AMD Athlon/XP/Duron (600MHz - 2.8.GHz up to XP2800)Throughbred core CPU ready
Chipset: NVIDIA nForce2 SPP
FSB: 333/266/200MHz
IDE: 2x channel ATA133
RAM: 3x 184-pin DIMM Sockets(PC3200/PC2700/PC2100/PC1600 non-ECC DDR Ram)
Slots: 1x AGP (Pro/8X), 5x PCI
Ports: 6x USB(2.0),
Onboard Audio:Realtek® ALC650 6CH
Onboard LAN: MCP integrated NVIDIA® MAC + Realtek® 8201BL PHY



I was plan to get AMD 2000+ or amd 2200+ with a Antec P4 atx12v 400W Power supply with 2 fan
:confused:

[JohnT]

Sounds like a nice board, but it's hard for me to do without at least one serial port and I'm not a big fan of onboard video. Post the link for those if you don't mind.

[elite_syntax]

http://www.newegg.com/app/Showimage.asp?image=13-131-423-09.JPG/13-131-423-05.JPG/13-131-423-03.JPG/13-131-423-04.jpg/13-131-423-08.JPG = ASUS A7V8X



or this i want to get but i not sure if each motherboard would work with linux or be a easy upgrade if i wanted to:):confused:

[JohnT]

Originally posted by elite_syntax
motherboard would work with linux or be a easy upgrade if i wanted to:):confused:

A mobo with onboard sound, video and lan is not the most realistic way to go if your looking for upgrade material. Price of boards now days I don't even look to upgrade cpu's, just get the one that will do ya for awhile. All dependent on your usage. Buy good components and do board upgrades instead.
You can always check the RH hardware compatibility listing to see if your hardware is listed yet. The newer the hardware there's less of a chance it will be listed, but it can give you info on other listings.

http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/

[bwkaz]

Going with an nForce2 is not a good idea, IMHO. You'll be locked into an nVidia video card if you want to use AGP at all (you have to use the nVidia-internal AGP support, which won't work unless you also have an nVidia video card); you can't use the kernel's agpgart.o driver.

The onboard sound, while it works wonderfully in 6.1 mode with the Windows nForce drivers, is little more than a slightly modified i810 sound chip. The Linux nForce audio driver from nVidia is also little more than a slightly modified i810_audio driver. Which does not support more than 2-channel audio, and it's reportedly scratchy at that. You can get the real OSS drivers (not OSS/Free, the stuff that's in the kernel, but OSS/Something Else) for the chip, and 6.1 will work, but the drivers will cost you money.

Onboard LAN seems to give enough people trouble as well. The nForce drivers for the card work -- well, most of the time.

So I think I'd go with the A7V8X instead. But then again, 8x AGP has given a LOT of people a LOT of trouble as well -- there are at least four or five different people that have posted at nvnews.net complaining about 8x AGP support not working right. Maybe it's just because it's so new? Maybe.

[elite_syntax]

I think i go with the asus a7v8x ddr motherboard. I going to use the Matrox g450 AGP:)

[Puloxor]

I disagree about on board stuff.. i think its great. All new half decent boards have integrated sound/lan, video so-so.. anyways, the reason i think its good is because you would usually turn them off and put in your top of the line stuff. but 2 years from now, when you get a new motherboard, this old motherboard suddently becomes a "system" when you turn the audio/lan/vid back on.. thats how my computers go anyways.. anyways, back to the point =P

I'm not sure about linux, but in the windows, nForce2 is the way to go. You don't have to use nVidia cards with it either, its simply a chipset. Ironically, Radeon9700 Pros run better on nForce2 than Via's KT chipsets ^_^. If you plan on getting a new vid card, get 8x AGP. Otherwise, don't bother.. I don't like the idea of "leaving room for upgrades" because by the time you probably will get an 8x AGP card, you'll be buying a new motherboard =)

[Holdstrong]

RH 7.2 ran just fine on my a7n8x - but I only booted from a linux HD for a few hours so that I could samba files over the network to another drive. I then set up windows on a drive and now run that on the a7n8x.

in other words, I didnt do a whole lot with linux on this board. But what I did do worked. The onboard LAN was fine, and I used an ATI Radeon 9500 video card and that was fine.

under my windows environment this mobo is just about the best I could have asked for. check out tomshardware.com and anandtech.com for reviews of this board. It is always top of the class.

My concern with linux would be the onboard sound - but of course, there would be nothing stopping you from buying a sound card.

[williamwbishop]

Originally posted by Puloxor
I disagree about on board stuff.. i think its great. All new half decent boards have integrated sound/lan, video so-so.. anyways, the reason i think its good is because you would usually turn them off and put in your top of the line stuff. but 2 years from now, when you get a new motherboard, this old motherboard suddently becomes a "system" when you turn the audio/lan/vid back on.. thats how my computers go anyways.. anyways, back to the point =P

I'm not sure about linux, but in the windows, nForce2 is the way to go. You don't have to use nVidia cards with it either, its simply a chipset. Ironically, Radeon9700 Pros run better on nForce2 than Via's KT chipsets ^_^. If you plan on getting a new vid card, get 8x AGP. Otherwise, don't bother.. I don't like the idea of "leaving room for upgrades" because by the time you probably will get an 8x AGP card, you'll be buying a new motherboard =)

I would have to disagree with the poster(apologies). The problem with on board stuff is that it is never as fast as a separate card. And if it fails, then you have to get a separate board anyway. And to use the nvidia motherboard chipset is not exactly bright. It is relatively new, and buggy as hell. It does no harm to get an upgradeable board. I have used the same board through 3 processors, several different video cards and at least two scsi controllers(from UW to 160). I detest all in one boards. But it comes more from a systems side. I deal with embedded products all the time, can't help it. Most of the servers I work with have embedded video and lan, and are decent systems. Would I use one of them for a home pc though? Not likely.

[bwkaz]

Originally posted by Holdstrong
I used an ATI Radeon 9500 video card and that was fine. In AGP mode? With 3D support? Didn't think so... ;)

[Mow]

quote:Originally posted by Holdstrong
I used an ATI Radeon 9500 video card and that was fine. In AGP mode? With 3D support? Didn't think so...

No offense but I too use a 9500 with AGP support and really wonderful 3D......sorry but it workls fine (UT2003 looks FANTASTIC!)

And before you say it's just that much better than my old card, my old card was a Ti4200.......and the 9500 is cleaning it's clock.

[bwkaz]

Originally posted by Mow
No offense but I too use a 9500 with AGP support and really wonderful 3D......sorry but it workls fine (UT2003 looks FANTASTIC!)

And before you say it's just that much better than my old card, my old card was a Ti4200.......and the 9500 is cleaning it's clock. No offense taken, but are you using an nForce2 motherboard?

The Linux kernel driver for the nForce2's AGP controller is nonexistant, and nVidia's AGP driver won't work with an ATI card...

[Mow]

Yes I'm using the A7N8X and tuxracer, glears and chromium all work without a hitch and look just dandy. I did recently update the BIOS and am using the 9700 "built in" driver.

I even emailed ATI and they said it should work as well.

On the flip side I tried it it *cough* Windows *cough* and it worked but ATI's utility shows some wierd things like fast writes not enabled and the AGP not running as you mentioned but again ATI says it should work and that it's a hardware config issue.

[bandwidth_pig]

Originally posted by williamwbishop
I would have to disagree with the poster(apologies). The problem with on board stuff is that it is never as fast as a separate card. And if it fails, then you have to get a separate board anyway. And to use the nvidia motherboard chipset is not exactly bright. It is relatively new, and buggy as hell. It does no harm to get an upgradeable board. I have used the same board through 3 processors, several different video cards and at least two scsi controllers(from UW to 160). I detest all in one boards. But it comes more from a systems side. I deal with embedded products all the time, can't help it. Most of the servers I work with have embedded video and lan, and are decent systems. Would I use one of them for a home pc though? Not likely.

I second that disagreement. While many motherboards come with onboard hardware, from what I have found, the majority of them are on the lower end of the scale in terms of quality when dealing with video. I would never buy a MB with built in video. Never. Built in LAN...yeah ok. Built in sound...mmmm...not real fond but ok. Video never.

[mrussel1]

I use an a7n8x in my win xp box. The onboard video is an option, you can get a cheaper a7n8x without it - which I recommend, since the onboard's performance isn't so good. I'm using an nvidia agp card, so I can't comment on compatibility problems with ATI.

As for upgradeability, I don't see where onboard sound/lan/video is a drawback... you can disable these devices and install better cards (yes, in a perfect world...). Has anybody tried disabling the onboard chips on the nforce2 and had problems?

[Holdstrong]

Exactly - upgradeability isnt the issue. No one says you cant disable the onboard components and install a card. Performance is the issue.

But in my opinion the only component this is still an issue with is Video. Onboard ethernet controllers do everything a standard NIC will do - unless you have specific needs.

And I also feel comfortable saying that with the technology on this particular board - onboard sound is sufficient, and in some cases better, than your average sound card. Now, I must say that i am not the most discriminating audiophile - if its loud and it rocks - I like it - but I have read reviews from people with higher standards than mine, and the consensus seems to be good. --> a7n8x sound specs (http://www.3dvelocity.com/reviews/nforce2/nforce_2.htm)

The sticking point is, and always will be as far as i can tell, the video. Games and graphics apps just require too much power to affectively implement onboard. And in addition, the needs and technology are changing too fast. Unless you are limited to using your machine for office apps, email, inetrent and the lamest of games - onboard video just wont cut it.

But for the more static technologies, I think onboard components are acceptable, and in some cases preferable.

Now, as bwkaz points out, we need nvidia and asus to get on the ball with their linux drivers and with compatibility. I dd notice on the ASUS website the other day that they recently (january) released new linux drivers for this board.... there was no documentation so i do not know what is included.

[dehuszar]

I also come down on the side of the nForces built in stuff. I have built a couple of nForce systems at my work and they're totally solid. At home I have an nForce1 with a dual boot between my Audio and games/Productivity Installs. Both currently run Windows (calm down, I'm in the process of switching... though for now the audio stuff will stay windows), and for listening to music, watching movies and playing games, the nForce1's audio is just as good as my Creamware Pro Audio cards (which are neither cheap nor crappy). I agree that in linux the i810 drivers make the audio a little scratchy/treble-y sounding, though I'm told that the ALSA drivers make all this better. I will test and inform you if no one beats me to the punch. The A7N8X is supposed to wipe the walls with nForce1's audio system. I'm also told that ALSA drivers allow 6 speaker output too.

long live the nForce.

Samuel Allen

[bwkaz]

You know, I just realized why I was saying the nForce boards don't work with anything other than nVidia video cards, at least not in AGP mode.

agpgart nforce415d no comment.... (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4423)

[david2450]

I have an A7N8X Deluxe mobo purchased end of Jan2003 and there is no onboard video(thank god) or any mention of it. Am I missing something here? as I didn't think asus had made one with onboard graphics yet?

However, the rest is excellent, i.e sound/Lan etc, I also run radeon 9700 pro.

[dehuszar]

Originally posted by david2450
I have an A7N8X Deluxe mobo purchased end of Jan2003 and there is no onboard video(thank god) or any mention of it. Am I missing something here? as I didn't think asus had made one with onboard graphics yet?

However, the rest is excellent, i.e sound/Lan etc, I also run radeon 9700 pro.

You run a Radeon 9700Pro in an nForce 2 board in linux? Can you play GL based games? Watch DVD's?

If not, I wonder if anyone has tried to run a copy of Windows in VMWARE on top of the basic linux drivers and then use windows AGPGart drivers and play games in Windows while booting only to a Linux drive. I know VMWARE is a 'hardware Emulator,' and that support must be available in the Host OS, but I've heard -perhaps unreliable- rumors that such tricks can be played. Anyone? Bueller?

I might be able to test this possibility in the future, as I have an nForce 2 board coming for Linux testbed purposes (aka server guinea pig) and I have a leftover Radeon AIW I can throw in. The goal is to get VMWARE working with the nForce1/2 board, but I fear that won't happen until the MDK 9.1 final is released, as the cooker I'm using is not allowing VMWARE to find my HW & the RC1 seems like a futile excercise what with the final apparently so close.

Anyone whose beaten me to the punch on such tests, please chime in!

Sam

[bwkaz]

VMware provides the client OS with a standard, predefined set of hardware. This includes a VESA-only video card.

AGP will not (AFAIK) work in the client OS, and neither will hardware acceleration. VESA-only boards have no such features.

[david2450]

You run a Radeon 9700Pro in an nForce 2 board in linux? Can you play GL based games? Watch DVD's?

Sorry to say, I had Linux running with my mobo and Radeon 9700, until my Linux drive died and I sent it off to IBM/Hitachi 2 weeks ago. I did try some of the standard games but had not got round to 3D/GL based ones and had not been able to get DVD working right.:(

[beanman2k]

I just purchased the A7NX deluxe board. No onboard video which is just what I wanted. However Mandrake 9.0 does not see the onboard Lan (had to add a board and disable onboard Lan) Mandrake 9.1 won't instal (having problems with the Usb2) The problem with 9.1 is not my disks as it installed just fine on my other system (Abit KT7A Raid w/ AMD 1.33 mhz). I will be using the Serial ATA Raid when I get an adapter card for my hard drive.
Pretty nice board, though, $130 at Newegg

PS: the onboard sound is fine for my needs. Better than my old sound blaster card

[ricstr]

I have the Asus A7V333 board that has on-board audio (C-Media 8738) and its audio quality is excelent as long as you dont have any of thoses cable connecting the analouge output of your CD-Rom to the sound card and configure it the audio data to passed via IDE cables, as the analouge cable picks up interferance from the disk drives and power supplies etc.

Bad thing about it is that it isnt very good for working with external midi devices as it will give you a lot of latency, but for general audio and gaming its fine.

[Fryguy8]

nforce2 is NOT an easy thing to get working correctly in linux. I'd recommend sticking to via chipsets (KT400, or wait for 400a to come out)

[Buzzerd]

I just got started with Linux on the ASUS A7N8X Deluxe mobo...and so far I haven't had any major problems getting it to work. Of course, I haven't tried anything "too advanced" like gaming or DVD watching, yet. I tried the ALSA drivers...but couldn't get the 5.1 Digital Sound working. 2-channel audio works and sounds fine. Perhaps I erred in the ALSA driver install. I haven't tested USB or Firewire yet...haven't had the need. But the audio and LAN (both NIC ports) seem to work fine.

I agree with those that recommend against getting a mobo with on-board video. Having a dedicated processor handling the video is a definite performance boost. As for the LAN and audio...on-board shouldn't give much of a performance hit.

I run a dual-boot rig (see sig for system specs) and have tried all the latest games in Windows - with all audio/video settings in the games at max - and haven't noticed so much as a hickup while playing.

These boards make excellent Windows' gaming/power rigs. Presently, I'm limiting my use of Windows to gaming, and trying to use Linux for everything else. At the present time, this seems to be the best way to "have my cake and eat it, too".:)

[rambo2_981]

RH Linux 8.0 on my new a7n8x has been a bit of a pita. Sound doesnt work at all, onboard LAN is worthless (I had to install a LinkSys 10/100 nic for RH to even recognize it). No video problems but I did get an Nforce compatible AGP plug-in (it was cheap and I didn't much care). The RH update from 2.4.18 to 2.4.20 allowed the recognition of the onboard LAN and sound but the sound still doesnt work (looking at that and also my unreliable Linksys LAN connection to my Linksys router -- subject of a separate thread). I guess I am ok with onboard stuff, but ... as someone else mentioned, any reasonable mobo these days has onboard stuff so you're kinda stuck with it unless you just use plug-ins and forget it.

[lorddecker]

guys i hate to bust your bubble, but i own both boards. The nforce is NOT a video card. The NForce2 is the motherboard chipset. And its faster than the 8x. The nx supports 5.1 digital sound(as good as a live), dual ethernet ports(1 gigabit and 1 100mb) and dual-channel DDR ram(worth it IMO). Especially if your playing games.

So basically the NX board does not have a video card onboard, go check the specs. And yes it is linux supported.

[hard candy]

Anyone with experience with the VIA kt-600 chip?
For the processor, get an Athlon 2500 Barton for around $95, works well.

[hard candy]

I just purchased the A7NX deluxe board. No onboard video which is just what I wanted. However Mandrake 9.0 does not see the onboard Lan (had to add a board and disable onboard Lan) Mandrake 9.1 won't instal (having problems with the Usb2) The problem with 9.1 is not my disks as it installed just fine on my other system (Abit KT7A Raid w/ AMD 1.33 mhz). I will be using the Serial ATA Raid when I get an adapter card for my hard drive.

Look at a Soltek MB's- has everything (no video), works well, and runs about $25-30 less than asus. The onboard LAN works, AC70 sound works well.

[MMYoung]

I am using an ASUS A7V8X mobo. No onboard video, period. I have an old ATI Radeon AIW AGP card, no problems there. Only problem I had was the lack of support in RedHat 9.0 for the Broadcom 4401 onboard network controller. Even that wasn't much of a problem. Downloaded the drivers from Broadcom, installed them, rebooted and the the NIC was detected during reboot.

[bwkaz]

OK, this thread has already died TWICE already -- once it dies this time, can we leave it permanently dead, PLEASE? :p

Look at the post dates -- the first "flurry" was back in February. Then again in May. Now again in September.

Yes, there is now AGP support for the nForce2 chipset. But back when I posted that (Feb.), there was not, and it didn't look like there would be, either.

This fact does not depend at all on whether the A7N8X has onboard video. I was talking about the nForce2 AGP slot -- actually the lack of a driver for it outside the nVidia video card driver -- not the video card itself.

As for the rest of the stuff I was saying -- again, at the time, it was all true. There is now nForce IDE support in the kernel, and *some* of the audio stuff works (I haven't had to deal with it in quite a while though, so I don't know if there are still people that bought it for 5.1 and are only getting stereo -- I do know there were).

nForce2 is probably better now. What about nForce3? I have no idea...

[Wolf_Boy]

Having just bought the Asus A7V8X-X motherboard which has the VIA KT400 chipset, it is a nice motherboard the only problem I had was with the onboard sound but after a bit of digging I got it to work. The A7N8X-X has the nVidia Chipset and is easier to configure for sound right out of the box. Either one will run with an ATI video card.

[elite_syntax]

I was thinking of getting a nVidia video card.But i not sure what would be a good one,i know there are come out with some new driver for them.Any ideas?

[bwkaz]

The driver that they have out now will work with every card that they have out now. (that's as of Sept. 20 2003)

I don't know nVidia's release plans, but it wouldn't surprise me if it'll be a while. 1.0-4496 was released only a couple months ago, and it's usually longer than a couple months between releases (yes, it's definitely a cathedral development model over there... ;)).

[BaVinic]

Originally posted by bwkaz
OK, this thread has already died TWICE already -- once it dies this time, can we leave it permanently dead, PLEASE? :p


Actually, I am glad this thread is still a little active, as I was looking for just this kind of information. granted I know it is old and mostly out dated, but it helps non the less.

but I need to ask, of all the concerns listed in this thread, are there still some that have not been addressed by either the Linux community,r Asus or even nVidia??

I just bough 6 of these A7n8x Deluxe boards for a network I am putting together. I should have researched first :D

BaVinic