What make Asus A7N8X Deluxe not as overclockable as the Epox or Abit?

[ThePunkerGuy]

Ok, my general concensus is that the Abit and Epox are better for overclocking than the Asus A7N8X Deluxe Rev. 2.0. I bought an Athlon XP 2100+ T-bred AIUHB Week 0302 and am going to try to run it at 2.3Ghz without mods to the motherboard or cpu. I want to try to run it at 200X11.5.. i really wanna hit 200fsb. I really like the Asus Motherboard because i know how stable Asus is (i have built numerous computer with them) and it has great features. Now what features is the A7N8X Deluxe Rev. 2.0 missing overclocking wise compared to the Abit and Epox, that would hender me from reaching 2.3ghz @ 200X11.5 fsb (providing the cpu will go that high)? Thanks for your help! Mainly what i want here is to make sure that if i get the A7N8X Deluxe Rev. 2.0 (because i really like that motherboard) that it will be able to overlclock as far as i need.
- Mike

[WildKard]

Theyre just as overclockable FSB wise and there is a vdd mod for it too, but you only have 1.85v to the CPU which extremely limits the CPU ocing But of course this can be modded, but usually Overvoltage Protection kicks in about 2.1-2.15v and you cant cold boot

But the board is just as good imho

[shray]

yea i have it.. Its fine..imo

[CCW]

not all boards are created equal, it could just be your particular board, some wil lreach certain fsb's others wont

[Major]

The Asus is a good OCing board, just lacks the bios settings to do it out of the box. The vmods are easy on it though and some people such as sysfailure have had outstanding results with it. I had an early revison (1.1 ?) and it would do 210mhz after mods, the newer version with the c1 nb should OC much better.

One thing to note about the asus is it uses the 5v rail for vcore, this can cause problems with cheap psu's when OCing. Both the Abit and the Epox use the 12v rails for vcore.

[ThePunkerGuy]

Originally posted by Major Slaughter
The Asus is a good OCing board, just lacks the bios settings to do it out of the box. The vmods are easy on it though and some people such as sysfailure have had outstanding results with it. I had an early revison (1.1 ?) and it would do 210mhz after mods, the newer version with the c1 nb should OC much better.

One thing to note about the asus is it uses the 5v rail for vcore, this can cause problems with cheap psu's when OCing. Both the Abit and the Epox use the 12v rails for vcore.

So, without mods.. how good can i go on this mobo.. if i had to do mods, what would they be? Can ya send me links to them? Is there anyway to do the mods so that they can be removed and not noticed that they were there (aka.. could i unmod it and get away with an RMA :) ). Thanks.
- Mike

[Major]

You should be able to do 200mhz out of the box, atleast I would hope with the v2.0 you could. Here is a good starting point for the mods, you need to check around and make sure the mods are the same with the new revision.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5167

[Walrusbonzo]

One thing to note about the asus is it uses the 5v rail for vcore, this can cause problems with cheap psu's when OCing. Both the Abit and the Epox use the 12v rails for vcore.

What makes you think Epox use the 12v rail? My 8RDA+ most definitely DOES use the 5v rail, my NF7-S does use the 12v rail though :)

And I would've thought the ASUS A7N8X would use the 12v rail as it has that 12v P4 connector?

I could be wrong though.

[sysfailur]

To save yourself from looking through that huge thread.....

http://www.maximumoc.com/guides/a7n8x_modding.html

Everything you need should be in there.

And as for overclocking, the A7N8X Deluxe was the first board to max out @ 250mhz fsb.

My board which is the earliest possible version is peaking @ 240mhz and my ram is holding me back. I have hit 250mhz single channel--I have a stick of hyperx 3500 which will do it. If I had another 250mhz stick dual channel would be a piece of cake.

And let me also note this roundup: http://thecrucible.ca/reviews/nforce2/Overclocking.htm

First off note that the Soltek pwned the other ones @ stock. I dunno bout this review though. It seems weird though that all the boards sucked except the Soltek. That's some seriously horrible luck!

Perhaps Dogman can comment further on that roundup as he did it.

[Major]

Originally posted by Walrusbonzo
What makes you think Epox use the 12v rail? My 8RDA+ most definitely DOES use the 5v rail, my NF7-S does use the 12v rail though :)

And I would've thought the ASUS A7N8X would use the 12v rail as it has that 12v P4 connector?

I could be wrong though.

No the Asus uses 5v, it doesn't have the 12v p4 on it unless that is one of the revisions they made to the v2.0 going to the 12v for vcore. I don't have the 8rda+ , but I thought the asus was the only board that departed from the nf2 reference by using the 5v rail. Doesn't the 8rga have the 12v p4 connector ?

Anyway I don't want to trash his thread. Bottom line is he will be happy with the Asus.