Is the ABIT AN8 Ultra a good OC'ing board?

[Richdog]

I've decided that seeing as the new opterons are stupidly cheap (144 I can get for £115) that im going to go for one as an intermediary upgrade until AMD's new M2 socket.

I'm not going SLI so i'm looking for the best OC'ing motherboard based on the Nforce4 for the cheapest price.

I'm looking for 2.8Ghz+ (using dividers), which is I understand the low average OC for these new CPU's, so want something that will perform well with a divider and my OCZ PC3200 VX, based on the new BH-5 modules.

So yeah... 320HTT stable for around £80 is what i'm looking for. Would you reccommend the ABIT AN8 Ultra? Or do you have any other suggestions?

Based in the UK.

Rich. :)

[Theo404]

Whats wrong with the best 939 board currently avaliable??? :stick:

About £95 and about 10x better than the abit.....can you guess what it is?

[Necron99]

I heard it wasn't a good board for oc'ing, like it was a dissapointment or something.

[Theo404]

I had a thought, maybe your graphics card is AGP and you dont want to upgrade that, but still, same manufacturer (I'l give you a clue it begins with a D) but NF3.......

[Richdog]

Whats wrong with the best 939 board currently avaliable??? :stick:

About £95 and about 10x better than the abit.....can you guess what it is?

DFI Ultra-D perchance? lol... I hear you but I have a budget. I'm trying to keep it all under £200 for the CPU and mobo.

Unless someone can point me to the cheapest place in the UK to get one, I did a price search and couldnt get below £95. Though to get the high HTT maybe paying the extra IS worth it...

Theo404, i'm going PCI-E, im going to sell my 6800GT and get a PCI-E version of an X800 GTO2 until I save up for a 7800GT.

Anyone reccommend any other decent budget mobos capable of HTT though?

EDIT - Just read a DFI NF4 Infinity is being released... looks a bit too bare though...

[Korpse]

Where you going to sell ur S754 stuff and AGP card? This crap is hella hard to sell nowadays even for a crappy price :stick:

146+DFI+X1800 :slobber: :(

[Theo404]

I really couldnt say about a cheaper board than the DFI, so I'l say this:
Its worth the extra money! I had a nightmare with an MSI Neo2 plat, moved to an SLI-D and all my problems were solved.

Athough, maybe an Epox, I was reading a while ago about a 9XXX epox board that some people say is as good as the DFI, cant remeber much about it, but its worth looking into.

REALLY good call on the X8002GTO, basicaly a X850XTPE for £130, thats exactly what I would by if I was looking for a cheap one card solution.

[Richdog]

Where you going to sell ur S754 stuff and AGP card? This crap is hella hard to sell nowadays even for a crappy price :stick:

146+DFI+X1800 :slobber: :(

Where you going to sell ur S754 stuff and AGP card? This crap is hella hard to sell nowadays even for a crappy price :stick:
:(

It'll sell on Ebay as a bundle for a fair price, never failed me before. I write good seller descriptions, usually aimed at the less tech savvy.

I may stretch for the Ultra-D, was just trying to do it as cheap as possible really...

The ABIT looked decent and ive seen reviews getting 325mhz HTT.

[Theo404]

Yeah the getting is good on ebay for 754 stuff, prob all those vultures trying to build substandard systems that they can creativly market to idiots and sell on ebay again. Eg:

256bit Mirage onboard graphics
(Perfect for 3D games)

But 754 chips still get a lot on ebay, you can still get 70-75 for a 3000 newcastle.

[eddieate]

the Ultra-D is £99.82 at www.overclockers.co.uk its a steal at that price.
/Ed

[Korpse]

you can still get 70-75 for a 3000 newcastle.

hmmm...how much you reckon a 3400 nc,dfi ut nf3 and a bfg 6800gt could get?

if its pretty nice i may have to save for a bit to get the same as Richdog...im so bored of this system now...I know its limits and its ins and outs... no fun any more. I want some new stuff to play with, Makes some mistakes,Learn something new, have a laugh, have a cry <<<<< you know? OVERCLOCK...

[Richdog]

Same here, so bored of this rig I could cry. And now I sold my watercooling the chip can get to 2.45ghz max and that's with 1.7v... terrible.

Not sure whether to spend some extra money on the CPU and get a 146 (for the 10x multi) and spend less on the motherboard, or spend more on the mobo and less on the cpu. Hmm decisions decisions...

[Korpse]

That is a hard decision...coming from the breeding grounds of EOCF and Klisp's School Of 'Clocking (hehe) Ive always favoured the 10x multi...But I will always say go DFI, screw the multi, crank the HTT :)

144+DFI+GTO2 = WIN

[Richdog]

Hmm lower cost CPU it is then I think. Will the DFI make it to 320HTT easy using dividers with the right BIOS?

My poor wallet... :(

[Hector Ruiz]

abit is a good 24/7 rig (no 1T oc)
dfi is your oc plaything! (should be purchased in pairs)
double f***up insurance

[Korpse]

I would think so, but personally I dont have a clue...

I know my nf3 dfi board is good for 350+ HTT so I would assume NF4 would be even better than that ;)

[Richdog]

If I had the cash to burn i'd consider buying in pairs, but alas I am a mere mortal lol, and was made redundant not long ago. Currently job-seeking so not much cash to spare. :D

[Korpse]

"and was made redundant not long ago"

sh*t dude, havent checked in properly @ EOCF (apart froom being a pr*ck alter ego) in a long time... Sorry to hear about that - Last time I checked it you were in line for getting a mega money job, Is that the one you got made redundant from?

[Richdog]

Yup, the firm went bust after two weeks, could have throttled the bloke who owned it, his face went white as a sheet when he gave me the news and saw my face with the look of sheer murder in my eyes... took me out of a stable publishing job too, bah. Going for journalism noww though hopefully... *sigh*, going to be low on cash for a while, lol.

Anyway moaning aside, so is it generally agreed that Oppy 144 + Ultra-D will = 320HTT therefore a win? :)

[Korpse]

Yup, the firm went bust after two weeks. took me out of a stable publishing job too.

:mad: :eek: Dude that SUCKS

could have throttled the bloke who owned it, his face went white as a sheet when he gave me the news and saw my face with the look of sheer murder in my eyes...

I can imagine...your not the type of guy who you would really wanna deliver such a message too, with all you martial arts stuff.

Going for journalism noww though hopefully...

Good luck man :up:

so is it generally agreed that Oppy 144 + Ultra-D will = 320HTT therefore a win?

Between the 5 of us in this thread, It seems so :p:

Damn this is a big post...

[Theo404]

Richdog:
Yeah: "if only I had the money" seems to be a phrase that goes hand in hand with overclocking. But yeah, get the DFI and a cheaper CPU, and dont expect 3ghz from the opteron, those first steppings (0530) were little gems, prob just FX57s, other stepping dont look so good (2.7-2.8) but nevertheless, guaranteed quality san diegos for £70 less.



Korpse:

£80-£95 for the chip
£50 for the motherboard
£150-£170 for the graphics card

So - £297.50 asuming average sale price.

BTW, I got these figures by looking at compleated listings, I didnt just pluck them out of the air. And you need to be able to write a half decent description to get these prices (not hard, but not just a 30 sec job).


Edit: Richdog, thats nasty man, condolences. So WHY are you buying new hardware? :p:

[calcal]

the abit an8 is a good ocer..It can do very htt if you got the chip that will take ya there.
You might have the 2t problem but a bios update could fix that.

[Korpse]

So - £297.50 asuming average sale price.

Hmmm, well give it a few weeks after ive paid of all what i owe to my mum and I may have a looksee into selling it all on ebay :D

144+DFI+GT02 me thinks :)

[goodcooper]

what i've read about the series of boards in my sig is very good... the ultra and sli versions... cheap too!

[Theo404]

Oh and you'l need a 'premium' paypal account to recieve over £250 in one month (they take 4% B@st@rds!) plus 4% taken by ebay and £1-2 insertation fee so:

£270.70 if you sell it all in the same month, lol so thats £25 odd quid ebay will pick up on your selling, makes me want to stop selling things on ebay when I think about figures like that. :rolleyes:

[Theo404]

... cheap too!

Ya, £75 from komplett:
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=307396&cks=ACC

Have a search on these forums for results with it, there should be a thread (the one I remember reading) detailing why it was as good as a DFI.

So if your budget is real tight that might be a good board to look into, but still if there is any chance of squeesing enough for the DFI then do it.

[Korpse]

what makes you want to stop selling on ebay is when a n00b buys some ram which he knows wont work in his system although it is 100% mint condition...only to find he askes you for a refund which you give him...then 3 months later you find he has filed a complaint with paypal @ the same time as emailing me for a refund saying I didnt send him a refund when i have receipts from Paypal saying I have and in the end.....end up refunding the guy twice!!!

Screw ebay, Screw paypal and most of all Screw n00bs :p:

Hence why im in debt to my mum...i now owe here £95 cos of that!

[Theo404]

Jesus, now that would make you want to stop using ebay.

I'd have paid the bloke a visit at home if he tried to pull that on me :slash:

[Korpse]

Jesus, now that would make you want to stop using ebay.

I'd have paid the bloke a visit at home if he tried to pull that on me

Trust me, Ive thought about it! Things stopping me... Transport + Muscles :p:

[Theo404]

Things stopping me... Transport + Muscles

lol

[goodcooper]

and the answer is... legs + guns

[Korpse]

legs + guns

Yeah, like 400 miles away and guns are illegal in England :p:

[Korpse]

Richdog, killer find man. Im so going to be selling my cpu and mobo and RMAing my 6800T for a new one...let the fun times role.

50 for mobo
120 for cpu
£170 for a sweet ass upgrade :D


*EDIT* "the vcore is really limited (vid mod gives only 1.55v)"

Shouldnt be a problem with 90nm chips???

[Richdog]

What HTT are people hitting max with the Epox NF4 Ultra boards too? Can't find barely any results... :confused:

EDIT - Korpse the voltage limits have put me off that mobo now. :(

[Korpse]

IT is kinda ghey voltage wise, but mainly only Ram wise...I dont think 90nm's need more than 1.55v anyway? Well, over that surely air cooling cant keep them cool?

Having UTT ram means I need 3.3v + on the ram... Ill keep an eye on the board though - by the time im ready to upgrade there mite be a mod out :)

*EDIT* http://www.rhcf.com/sis-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=30;t=000029;p=0

mods there, but im a soldering n00b :p:

[Richdog]

I am to soldering what Adolf Hitler was to world peace, the unsteadiness of my hand is matched only by my knowledge of quantum physics. I don't want to go there personally.

The EPOX or ABIT are my main options, I just can't find a large group of results for the both of them...

[AgentVX]

I've got an Abit AN8 Ultra right next to me, waiting for my Opteron 144. Intend to use it temporarily until the new DFI or Sapphire mobos are available in retail at reasonable prices and with good user feedback.
If you can wait until next week, I'll be able to give you some results...
Fingers crossed that it does okay :)

[Richdog]

Heh I may be able to wait till next week at a push, im actually really tempted by the EPOX bnoard atm though. :)

Does anyone know if the new Opterons are actually in-stock anywhere in the UK at the moment? :confused:

[Richdog]

:woot:

Just got an "as new" DFI LanParty nF4 SLI-DR (the £140 one) for £85+ postage of Ebay! :toast:

YAY! Perfect... let the games begin! :fact:

[Korpse]

sweet dude :up:

[Theo404]

Good find Richdog, lets hope it hasnt been ebayed because it was one of the early ones with "problems". :toast:

[Richdog]

Well, it's a woman whose uncle has died and she got left all his stuff so she's selling her rig and eeping his.

The DFI was bought on the 5th April, she still has the receipt, and will take pics tommorrow for me.

5th of April should be alright as far as revisions go, eh? :)

[Theo404]

Sounds really good, legit and all I hope. :toast:

April should be late enough (just).

[Richdog]

Just seen a BFG 7800GT in an online store for £230 too... *sigh*... oh well, if you're going to upgrade to it properly right? *cries*

:D

[Max Tractor]

:woot:

Just got an "as new" DFI LanParty nF4 SLI-DR (the £140 one) for £85+ postage of Ebay! :toast:



What so good about £95 for a used board, I don't get it. You could have picked up a brand new epox for less.

You could have also got a b-grader for considerably less

[Richdog]

Because the board is as new... barely used, and it costs £145 new. Is a saving of £50 not good? Is the DFI SLI not better than the EPOX? ;)

Why would I get a B-grader that may have parts missing for only £15 cheaper? :rolleyes:

[Korpse]

lol Rich.

good move on the board I say, a new DFI SLI-DR for £95 is an utter bargain.

having the receipt is also very good for the RMA ;)

I just found out that my board is now 1 year, 3 days old and it needs an RMA to test for memory problems - suckage or what?

[Richdog]

Yeah Korpse it ain't bad, minimum i've seen it for is £140 online, and resale value will still be £80 in 7 months time I should think seeing as the condition is so good and most of the accessories are unopened. The receipt is cash so will be fine for RMA.

Ordered my BFG 7800GT, Opteron 144 and SI-120 w. 120mm Panaflo today so i'm almost good to go. :)

EDIT: If you have a problem with the xs staff contact us via pm to solve it.
please dont make it a public debate. if you have a problem with any of the xs staff members then contact another one.
-saaya

[graham_h]

anyone have the beta bios 20 ?

[halo112358]

anyone have the beta bios 20 ?

I've been running it for a while, it's nice :D you can grab it off the abit-usa forums here: http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=100659

the biggest change I noticed was the addition of weak drive strength, though they still don't have a data drive strength setting available.


edit: direct link to the file (http://forum.abit-usa.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=16375&d=1138016234)