NF7-S or 8RDA3+ ?

**Pita^Norf** · 07-02-2003, 05:26 AM

Originally posted by saaya
best find somebody who had both boards and can tell you what the main difference is.

The BIOS issues affected all manufacturers.

I have owned one and had use of another and I do not recommend the 8RDA3+.

I quite like EPoX despite my experiences of the 8RDA3+, but the main thing that still bugs me about EPoX and their nforce2 boards is the way they craft the the voiding of the warranty of their boards. We all know that their northbridge coolers are inept, and they know it too, but the fact their boards still come with these can only mean one thing, to void your warranty, since thats the first thing an overclocker will be looking to mod due to its ineffectiveness.

**Michaelangelo** · 07-02-2003, 06:51 AM

I've had both boards. The Epox was a joke. Never got it set up, since it wouldn't take the Ti4200 display drivers. Any of them. The BIOS corruption like I said in my earlier post, was common to ALL nForce2 boards. An earlier Epox did the same thing all the people complaining about the NF7-S's did. It was fixed by nVIDIA & the various board makers when the new BIOS releases came out.

My NF7-S 2.0 will be here today. I had two (2) 1.2's that were total CRAP, & look at me. I'm still going w/A-bit. Of course 4 friends have'em now up & running w/no problems.

**texuspete00** · 07-02-2003, 11:24 AM

Hasnt replied. With any luck he went to go buy his mobo and won't come back.

**saaya** · 07-02-2003, 11:46 AM

what bios coruptions are you talking about? i never ever had a problemw ith the bios, and ive pushed my 8rda+ to the limits with pretty much every setting.

well no vdd mod so far, so i have no expiriences about high fsb probs...

**Pita^Norf** · 07-02-2003, 05:43 PM

Originally posted by saaya
what bios coruptions are you talking about? i never ever had a problemw ith the bios, and ive pushed my 8rda+ to the limits with pretty much every setting.

well no vdd mod so far, so i have no expiriences about high fsb probs...

The corrption usually surfaced when the user push FSB in too large a step.

With the nforce2 chipset the FSB (& multiplier settings) were saved to the BIOS rather than the CMOS.

So if you pushed too far with your overclock, to the point the machine was unstable at saving process, damage to the BIOS usually resulted in it being unusable on the next bootup.

The fix that Nvidia came up with was to initiate a reboot before saving the FSB (to test for stability) and if stable save the setting to the BIOS chip, preceeded by the warning msg in red text "Please do not switch off whilst saving settings" or words to that effect.

**SPQQKY** · 07-02-2003, 06:40 PM

I have owned 7 EPox boards since the release of the kt133 chipset and never had a single problem with any of them. I have also owned 2 Abit boards, the later being the most recent. I didn't have a problem with them either. I like both companies and I wouldn't hesitate to buy from either of them. I think both companies have their share of problems, maybe I'm just lucky I didn't experience any headaches with either of them. I know the Epox boards where the best OCers of the bunch. I will be running an Epox EP-8RDA+ soon as my Abit couldn't run 3D at 200MHz fsb.

**corbec** · 07-03-2003, 08:30 AM

Ive NEVER heard of BIOS curroption in nforce2 boards except in the nf7 series. The 8RDA3 kicks the nf7 in the ass in fsb overclocking. You have to do a vmodd on the nf7 to get 233. the 8rda3 gets 230 out of the box with 1.6vdd. Looks like this boards gonna be gettign 250 with 2 vdd and a iceburg or watercooled NB.

**Pita^Norf** · 07-03-2003, 11:38 AM

Originally posted by corbec
Ive NEVER heard of BIOS curroption in nforce2 boards except in the nf7 series. The 8RDA3 kicks the nf7 in the ass in fsb overclocking. You have to do a vmodd on the nf7 to get 233. the 8rda3 gets 230 out of the box with 1.6vdd. Looks like this boards gonna be gettign 250 with 2 vdd and a iceburg or watercooled NB.

If you goto the AoA EPoX forum you will find that not alot of ppl are happy with their 8RDA3+

**Edit**

Also the BIOS corruption issue is well documentated and affected all board manufacturers, Nvidia brought out a fix that was implemented into all the nf2 manufacturers' latest BIOS'.

**Fushyuguru** · 07-03-2003, 01:56 PM

Ive alsways loved my Epox boards, rock solid with no bios probs. They cheapen things like heatsinks, but! They offer a killer platform at a lower price point advantage.

Personally I just bought my first non Epox board, Abit NF7S 2.0, only because I want to try the Soundstorm out, and I have a Raptor.

For you though, sounds like the Epox is a winner. Its a tough choice when both are so solid at high fsb, I just went through it.

**BrainStorm** · 07-04-2003, 08:25 AM

Nothing to bring out the best in folks more than the infamous "Abit vs. Epox" debate.

If you can't discuss the issue without flaming someone, please don't post.

I love these forums specifically because of:

1. The great knowledge of the people here; and

2. The even greater quality of the people here.

Please don't screw it up. Thank you.

**Fushyuguru** · 07-04-2003, 10:15 AM

Im new to XS, and I have to agree with BrainStorm on points 1 and 2.

Ive been ona few forums, and this one seems the most intellectually inspiring. Kudos to XS.

**Fushyuguru** · 07-04-2003, 07:49 PM

Hehe, Ive got a really cynical personality. Its just my sense of humor. Take no offense to anything I ever say.

My rigs:

Desktop system - MIA for now. Just got killed by lightning 2 weeks ago, it was a good rig and a gem chip. Though I can tell you what I just bought and will be working on over the next month.
EDIT: Most of the new parts are sitting in boxes next to me or in the mail.
Ill be posting over at Overclockers.com Forums when I start the fab process of the case and comp. Maybe here too, who knows...

Parts bought or have for new desktop: NF7S 2.0, 2100+ and 1700+ (ill keep the better performer and trickle the other chip to one of my other boxes), 512meg GEIL pc3500 dual channel Gold dragon, Antec True 480W (with performanc-pcs.com mods), WD 10k Raptor, Lite-On combo drive, WCing for NB and GPU (BIEx, DD z-chip, DD gpu block, 1/2in ID tygon, hydor L30), MSI ti4200 /w tweak sinks (I dont game much), Lian Li 6085a, Prometia Mach I --- and the best part... Im designing a custom Acrylic case with brushed Aluminum accents (match the Lian Li) and uv reactive components. Design is being done in Solidworks 3D CAD soft, and machining will be done at Polymer Plastics Corp. Parts that can be painted will be, lighting for the rig will be UV with some neat effect on boards and components, youll just have to see it. Should be slick.

Home Server: Custom built Clear Lexan Cube case with 22 drive bays and window modded 2gb drive, too many HD's to list but ill just say 720gigs (I fill it with candy), soyo K7V Raid, 512meg PC3200 xtreme DDr, Raidmax 500W (naked, no case), Palomino 2000+ @ 1.85ghz, old Alpha sink, no drives no frills except UV lighting and a really tight hand built case (40+ man hours).

Laptop: Compaq E500 (given to me from my College), 900mhz p3, Painted glossy gunmetal.

Other comps: random hardware throw togethers for family and such, 1800+ TbredB, 2200+ TbredA, and an HTPC with via Nehemia 10000 and ATI AIW VE.

Hope that helps out, the desktop dieing was a bummer. I dont trust any of the components except the ram (maybe), so I bought mostly all new hardware. In my old rig it was WC with the DD blocks and Innovatek Rev3 (I like the block, it grows on me), with a 2100+ running at 2.61ghz 1.90volts. I was happy, but now I have a reason to tinker. Im still considering R404a for the prommie whilst Im tearing it apart anyway.

**Fushyuguru** · 07-05-2003, 06:51 AM

Hell yeah Im gonna push it. Ill start with everything stock, then volt mod as I need to. I think the only thing that may hold me back a bit would be NB voltage on the Mobo. Id love to hit 2.8ghz stable. But its a crap shoot with these chips. I hit 2.821 as a max OC on my last WC setup, that was a good chip. Im sad to see it die, could have been sweet on this new rig.

Im just itching to get my hands on all the parts, waiting for my prommie mostly. Gotta finish the CAD design.

**Osbornnoe** · 07-05-2003, 07:26 AM

Don't want to add to the flaming since I'm a relatively new mem to this forum but;

My best board is the 8K5A2+/1700+. Runs day to day at 215x11 with corsair pc3200. 8 hrs hrs f@h and prime95. When I want to, I can drop it back to default for runnin ghost or disk defrag then kick it right back to 215, NP

I also have a 8rda+ and a nf7-s rev 2.0.

The nf7s rev 2.0 replaced a rev 1.2 which corrupted many things including the bios. It will run 217x11 24/7 under full load, but it took me 2 weeks of burnin and lots of CMOS clearing to get there. If I have to go back to default, to get it back to 217 I have to work it back slowly like a new OC.

8rda+ was a real problem for me, especially getting OC at lower multies. Best clock I could get was 206x11.

air cooled and no mods BTW.

**Fushyuguru** · 07-05-2003, 09:22 AM

The board I just lost was an 8k5a2+ B2, loved it. Was running it at 201x13 since february. Rock solid, damn good board. Max was 217fsb. The only reason I got the Abit, like I said, I got a Raptor, I dont like to use peripheral cards, so I wanted serial ATA on the board.

**Michaelangelo** · 07-05-2003, 07:51 PM

No Epox you ever bought did that. I don't care what you say. The Epox is a JOKE! Period. No nVIDIA chipset should have a problem w/a Ti4200. The 8RDA+ I got was pure JUNK. No active cooling on the NB? You gotta be kidding me on this platform. You need a HS on the SB too if you ask me. A-bit ROCKS. Epox has ROCKS in their heads if they think they can compete.

**Fushyuguru** · 07-05-2003, 08:42 PM

Originally posted by Michaelangelo
No Epox you ever bought did that. I don't care what you say. The Epox is a JOKE! Period. No nVIDIA chipset should have a problem w/a Ti4200. The 8RDA+ I got was pure JUNK. No active cooling on the NB? You gotta be kidding me on this platform. You need a HS on the SB too if you ask me. A-bit ROCKS. Epox has ROCKS in their heads if they think they can compete.

Thats a little assuming and sounds quite researched. How well did you test these ROCK solid conclusions? Did your control group ROCK too?

EDIT: Also, please fill us in on performing the "This hardware is a Joke" test. Ive been waiting for someone to perfect that one.

**Spartacus** · 07-06-2003, 01:24 AM

Struggled with 8RDA+ v1.1 to get 212FSB, it used to run 220FSB but after a while decided it didn't want to any more. Had to do VDD mod and Overcurrent mod to get the 212. Vcore power regulation is marginal on this board. Board died (VDD related) in six months.

NF7-S v2.0 runs strong out of the box at 225 FSB, no mods.

The 8RDA3+ may be more evenly matched to the NF7-S, I don't think it has the Vcore issues as bad as the 8RDA+ has.

**Fushyuguru** · 07-06-2003, 06:14 AM

I cant wait to use my NF7S. Sounds like a strong contender. May have to get an 8rda3+ just yo compare.

I hope my first Abit board is as solid as most of yours turn out to be.

**wolfgang** · 07-06-2003, 09:31 AM

abit nf7 mine does 210fsb at 2.4vdd in bios my last board overvolted about .1 so its prolly at 2.5 whats so hard about bios corruption? i have a couple bios chips that i hotswapped so if i ever **** it up i have a back up but ive been running this rev 2 for about 3months no issues

**Spartacus** · 07-06-2003, 03:57 PM

Originally posted by wolfgang
abit nf7 mine does 210fsb at 2.4vdd in bios

Is that for real?!

Vdd at 2.4v seems really high (and probably not necessary for 210 FSB).

**Osbornnoe** · 07-06-2003, 04:27 PM

Originally posted by Spartacus
Is that for real?!

Vdd at 2.4v seems really high (and probably not necessary for 210 FSB).

2.4 is default I think. I had to go to 3.01 to get to 218x11 on that board with 1700+.

**Pita^Norf** · 07-06-2003, 04:49 PM

Originally posted by Osbornnoe
2.4 is default I think. I had to go to 3.01 to get to 218x11 on that board with 1700+.

IIRC the NF7-S has vdd adjustable from 1.6v to 1.8v unmoded.

As Spartacus mentions 2.4v & 3.01v is very high for the FSB that you are trying to run or do you mean Vdimm ?

**Fushyuguru** · 07-06-2003, 06:05 PM

that def sounds like a vdimm voltage.

**corbec** · 07-06-2003, 09:16 PM

hhahahah 3vdd...and whats cooling that? a 120 watt pelt?

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