Epox or Asus?

[CiKoTiC]

Which is better for overclocking and performance? The Asus A7N8X or the Epox EP-8RDA+?

asus

[CiKoTiC]

Limited answers from limited minds need not post.

I'm not interesed in opinions, just facts from informed people.

Drive through...

[eviltechie]

lol

im using Epox 8RDA+ now
bought it from a friend for cheap
because his radeon 9700 pcb revision 1.0 would not work with it

but so far, it is a sweet overclocker
so many options

i have seen an A7N8X deluxe overclocked before
pretty good too
can go high
so pretty much equally impressive

i would decide on what u need on a board
the Epox doesnt come with SATA
Asus deluxe does but u probably wont need it
as AI and bobyjo all said, soundstorm sux

so that is 2 things on the Asus A7N8X deluxe that u wont need
Epox 8RDA+ comes with 2 IEEE 1394 firewire ports for brackets which they include
6 USB 2.0 ports
4 are backplated 2 are bracketed

the epox 8RDA+ is a big mobo though
there is a capacitor beside the ram slot and a CD-ROM can hit easily
so a big full tower is needed or atleast a decend mid tower which i think ur case can handle

[CiKoTiC]

Yea, SATA and onboard sound don't mean squat to me. I'm just interested in what would be the best at overclocking.

So far, I think the Epox has the Asus beat. From what I've seen, the Asus has problems and the Epox is much more overclocking friendly.

[eviltechie]

which processor are you getting?

[BobyJo]

The Epox is the best in Overclocking mobo made at this time.
The ASUS is probably the most stable and feature rich mobo in the nForce2 arena. I have not had the pleasure of testing the Chaintec line so I will claim to not have any info with this mobo.
If you want the OC'ing king, go for the Epox.
The 8RDA is the one that has the highest vcore adjustment available at this time.
We build with the Epox line on all our gaming systems.
We will go elsewhere if the customer wants a different brand of mobo.
Cause the customer is KING!

[Gixxer420]

I completely agree with you Bobby the epox is the best overclocking board. I'm glad I talked cikotic into grabbing one of those. Hopefully I'll get to play around with his board and cpu this weekend and may even trade back over to AMD.

[accurateimage]

Agreed, after allot of research the stock epox is best for overclocking he cpu, but not the fsb... good for mhz because of the cpu killing 2.0+ volts available but the killer of the deal is the northbridge voltage at 1.6 stock... makes it almost impossible to break the 200 barrier with ease... Also if I had to do it all over again I would have chosen the asus a7n8x non delux version.... do not need the sata yet, I use aftermaket sound but nic out is cool for the mobo to have :)

[CiKoTiC]

I received my epox, ram and cpu today. I also ordered a vantec vga/chipset cooling package which I just got done putting on. The Iceburg copper hsf looks really good on the nforce chip.

I'm looking for a way to cut one of the heatsinks so that I can apply the two pieces accross the voltage regulators. I'm thinking that if I'm going to be upping the cpu voltage, might as well try to keep those cool also.

[eviltechie]

yeah www.8rda.com shows the guy putting heatsinks on his MOSFETs

are you doing the vdd mod?

[CiKoTiC]

ET, what all do I need to get this 8RDA+ up to speed?

[eviltechie]

original vdd voltage is 1.6

some A2 are 1.66v some A3 are 1.58v
the more the merrier

as more voltage is provided to the northbridge nforce2 chip, the higher fsb you can hit
ppl can hit 210fsb without vdd mod stable on epox w/ good chip and ram
but if you need to get to 220, vdd is needed and usualy to 1.8 or 1.85v

i havent done it on mine
looks a bit scary to me
dont wanna screw it up...
plus i have to get my OCZ ram first

[CiKoTiC]

I'm not that far yet...

I can't get the board to recognize my XP2800. No matter what I set in the bios, it always defaults to 1.25 Ghz.

I've updeated to the latest bios and still no luck. :(