Madshrimps Forum Madness - nforce2 motherboards failrate

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nforce2 motherboards failrate

Has anyone else mayor doubts about the quality of nforce2 motherboards?

Up till now, I've had 3 Epox 8rda+ and one Chaintech motherboard suddenly dying without extreme overclocking (except my first 8rda+). *sigh*

Maybe I should bUy a cheap sis FX or via kt600 board next time.

Don't know about that but I have heard that the 8rda is one tough bord. It can really take a punishment :)
I have one :p I'le have to mod it anytime soon ...

The infinity's do die fast even faster then a nfs when modded.
But again, thats what I've heard...

Well, 2 of those died without even doing the slightest mod... i just don't trust an nforce2 motherboard anymore for any other purpose but gaming. I don't even keep any important data on it anymore.

What about this board? Fast, cheap and has s-ata (necessary).

Abit KV7

Or maybe this flashy MSI KT600 mobo, even cheaper:

So what would the main goal be for the the rig?
Server?
Needs to be overclockable?
cheap?

ASRock K7S8XE+, SiS748 (Sound 5.1, Lan, Sata-Raid) 51€

review > http://www.ocworkbench.com/2003/asro...8x/k7s8x-3.htm

Allthough the name isn't exactly the same as in the review I think it's the same mobo just with some extras.

Quote:

From what I can see, ASROCK K7S8X seems to be aimed at the System Integrators as it has the minimum feature set that is probably good enough for low cost machines. It comes with max of 6 USB 2.0ports, 5.1ch audio, LAN. If you are thinking of overclocking this board, it does provide a wide range of FSB up to 248Mhz. Although you have this large range of fsb, this board does not come with an option for FIX PCI/AGP. It dose not come with Multiplier control, ram timing option and voltage tweaking (vcore, vdimm). The challenge is there if you decide to modify the CPU and the board for multiplier and voltage settings. We tried to overclock the board using a 2400+ (wire mod to 7.5x multiplier), the max FSB we can reach is 185mhz before HDD goes corrupted (no PCI/AGP FIX issue).

Vertellen ze mij nu ook nog dat dat bordje normaal veel horen gaat maar dat ze in de review waarschijnlijk de jumper niet goed hebben gezet :D

Maybe a modded bios or the new ones allow better overclocking...

But a 8rda cost something of 75€ so depending on what u r planning to do with the rig its gonna end up in ...
I don't know about the other mobo u suggested.
I try not to look al to much hardware anymore as I only end up wanting new hardware ...

And it's not as flashy as your kt400 either

Quote:

K7S8XE+ is a upgrade version of K7S8X which come with Two onboard SerialATA 15GB/s connector support RAID 0, 1 and JBOD. Packed with the features such as AGP 8X, 5 PCI slots, ATA133, 6 USB 2.0, six- channels audio, 10/100Mbs Ethernet LAN, Full ATX form factor and ASRock U-COP™ and Hybrid Booster™ Technology. Bonus Pack include 2 x Serial ATA cable, 1 x Y type power cable and game port.

Ze vertellen me hier dat het mobo tot 230-240 kan gaan dus het lijkt me totaal geen slecht bordje.

out of 4 nforce2 boards I've owned, two have died within the first 6 months, other two have been working flawlessly for about 10 months now

nforce² BIOS get corrupt more easily then on other chipsets

Thanks for the tip tum0r. Main purpose of the rig is to be my gaming rig until the a64 socket 939 is out. If it's capable of 200fsb, I won't overclock it.

The board seems fine but two things are holding me back:
- 3 out of 4 asrock mobo's i bought were DOA... extreme bad luck i hope.
- linux support? All my machines run linux gentoo, and Sis is about the worst manufacturer driver-wise. I'll take a peek in the linux kernel later on to see whether the chipset is supported in the 2.6.x kernel.

@teus, thanks for reminding me. Now i think of it, my bios is probably dead, not the board (it went dead after a bios change). Does anyone have a spare chaintech nf2 bios by any chance? :)

a GREAT advise: try a FSB 100 CPU, the board might boot again

you've got more then one nforce² board, hotswap the BIOS chips and re-flash them. even if the brands of the nforce² boards are different, it will work. I recommend getting a special plier though, the EEPROM socket cracks easily when removing the chip

Hmmm, i think i have a spare 8rda+ bios lying around. I wonder whether it will work. : )