Mobo(ish) Help

  • Two Factor Authentication is now available on BeyondUnreal Forums. To configure it, visit your Profile and look for the "Two Step Verification" option on the left side. We can send codes via email (may be slower) or you can set up any TOTP Authenticator app on your phone (Authy, Google Authenticator, etc) to deliver codes. It is highly recommended that you configure this to keep your account safe.

anaemic

she touch your penis?
Jan 7, 2002
3,124
0
0
39
london, uk
ok i know how much hardware question threads suck, but if any of you know anything which will help me i'll greatly appreciate it.

im looking at buying the ASUS A7N8X/Deluxe motherboard, this is where the problems begin;

firstly it uses an nvidia nforce2 chipset, i was planning on using a radeon 9600xt as my graphics card :con: would this be an issue? would i get better performance if i used a Geforce graphics card ? and what is the rough equivalent of the 9600 ?

secondly, i know very very little about ram; i want one gig of ram, but am unsure what to get full stop, all this ddr sd ram stuff makes no sence to me whatsoever.
2 x 512 would be the cheaper option, but is it worthwhile getting a single 1 gig strip of ram? can i even run a pc with just one strip of ram ? if i can obviously this would be best for upgrading in the future, but ive also heard stories of the nforce 2 getting better performance of paired ram or something ?

all in all i need some help :( badly...
thanks.
 

Derelan

Tracer Bullet
Jul 29, 2002
2,630
0
36
Toronto, Ontario
Visit site
There wouldn't be any obvious problems with the 9600xt on that board, but i've heard many problems about it in general -link-, the nVidia equivalent is a Geforce FX 5700 Ultra. Your board has agp 8x, which both of these cards have.

As for RAM, if you want 1GB go for DDR, the speeds never really matter unless you want that precious 0.5fps more for 500$ more. It is easier to add more from a single stick, but make sure you check your mobo's memory limit (i know it has 3 slots, but how much memory max). Whereas splitting up the memory won't make much difference other than that you can give half your RAM to a friend.
 

Crowze

Bird Brain
Feb 6, 2002
3,556
1
38
40
Cambridgeshire, UK
www.dan-roberts.co.uk
There's a little thing called Dual DDR where you get more peformance if you have 2 memory sticks. I'd say it's worth it, seeing as though 2x512 will cost you less than 1x1024. As for speeds, get something that matches your CPU's FSB.

You should have no issues at all with the Radeon 9600 XT. Be sure you have the latest drivers for everything, and a decent power supply (a good branded 350W PSU is probably better than most cheap 450s).
 
Last edited:

spm1138

Irony Is
Aug 10, 2001
2,664
0
36
43
Visit site
The onboard GPU is strictly optional. You can run whatever you like instead of it. It's just a nice thing to have if you have trouble with your real graphics card.

You should also have a first rate 5.1 capable sound chip built in.

As Crowze says NForce boards have a feature that allegedly improves performance if you use two identical DIMMs. You can also put them in differently and get some sort of parity feature. Allegedly.

I don't think it gets you a whole lot compared to other chipsets but at the same time it can't hurt any, can it?
 

CAVERNA2K

Look, a fliing something!!!!!
Mar 12, 2001
1,046
0
0
41
www.geocities.com
I have this mobo.

Well, I can say: the ram(266, 333, 400) you will get depends on the processor, but 2 x 512, you will use the dual channel thing, and the performance will be astonishing.

There are no problems with ATI gpu and nVidia chipset. It works fine, no sweat.

This mobo is a very good (not exellent) OCer, so you will get some more Mhz squished anyway and easily. Just have in mind that the bios is not very good, like ABIT mobos... I did not get an ABIT due to $$$, but all nForce2 mobos are good(performance and stabilitywise), anyway. There is not a bad board, but all them need some refinements... Just see one that is more "my way" and get it.

Derelan: nforce2 has 3GB mem limit.
 
Last edited:

Nightmare

Only human
Sep 23, 2001
446
0
0
50
Finland
Visit site
Dual Channel is only 2-3% more memory bandwidth than single channel. Saving some money is always a good thing, though, so go for the 2x512. By the time you need more than a gig of memory the stuff you bought will be obsolete anyway.
 

SaraP

New Member
Feb 12, 2002
935
0
0
The Land of the Governator
anaemic said:
ok i know how much hardware question threads suck, but if any of you know anything which will help me i'll greatly appreciate it.

im looking at buying the ASUS A7N8X/Deluxe motherboard, this is where the problems begin;

firstly it uses an nvidia nforce2 chipset, i was planning on using a radeon 9600xt as my graphics card :con: would this be an issue? would i get better performance if i used a Geforce graphics card ? and what is the rough equivalent of the 9600 ?

secondly, i know very very little about ram; i want one gig of ram, but am unsure what to get full stop, all this ddr sd ram stuff makes no sence to me whatsoever.
2 x 512 would be the cheaper option, but is it worthwhile getting a single 1 gig strip of ram? can i even run a pc with just one strip of ram ? if i can obviously this would be best for upgrading in the future, but ive also heard stories of the nforce 2 getting better performance of paired ram or something ?

all in all i need some help :( badly...
thanks.

I use an nForce2 Ultra video card with a Radeon 9600 Pro, and it works just fine. If you're getting a regular nForce2, it doesn't matter whether you have one or two memory chips; if you have an nForce2 Ultra, you'll want two chips because the dual memory controller gives you twice the memory bandwidth if you use two.