Recommend me a no-frills, no-overclocking athlon board

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Originally posted by Momaw
I'd rather have the "400" spec on there just to make sure I can use any AthlonXP up to the end of the road, and the Ultra version seems to rake up a few more points here and there with its dual channels.

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I really don't know how much the '400' spec really means - look at the 8RDA3+ - I don't really see anyone going bonkers over that board....plus, whether or not the 8RDA+ has the 'spec' is somewhat immaterial as it's pretty much a lock for 210 based on the BOARD itself.....

I'm not sure what you mean (me??) by 'points....w/dual channels'....does that mean DcDDR???

"400" is NVidia's guarantee that the board will run stable at a 200Mhz FSB (and likely more, the AN35N-U allows FSB's up to 250Mhz) to support the XP3200+ and other possible processors at that speed. And yes, I was referring to dual channel DDR memory.

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Originally posted by Momaw
"400" is NVidia's guarantee that the board will run stable at a 200Mhz FSB (and likely more, the AN35N-U allows FSB's up to 250Mhz) to support the XP3200+ and other possible processors at that speed. And yes, I was referring to dual channel DDR memory.

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See, that's my point - that boards that have the '400' designation aren't necessarily better o/c'ers than some of the better non-400's.
As far as I'm concerned, you buy a 8RDA+ or NF7-S and you GET 200. As far as higher potentials go, that remains to be seen.

Plus, that's why I'd asked about DcDDR. All the nForce boards have DcDDR (well, there's one or two that don't...), not just the '400's'.

I'd have to say the 8RDA+ without a doubt.

As for ECS, I have a dead one here you can have for free. I had 2 given to me and neither lasted a year. Stable...kind of....long lasting..no way. I'll never touch ECS again.

Casper1612 -

It's unfortunate that you had bad experience with ECS. The one I've been using has given me no hassles so far.

But, I've heard the same stories about most of the other mainboard mfg's, as well as different brands of hard drives, memory, etc. So I'd say there's a certain "failure rate" that's inherent in the electronics world, just as with most other products. And many times it's user error/misuse that causes a problem with a comp...

Of course, the hope is that you're not the unlucky person that gets a "bad" unit. :(

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Originally posted by aztec61
And many times it's user error/misuse that causes a problem with a comp...

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And guess what gets RMA'd????

8RDA /+ are no longer sold at newegg :(

I just did a search and didn't find anything

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Originally posted by freedonX
8RDA /+ are no longer sold at newegg :(

I just did a search and didn't find anything

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I most have got one of the last ones, I guess that is why they were so cheap, they were unloading what they had left in stock.

Holy crap, you're right!!!:eek: :eek: :eek:

When Newegg is out of stock it just says that right? It doesn't completely remove the product from the site does it?

This is so weird, just a few days before I bought mine I was talking to XP18004life about the prices and when to buy it. The sale price of $79 came around and he joked that it could be discontinued and that I should buy it now-very ironic!

My heart goes out to all that can't buy one for $79 if in fact Newegg has stopped carrying it or if Epox has stopped manufacturing for some reason.

Weird.

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Originally posted by speedstream5621
Holy crap, you're right!!!:eek: :eek: :eek:

When Newegg is out of stock it just says that right? It doesn't completely remove the product from the site does it?

This is so weird, just a few days before I bought mine I was talking to XP18004life about the prices and when to buy it. The sale price of $79 came around and he joked that it could be discontinued and that I should buy it now-very ironic!

My heart goes out to all that can't buy one for $79 if in fact Newegg has stopped carrying it or if Epox has stopped manufacturing for some reason.

Weird.

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I`m not sure but I believe they have done this before if it was going to take a while to restock an item then all of a sudden it would be in stock again, of cource if Epox did discontinue them then there will not be any more of them and the only reason I can think for Epox to do that is that people were buying a lot of the 8rda+`s and not very many 8rda3+.

Hmmm...the thick plottens!

Well, the 8RDA+ was always supposed to be the 333MHz FSB board, but they just put the Ultra 400 chips on them. It's really the 8RDA3+ that actually "supports" the 400MHz FSB.:p

It's so sad that they're gone though.:(

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Originally posted by freedonX
8RDA /+ are no longer sold at newegg :(
I just did a search and didn't find anything

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To repeat: Holy Mobos, Batman!!!! Man, a true classic gone. Well, from the Egg, anyway.....

It might not be gone, just out of stock and they don`t have a date for when they will have them back in stock. I checked their site for getting my 900U and they did not have it listed either, but now they have it listed, but not in stock with a date when they will have them in. So maybe they will do the same with the 8rda+.

OR - you can get an XP2000+ AND an ECS K7S5A Pro for $69! If you have a Fry's around you, they have that combo in today's ad. IMO, that's a no brainer, especially for what you're looking for.

edit: and not to say I haven't had a bad ECS before, but my wife has been using one for the last 3-4 years w/ no probs. and the same w/ many of my friends that I've built machines for.