Epox 8RDA VS Asus A7N8x

Need some serious advice here guys. After a lot of reading I''ve whittled down the choices for an Nforce2 motherboard to the Epox 8RDA and the Asus A7N8x. Which one of these two boards will be best for gaming??? I need to fit a Swiftech MCX462 heatsink on the board plus my planned Geforce FX (if I still decide to do that). Is there any glaring differences between these two boards?? Price excepted. Most sites seem to rate both boards highly. What advice can you guys give me. Another make of Nforce2???



Crap. Sorry, just realised I poseted this in the wrong section. Apologies.

have a look at this nforce 2 board:

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardwa...ew/default.asp

almost identical to the epox board but cheaper. an absolute steal of a board. i am trying to find this here in the uk.

Yeah but technical support?? Epox's is legendary and that counts for a lot.

Just been going through the same choice- Have chosen and just ordered 8RDA+ and simply because it was a bit cheaper and I don't need 2 Nics and SATA Raid. Otherwise I think both boards have the same potential to be great or disasters, but as you said EPOX support is supposed to be good whilst ASUS's support is legendary for the opposite reason (it sucks).

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Originally posted by IRON-PAWW
Need some serious advice here guys. After a lot of reading I''ve whittled down the choices for an Nforce2 motherboard to the Epox 8RDA and the Asus A7N8x. Which one of these two boards will be best for gaming??? I need to fit a Swiftech MCX462 heatsink on the board plus my planned Geforce FX (if I still decide to do that). Is there any glaring differences between these two boards?? Price excepted. Most sites seem to rate both boards highly. What advice can you guys give me. Another make of Nforce2???



Crap. Sorry, just realised I poseted this in the wrong section. Apologies.

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Asus has all of the goodies on their board, but Epox is much better for overclocking. The big advantage the Epox 8RDA has over it is the ability to unlock tbred b processors. If you want to overclock then go with the 8RDA, if not go with the Asus board.

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Originally posted by number1sixerfan


Asus has all of the goodies on their board, but Epox is much better for overclocking. The big advantage the Epox 8RDA has over it is the ability to unlock tbred b processors. If you want to overclock then go with the 8RDA, if not go with the Asus board.

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The a7n8x automatically unlocks tbred-b processors also. The only thing that differs between the boards is that the 8rda offers a wider range of voltages for vdimm/vmem. The a7n8x offers soundstorm audio, two nics, serial ata, 6usb, and 2 firewire ports. Well, I don't have a usage for two nics, serial ata, or all of the usb ports but the audio makes up for not buying another sound card. The only thing is that the bios support is kinda iffy, just gotta wait until Asus releases a damn good one. That's one thing I like about Epox, their support for the 8k7a was great, driver wise and customer support wise. BUT between the a7n8x non-dlx and the 8rda, I say get the 8rda, the non-dlx is just another board and I'd rather have Epox's plus side rather than lack the options that the a7n8x-dlx board has.

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Originally posted by datboiwilly


The a7n8x automatically unlocks tbred-b processors also. The only thing that differs between the boards is that the 8rda offers a wider range of voltages for vdimm/vmem. The a7n8x offers soundstorm audio, two nics, serial ata, 6usb, and 2 firewire ports. Well, I don't have a usage for two nics, serial ata, or all of the usb ports but the audio makes up for not buying another sound card. The only thing is that the bios support is kinda iffy, just gotta wait until Asus releases a damn good one. That's one thing I like about Epox, their support for the 8k7a was great, driver wise and customer support wise. BUT between the a7n8x non-dlx and the 8rda, I say get the 8rda, the non-dlx is just another board and I'd rather have Epox's plus side rather than lack the options that the a7n8x-dlx board has.

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The Asus does not unlock the tbred processor's lower multipliers, without a BIOS flash. This is the BIOS revision that unlocks the lower multipliers: A7N8X Deluxe Bios 1002 Final.

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Originally posted by IRON-PAWW
Need some serious advice here guys. After a lot of reading I''ve whittled down the choices for an Nforce2 motherboard to the Epox 8RDA and the Asus A7N8x. Which one of these two boards will be best for gaming??? I need to fit a Swiftech MCX462 heatsink on the board plus my planned Geforce FX (if I still decide to do that). Is there any glaring differences between these two boards?? Price excepted. Most sites seem to rate both boards highly. What advice can you guys give me. Another make of Nforce2???



Crap. Sorry, just realised I poseted this in the wrong section. Apologies.

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I'm debating the same question man, EPOX OR ASUS?

Very hard decision on my hands.
I'm going to toss a Barton 2500 in with it.

Epox cuz its cheaper.. and overclocking friendly

The Epox also has soundstorm, but they didn't include a digital out so they cannot label it as soundstorm even though it is.

I just got the 8rda+. They recommend that you install things in the correct order and flash your bios to the newest revision.

windows - service packs/secuity packs/updates - nforce drivers - directx - video - sound/lan etc.

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Originally posted by number1sixerfan


The Asus does not unlock the tbred processor's lower multipliers, without a BIOS flash. This is the BIOS revision that unlocks the lower multipliers: A7N8X Deluxe Bios 1002 Final.

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Umm, like I said and you just repeated it yourself, it does unlock tbred-b's.

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Originally posted by datboiwilly


Umm, like I said and you just repeated it yourself, it does unlock tbred-b's.

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I was telling him that just in case he wanted to skip the hassle of flashing his BIOS.

Well, it's not really a "hassle" to flash the bios, especially with Asus's program you can use in Windows. Pretty easy and convenient to me.

Here's an nforce2 roundup linked from Anand's this morning. They had issues with the 8RDA+:

http://www.sudhian.com/showdocs.cfm?aid=327&pid=1215

I have A7N8X with the original intent of buying an 8RDA+, but it was out of stock, so I settled for the Asus. I must say I love the board. Only thing I don't like is the lack of voltage adjustments, but the board makes up for it in features.

THAT article is interesting. But thats the first time i've seen a review ditch the board. But I'll remain open to experiences. Has anyone had trouble with the board??

As for Epox's support of their boards. As far as bios updates and bug fixes go I've never seen anything like the support EPOX gives. Hell, my current 8KHA+ will still support 2600+'es. THAT is unheard of for a board of that age.

At the moment I'm leaning towards the EPOX board. My 8KHA+ hasn't missed a beat and neither has Epox in their online support for it.

I just did a little experiment. I ran a search for "A7N8X" and for "8RDA" in the motherboard forum back 3 months. There were 185 results for the Asus, and 93 for the Epox. Of course, that includes praise, problems, and everything else, but it was interesting that the Asus was mentioned so much more often. I wonder if that indicates problems, or just popularity?

A7N8X outsold any of its competitors because it came out first (actually 2nd but who actually buys chaintech?).

If epox had been out sooner with their boards, I would have purchase theirs instead of the asus.

Both boards are good - decision to buy would depend on the price and features that you want, and perhaps overclockability.

The only issue with the epox mb is that you have to be very careful installing a GF4 card into it.