Upgrading to nForce2 Board

[torataka]

All,

Here's a post I put on another board, but I wanted to ask this community for their views. If any of you have been in the same situation and made a purchase that's worked out for you, I'd very much appreciated your insight.

Thanks/torataka

I'm looking to upgrade my KT400 board to a new nForce2 board. Despite the rave reviews on the nForce2 I'm loathe to give up the great integrated ATA/RAID controller I have on my GA-7VAXP, and the four extra ATA channels it gives me. Since there's a dearth of on-board RAID/ATA controllers on the nForce2 boards, I have the following two questions to steer my purchase:

- What is the best nForce2 board to buy, less the need for integrated video (unless it has a DVI connector, which I've yet to find)?
- What's a good ATA controller card, running primarily as an ATA function and not needed as a RAID controller? (I'll boot from the IDE0, so no need to boot from the controller unless someone suggests otherwise.) I have a total of four ATA100 hard drives and two optical drives that I'm looking to connect.

On a side note, does anyone know of a video card that is fanless, and under a couple of hundred bucks with a DVI connection? I know the Sapphire Radeon 9000 non-pro is, but I've read bad reviews compared to my current 8500LE. Any other options out there?

[DoG]

Probably the most reliable nForce 2 board around is the ASUS A7N8X Deluxe (Availablw With\Without VGA)

http://www.asus.com/products/mb/sock...d/overview.htm

Its a solid board with good reviews, i have built quite a few systems around this board and have nothing but praise for it.

The board also comes in a basic form, to compare details look here:

http://www.asus.com/products/mb/sock...x/overview.htm

Are you looking for a secondary serial ATA controler or just another IDE controller card?

[Sephiroth]

you can also check out the epox 8rda board.. i got it for around $90 and it's been rock solid and fast as hell

http://www.epox.com/html/motherboard...ket%20a&lang=1

you can look at the plus and non plus versions there, the plus version adds onboard dual lan, 5.1 audio, and firewire, it goes for about $110 i think

for a pci controller, i like highpoints cards, you can get an ata133 card for about 40 bucks i think

[torataka]

Thanks for the responses. I'm still looking, still undecided!

[Stringent]

Also worth a consider is the Abit NF7-S (Revision 1.2) which has come highly commended in some forums. Personally I'd get the Asus Deluxe one if you can afford it!