Abit NF7-S v.2.0 Motherboard info?
 

I'm in the process of trying to find the best deal for this particular motherboard. Fortunately, the majority of the informarmation I've found on this board has been positive. However, I would like to get some input from some TFP'ers regarding the likes/dislikes of the Abit NF7-S v.2.0. Any info is appreciated.

BTW: the CPU I plan to get is the AMD 2500+ Barton that I've heard so much about.

well, mine came by FedEx yesterday, so I haven't had time do hook it up yet, but it looks really nice... :D Give me a few days and I can probably tell you more.

As for good deals, I got mine on sale at newegg for $92. I got the same processor as you for $90 from the same place. Methinks that $182 is not much money for that powerhouse combo.

I ordered mine today with a Barton 2500+, gimme a couple of days and I can tell you how it is. I ordered mine from newegg also.

It seems that there are a great many of us here that are building/upgrading comps right now. And (I think) most are going with this combo or something very similar... we should have put together a group to try and get a bulk discount...

I bought mine this past summer, but RMA'ed it back (not because it was broke; the videocard came broke so I sent the entire PC back). If I bought another Athlon XP mobo, it would DEFINITELY be the Abit NF7-S 2.0. I prefer it over the Asus A7N8X Deluxe. My combo was the 2500+ as well...and yeah, I got it to 2.2 GHz with a CPU fan. The motherboard simply looks fucking AWESOME. The chipset fan is incredibly cool, and the color scheme is perfect. It supports all types of DDR RAM and all Athlon XP processors. Combined with the onboard Soundstorm®, you won't find a better mobo on the market for the price. You seriously won't need a soundcard at all if you get this motherboard. It has 5.1 Dolby Digital fiber optic outputs...come on. It doesn't get any better than this motherboard. Stock multipliers, stock memory OC'ing, stock FSB tweaking. Get this motherboard, it's the best.

-Lasereth

Running a NF7-S in my gaming system right now, Have a 2100+ oced to around 3200+ equivilent. Love it, but one thing I suggest is make sure you dont get HyperX for Ram, many people have had problems with it (including myself) Corsair seems to like this mobo greatly. The board is a better OC'er and cheaper then the ASUS and has North Bridge voltage regulation unlike the Epox 8rda+
All in all its a steal for its price.

I'm 99.9999% sure that your wrong on this one if you want analog output. The Soundstorm chip is just a digital decoder, nothing more. That means that analog sound is going to be handled by the mobo . While the Nforce2 does have 6.1 analog, I have heard that the quality is rather poor and an 80$ Audigy 2 ZS is a good addition.

Thanks guys/gals, this is exactly the type of input I was hoping to get back. In regards to the RAM, I plan to get the Corsair pc3200. Now, I'm a nOOb to OC'ing, and was wondering if I should get a certain type of pc3200 RAM to allow the Barton 2500+ run at a 2.2. Any info?

BTW: as for heatsink/fan, I'll be using the Thermaltake Volcano 9.

Hey, it does have fiber optic outputs on it. I'm not sure about all of the technical analog stuff, but the onboard sound is the best I've ever heard, better than Audigy's and certainly better than Soundblaster Live!'s. I just think paying that much for a soundcard is useless when your onboard sound is that good. Of course, my current Soundblaster Live! is keeping me perfectly happy, so it's just icing to me.

This is from Abit's site:

I can't argue with the facts.

*EDIT* I noticed I said infrared before (instead of fiber optic). Sorry. :)

-Lasereth

um.. about getting computer parts cheaper through tfp.. as a group.. how would that work out?

^, I'd be up for that!

yeah, but it's too late now, we've all already ordered it :(

I would like to see some figures on just how many people have ordered an NF7-S V2 and Barton 2500+ though.......:)

I've been running a Abit NF7-S & AMD Barton 2500+ for a good while now.

Best damn combo ever.

This board is in opinion better then then ASUS for overclocking and features.

Well, you heard wrong. Thats as easy as I can put it.

I'm running onboard dolby 5.1 sound with this mobo on my logitech z-5300 speakers, sound is PERFECT.

where's the best place to get the Barton 2500+? if I went to pricewatch for instance, would I just do a CPU search for 2500+? In other words what specific features are unique to the Barton?

never, ever, EVER order anything off of Pricewatch. The last time I did, half my shit came broken. I even had to ship my hard drive back TWICE (to freakin' California!!!!!!!!). All the companies listed there are usually shady, and have below a 5 on resellerratings.com. Just go to Newegg and order it. If anything is wrong with it, they have EXCELLENT customer service and will give you an immediate refund.

NEWEGG ALWAYS ROX!!!!!1

i vouch for newegg as well.

I've ordered literally thousands of dollars worth of hardware from them, never once has anything came late, or bad.

They are one of the speediest shippers I've ever seen as well, If i order it sunday night, i'll have the item by weds morning.

Thats almost always with FREE shipping.

You cant beat that.

Wow.. Thanks for the advice.. I was about to order all my parts from Pricewatch.. good thing I heard from you... I was wondering why it was so cheap.. heh I guess i know now

ok, well, my question really didn't get answered. I was using Pricewatch as an example and have never bought anything from ANY e-tailer on their seller list.

Now, I am STILL curious. When looking to purcahse an xp2500+ Barton, what specs should I be looking for (in order to OC that S.O.B)? Any recommendations other than NewEgg on where to get?

I wouldn't buy anywhere else than NewEgg. Pricewatch is HORRIBLE.

As you may or may not know, AMD has locked the multiplier on newer Athlon XP 2500+ Bartons. You can still overclock the hell out of them, but it's totally dependent on how good your RAM is now. Before, you could pull off a good OC with shitty PC2700 RAM...now that's not possible. You'll need PC3200 with a CAS of 2.5 or lower in order to OC it using the FSB increases instead of the multiplier.

So basically, you're looking for:

Abit NF7-S
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton with 333 MHz FSB at 1.83 GHz
DDR RAM of PC3200 or greater with a CAS latency at 2.5 or lower.

For the RAM, I suggest Corsair (not XMS Corsair, I've heard of compatibility issues with it), Geil, or Mushkin. NewEgg has all of these parts for really cheap. They have a great Corsair RAM deal going on. $120 gets ya two 256 MB PC3200 sticks with heatspreaders with a 2 CAS latency.

Like I said before, the newer Bartons are locked, so you'll need good RAM to OC them. You may get an older one with an unlocked multiplier, but it doesn't really help (you still need good RAM for the best performance). Good luck!

-Lasereth

I disagree with the blanket condemnations of PriceWatch. It's true that there are shady dealers on that board, but I can't blame the board on which they advertise. I think PriceWatch is a great place to see the fair market price, and I know from experience that they respond to legitimate complaints about vendors.

I'll quickly add that I am always skeptical of the first few quotes, especially if those prices are a significant departure from the pack. I think one can tell a great deal about the vendors from their websites, as well. Poor design and simple details such as spelling mistakes give away most of the cut-throats right away.

I've been shopping around and I often see newegg on the first page of results, and they are rock-solid in my book:) In very general terms, California vendors (besides newegg) have given me bad business before, and I like to stick with non-California businesses. Since I'm close to NY, I get next-day shipping even with ground when I order more locally.

In regards to the RAM, I do plan to get the
corsair/geil pc3200.

Now in regards to the NF7, does the stock BIOS allow OC'ing? Or is an update necessary?

By the way, thanks for the input TFP'ers. A lot of useful info here.

Any site comparable to NewEgg that ISN'T in California? I don't wanna pay salestax & shipping, as I live in CA.

Stock BIOS allows OC'ing.

If you can, opt for the higherclocked PC3500 RAM, its the best (imho) quality for price. I picked up some HyperX PC3200 CL2 and couldn't put it past 400mhz, thats why my 2100+ is stuck at 2.4ghz :( but this also could be because I was stupid and got HyperX with the NF7-s. I know this now LOL :)

Anyway if its only a few dollars more, I would think it would be better to know for a fact that you can bump it past 400mhz.

If you get a chance try and see if you can find one with a good stepping and close to the center of the wafer.
AKA:

AXDA2500DKV4D F453237280481
AQXEA0331TPAW

K now the 0481 at the end of the number is the number of the chip, lower = closer to the center so lower = better

AQXEA0331 is considered one of the best OCing bartons available. Now the problem with this is that it is going to be SUPER hard to find one of these, and well there not made anymore. All of the new bartons are locked so all you can change is the FSB, not the multiplyer. if you can find one of the older bartons it would save you a lot of headachs. Hope this helps.

I was wondering if you could OC the 2500+ to 3200+ speeds w/ generic PC3500 or PC4000 instead of 2.5 or 2ms corsair or "premium" memory.

Better to go w/ 2 3200 sticks of Corsair than 2 3500 or 4000 sticks o Best Buy ram?

A seller from another forum is trying to sell an unlocked Barton 2500+ for $90. Seller says he purchased the chip *used from a friend. He hasn't used it yet but he says it works fine. Now the reason I ask for advice is this: a couple of posts say that *unlocked Bartons are hard to come by. This sounds like a good opportunity to get one but I am VERY skeptical on purchasing a *used chip, although unlocked, may not be worth the $. What do you guys/gals think?

If you think you can trust the guy, then it's worth it. I'd pay $90 for an unlocked 2500+. It all depends on if the person is trustworthy...or better yet, if you have a way to find out.

-Lasereth

Anyone have a good reference for unlocked Barton's?

Once again, I am curious? ^

I'm pretty damn sure you just have to buy one and roll the dice you get an unlocked proc.

Yeah, I've heard of people still getting them from NewEgg, but it's probably really rare. Most of them are locked after week 35 of 2003, so they've been locked for a good while. My brother ordered a Barton the other day and his came locked, but we've been able to get it to 1.980 GHz with shitty PC2700 RAM. If you had PC3200 with it, then you'd be able to raise it to 200 MHz FSB, pushing it to 2.2 GHz. The locked multiplier really only means that people with shitty RAM won't be able to go as far (or people with incredibly good cooling won't be able to take it past 3.0 GHz :) ), but for light overclockers, there's really not a problem.

We were also able to get the aformentioned shitty RAM to 6-2-2-2 which is pretty damn good if you ask me. I love that motherboard and CPU combo. :)

-Lasereth

Well since I plan to get the Corsair/Geil pc3200, I guess it's not of major importance that I get an unlocked Barton. THX for the info.

Another Q: If I have two hard drives (80gb & 20gb) of two different speeds (5400 & 7200rpm) how would I run them both? Also, what data (OS, etc.) should be on which drive?

If you want to OC as of now, get a Barton 2500 Mobile, sounds retarded, but in fact its an amazing deal. There unlocked (all of them) stock are running a lower voltage so you can pump more into her, and finally they are cooler then the normal Bartons. A lot of people are getting the 2500M to 2.4-2.6ghz (which is around a 3500-3800+ equivilent)

Can you give a little more info on the Mobile, Vanquish? That sounds interesting, but a "Mobile" makes it sound like a laptop processor. Where can you buy these, and do they work in regular desktop systems?

-Lasereth

Yeah they are made for Laptops but they fit in standard desktop systems. I am not sure where to get them but give me a while and I will see if I can find a place.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...codevalue=4181

Look into the 2400M one person got gis to 2.6ghz on Air cooling, which is sick. If you end up going this route, I hope you get a good one. Thats for sure.

I forgot to mention these are OEM so you woudl need a Cooler, but if your going to OC, thats a given. Look into the SLK-900u if your going to get the NF7-s or the 8rda+, but DONT if your going with the ASUS, SLK-900u = dont fit lol.

Holy hell. That's awesome! :) That's weird that they come at 266 MHz FSB stock. I wonder how that affects OC'ing!

-Lasereth

Well, just bought an NF7-S this morning, Newegg had them on sale for $93 shipped. I'll let you all know what I get my 2100+ up to once it arrives and I get it all hooked up.

The 2100+ is a freak Athlon XP, so you'll probably get some damn good results. 1700+, 2100+, 2500+...the reason that AMD is popular among OC'ers.

-Lasereth

Damn, that 2500+ mobile looks nice, runs cool, but I don't like the idea of the 266 fsb. FSB is the most important part of overclocking, to my knowledge, and will get you much further than simply increasing cpu speed. Anyone know of any good benchmarks regarding overclocked mobile 266fsb bartons vs. 333 bartons?

Cheese - when overclocking your pushing the FSB anyway, if they're OCing a barton 2400M people usually pump their FSB to 200mhz (400mhz equivilent) and set their multiplier to 12.0 -12.5 then step up their FSB in increments of 1-3, testing for hours on end each time to find the absolute max OC. So in short, the CPU can handle the 400mhz FSB like 99% of the time, so there is no difference at all.

The most important factor in raising your FSB is actually not your proc at all, with this processor, your RAM is a far more limiting factor then the internal processor. If it was me I would be buying some Corsair XMS 3500 and pumping the FSB to 200-225 and have the multiplyer at 12.0 and if it could handle it 12.5. Either or would give you a processor that would beat a 3200+ so its all good.

Yeah, the reviews on NewEgg say that they've been able to get the damned 266 MHz FSB Barton 2500+ Mobile to 400 MHz FSB. That means increasing the system bus from 133 MHz to 200 MHz! Jesus H. That's a HELL of an increase. I wonder what temperature that'd be running at? Vanquish is right, though -- it's the RAM that determines how much you can OC. I might buy one of these if I get my tax returns soon enough. :)

-Lasereth

Well, got the motherboard and I've started the overclocking.

Right now I've got an XP2100+ (1.74GHz) running at XP3000+ (2.2GHz).

I'm using OCZ PC3200 Basic Series RAM with 2.5 - 4 - 4 - 9 timing.

I've had to bump the voltage on the chipset, RAM, and processor one notch.

So far Prime95 has been running fine along with SETI@Home and Motherboard monitor. Also typing this post right now.

Temps are about 120F fully stressed for the CPU, about 85F in the case. Temps are taken with the socket and on board thermistors. I've got another thermistor stuck into the heatsink thats getting slightly lower temps so I figure they're pretty accurate. Oh yeah, I'm using an Alpha PAL8045 heatsink with 5000rpm 80mm Sunon fan.

Your Barton 2400+mobile or 2500+ mobile @ 400fsb should be running much cooler than your desktop 2500+ at 400fsb. And it is rated to take more heat, if I understand correctly.

I just picked up another 2400+ cause the 2500+'s were sold out. 80 bucks shipped when I got it from newegg. I'll let ya know how fast I get it when my GeForce 4 Ti4200 comes in the mail tomorrow.

Gluck with that, I am consideing picking up a 2400M/2500M shortly, my 2100+ is at 2.4ghz and is a good competition for a 3200+ but at $140 cdn for a proc that would do the same as a $350 one, I cant really go wrong, now I just have to find out if I will still have the budget to get the Nikon D70 when it comes out at the end of march, if I do, then 2500M here I come ;)

Damnit.... so far, I'm "only" able to hit 2.4 ghz with my mobile 2400+ and my abit nf7-s.

I have vcore at 1.8 right now, as I've upped the multiplier to 12.
FSB is at 200.
It will load windows at 203 but then fuck up, won't even post at 204.

Its funny, but upping ram voltage seemed to do nothing, nor did upping chipset voltage.

This chip ran at "stock" <1.5 vcore at 11*200 fsb, btw, w/ no voltage mods whatsoever.

I'm very happy with the processor. I was hoping for a little more outta my ram, but I had to cut a few costs, and ram ended up being second tier instead of first. Its not crappy--Geil Golden Dragon 3200, rated at 2.5, and I'm pretty sure it was doing 2-2-2-6 at 3200+ speed, but I could be mistaken.

Freakin' 204 fsb kills it though. DAMNIT!

I've heard that these things sometimes take time, so I'm gonna keep runnin' prime 95 like i've been--right now it kept finding errors after 10 mins or so in prime, which is why I've upped the voltage on the vcore to 1.8. I'm afraid to go too much over that, but thankfully the cpu full load has never taken me over 40 degrees.

Thank you thermalright. Unfortunately, that wonderful vantec tornado fan sounds like a freakin' hurricane instead.

I can hear it downstairs w/ my door closed.

Any advice on v-core/chipset/vdimm settings much appreciated. To increase my fsb.

Also, what do I do now if I can't increase fsb anymore.

I'm at 200fsb/12 multiplier (2.4ghz). What do I try for 200/12.5?

For the record, I havn't flashed the bios in my nf7-s rev 2.0. I'm afraid of it, and don't know if I really need to or not.

You can try upping the RAM timings for increased FSB performance. It may decrease overall gaming and benchmark performance, though. I've heard that setting it at 3-3-3-7 will allow greater FSB increases, but I've never tried it.

It's probably just your RAM. That's nice RAM, but I've heard good and bad things about Geil (most good). When a small FSB increase locks the PC, it's usually because of the RAM.

I'm sure your temps are decent with the Tornado in. I've heard it compared to a 747 landing in your room. :)

I'd be happy with 2.4 GHz, man! Damn! My 2500+ XP (unlocked) this past summer wouldn't go past 178 FSB because of my RAM. 200 is damn nice. I've personally never heard of anyone going past 205 FSB with the 2500+ unless they had water cooling.

Your southbridge or northbridge chipsets could be getting too hot. That tends to cause lots of problems and is usually hard to realize without extra thermometers.

I'd simply stick with 2.4 GHz and be happy. :)

-Lasereth

Thanks for the reply. I know *some* about the timings, and right now I'm not concerned with them as much as eeking out a little more fsb. Of course, when I get it all settled, I will certainly work on the timings and I *know* that good timings beat fast fsb/sloppy timings.

I'm just trying to take things one thing at a time. Right now I'm praying that this sucker keeps stable at 2.4ghz on air. Talk about cool, it won't crack 40 degrees on full load stilll. Damn, thermalright seriously rules.

I was gonna get a fan controller, but since it seems to work so well I might just switch the tornado out w/ a fan that doesn't hurt your eardrums (its causing me to go deaf, I swear).

On another note, the abit onboard sound is awesome.

Any other comments much appreciated.
Thanks!
-Cheese

I wouldn't switch out the fan. :) That Tornado is loud, but it's also known as the best CPU fan on the market. Putting another in may raise your temps more than you'd like.

-Lasereth

If I were you I would get a fan controller that allows you to switch the Tornado from 12v to 5v, that way you can keep the tornado and up the fan speed when needed, but also have the thing quiet when you dont need it. Myself, I have 2 tornados in my case, and there on full all the time. Its downstairs so I dont have to worry about the noise, and when I DO want to play a game, I wear headphones, so that solves the noise problem ;)

now, onto your FSB. If your running your ram in Dual Channel, take it out and put it single channel, that will help you get your fsb to its max. But if I was you, I would leave the thing at 12x200. Thats amazing for a barton, and well, you have the equivilent of like a 3800+ now, so who really cares LOL. You can try and go for the 12.5x and if she works, thats awsome. I cant seem to get my 2100+ to get to 12.5x, perhaps there is an issue with the NF7-S? If you happen to get it to run stable at 12.5x, let me know what your settings are at. Cuz I know the proc I am currently using can push 2.6ghz (it did on my cuz's epox 8rda+) so a setting of 12.5x200 should be fine for it.

Nice to hear that the M is going good for you tho.

Vanquish, I got my 2500+ at 178*12.5 with no problems this past summer, so the NF7-S certainly doesn't have a problem with the 12.5 multiplier.

I can also say that Vanquish is right about the single vs dual channel RAM idea -- I had two sticks in my PC before I RMA'ed it and I can say that it's probably what caused my FSB limitations. I had one nice Crucial stick and one really shitty generic stick.

-Lasereth

K thanks, Lasereth, I might try and down my FSB and up my Multiplyer to see if I get some changes.....just to see the max that my Proc can go to on my system.