New Mother Board

Intrepid · 01-26-2004, 07:03 AM

I am going to buy this http://tw.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/...400%20Pro2.htm
it has everythink i want and much more
i can get it for $155 ($119.821US)
i'll probably be using a 2700XP
what do you think?

also can it support 4 master and 4 slave ide devices or only 2 of each?

Paladin2000 · 01-26-2004, 09:12 AM

You might want to check out user reviews from Epions.com

http://www.epinions.com/pr-Gigabyte_...splay_~reviews

However, the reviews on ASUSTEK A7N8X Deluxe seems to be better:

http://www.epinions.com/pr-Asustek_A...splay_~reviews

Alternatively, if you wish to go for GigaByte + Intel CPU combo, you might want to check out the following reviews (Gigabyte GA-8KNXP):

http://www.epinions.com/content_124514897540

and

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/...ew/default.asp

[ 01-26-2004, 09:23 AM: Message edited by: Paladin2000 ]

andrewas · 01-26-2004, 09:46 AM

Its a gigabyte, and I have had bad experiences with them, but Nforce2 boards tend to be good regardless of the manufactureer.

I would go for an ASUS board myself, as I've had one and have had no problems with it whatsoever.

Regarding IDE, This does seem to have 4 IDE connectors which would imply an 8 device capacity, which is unusual. You also have a pair of SATA connectors which allows you two SATA drives in addition, but I would check the manual before trying to use any of this capacity because the Nforce2 chipset does not natively have SATA support and I seem to recall some versions could only use SATA at the expense of part of the IDE interface.

Bokken · 01-26-2004, 01:26 PM

As Andrewas said ASUS is the best way to go!

Regardless however I did make a jump in one of my PC's recently and added the GA7N400 Pro (Same as the Pro2) Personally I'd recommend it all the way. The Nforce 2 is a great advantage. 5.1 on board and of course the usual 6 USB 2.0 ports (only 2.0 once SP1 is installed) Firewire and IDE Raid along with SATA. To cut a long story short you can run both SATA and all 4 IDE's at once bringing it to a total of 8 Hard Drivers instaled and 2 CD Roms in the remaining 2 IDE's. Or 4 CD Roms and 6 Hard Drives although why anyone would want to do that is beyond me. All in all the MOBO is really a piece or art as long as you keep in mind that it is not a big Overclockers board. If you wish to do that then ASUS is your best bet by my past experiences.

Lastly if you instal a Radeon Card on the board do NOT instal the NVidia driver that comes with the board (yes I do know that the board does not have on baord graphics) as this will result in a black screen once windows loads all the drivers and another format or exchange of Graphics Card to uninstal it.
If you get an FX Card and it could have more than just the drivers to instal. I've only seen this in my Asus V9900 (FX5800) where there's the Graphics Drivers, DirectX 9 and another driver I did not know about at the time. If your card has another driver along the the Graphics drivers and it's an FX Card instal that first as once again, on reboot your screen will go black when the drivers load. Bit of a pain in the butt after a format especially if you do not know about it but after an instal you can ghost the HDD and never have to worry about all that again!

Edit: Oh yeah and one more thing. The "Pro" part in the MOBO's name means that it's for proffessional use meaning from 9 -5. This doesn't affect anything in anyway apart from the North Bridge Fan. Basically it will only come on at 9am and switch itself off at 5pm. Gives you a bit of a heart attack if you happen to see that it's not spinning a couple of days after buying the mobo.
Anyway to solve this, instal the Gigabyte Easytune that comes with the mobo, open the limit setting and then click the "Smart Fan" tab. In there you will see the times the fan comes on and can alter them as you wish or turn it off completely! (I wouldn't advice turning it off). What you can do is click on the little box under the time and that will keep the fan on as long as your PC is.

[ 01-26-2004, 01:35 PM: Message edited by: Bokken ]

Intrepid · 01-29-2004, 05:19 AM

Great

thanks for your help and suggestions i think it sounds pretty good even though some of those reviews are bad.
thankyou Bokken for your advice that is really usefull

01-26-2004, 09:12 AM	#2
Paladin2000 Fzoul Chembryl Join Date: February 19, 2002 Location: Your guess is as good as mine. Age: 52 Posts: 1,728	You might want to check out user reviews from Epions.com http://www.epinions.com/pr-Gigabyte_...splay_~reviews However, the reviews on ASUSTEK A7N8X Deluxe seems to be better: http://www.epinions.com/pr-Asustek_A...splay_~reviews Alternatively, if you wish to go for GigaByte + Intel CPU combo, you might want to check out the following reviews (Gigabyte GA-8KNXP): http://www.epinions.com/content_124514897540 and http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/...ew/default.asp [ 01-26-2004, 09:23 AM: Message edited by: Paladin2000 ] __________________ (This is an invisible sig.)

01-26-2004, 09:46 AM	#3
andrewas Harper Join Date: October 2, 2001 Location: Aberdeen, Scotland Age: 42 Posts: 4,774	Its a gigabyte, and I have had bad experiences with them, but Nforce2 boards tend to be good regardless of the manufactureer. I would go for an ASUS board myself, as I've had one and have had no problems with it whatsoever. Regarding IDE, This does seem to have 4 IDE connectors which would imply an 8 device capacity, which is unusual. You also have a pair of SATA connectors which allows you two SATA drives in addition, but I would check the manual before trying to use any of this capacity because the Nforce2 chipset does not natively have SATA support and I seem to recall some versions could only use SATA at the expense of part of the IDE interface. __________________ [img]\"http://www.sighost.us/members/Zvijer/andrewas.gif\" alt=\" - \" />

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01-26-2004, 07:03 AM	#1
Intrepid Symbol of Cyric Join Date: March 28, 2003 Location: Australia Age: 37 Posts: 1,124	I am going to buy this http://tw.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/...400%20Pro2.htm it has everythink i want and much more i can get it for $155 ($119.821US) i'll probably be using a 2700XP what do you think? also can it support 4 master and 4 slave ide devices or only 2 of each?

01-26-2004, 01:26 PM	#4
Bokken Baaz Draconian Join Date: August 28, 2001 Location: Australia Age: 46 Posts: 708	As Andrewas said ASUS is the best way to go! Regardless however I did make a jump in one of my PC's recently and added the GA7N400 Pro (Same as the Pro2) Personally I'd recommend it all the way. The Nforce 2 is a great advantage. 5.1 on board and of course the usual 6 USB 2.0 ports (only 2.0 once SP1 is installed) Firewire and IDE Raid along with SATA. To cut a long story short you can run both SATA and all 4 IDE's at once bringing it to a total of 8 Hard Drivers instaled and 2 CD Roms in the remaining 2 IDE's. Or 4 CD Roms and 6 Hard Drives although why anyone would want to do that is beyond me. All in all the MOBO is really a piece or art as long as you keep in mind that it is not a big Overclockers board. If you wish to do that then ASUS is your best bet by my past experiences. Lastly if you instal a Radeon Card on the board do NOT instal the NVidia driver that comes with the board (yes I do know that the board does not have on baord graphics) as this will result in a black screen once windows loads all the drivers and another format or exchange of Graphics Card to uninstal it. If you get an FX Card and it could have more than just the drivers to instal. I've only seen this in my Asus V9900 (FX5800) where there's the Graphics Drivers, DirectX 9 and another driver I did not know about at the time. If your card has another driver along the the Graphics drivers and it's an FX Card instal that first as once again, on reboot your screen will go black when the drivers load. Bit of a pain in the butt after a format especially if you do not know about it but after an instal you can ghost the HDD and never have to worry about all that again! Edit: Oh yeah and one more thing. The "Pro" part in the MOBO's name means that it's for proffessional use meaning from 9 -5. This doesn't affect anything in anyway apart from the North Bridge Fan. Basically it will only come on at 9am and switch itself off at 5pm. Gives you a bit of a heart attack if you happen to see that it's not spinning a couple of days after buying the mobo. Anyway to solve this, instal the Gigabyte Easytune that comes with the mobo, open the limit setting and then click the "Smart Fan" tab. In there you will see the times the fan comes on and can alter them as you wish or turn it off completely! (I wouldn't advice turning it off). What you can do is click on the little box under the time and that will keep the fan on as long as your PC is. [ 01-26-2004, 01:35 PM: Message edited by: Bokken ]

01-29-2004, 05:19 AM	#5
Intrepid Symbol of Cyric Join Date: March 28, 2003 Location: Australia Age: 37 Posts: 1,124	Great thanks for your help and suggestions i think it sounds pretty good even though some of those reviews are bad. thankyou Bokken for your advice that is really usefull

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