Abit NF7-S or AN7?

[Amdnewbie]

Helping a friend with a new build, wondering which of these boards would be better. Also I see alot of people using the Barton 2500, should i get one of those or would a 2800 be even better? thanks for the help

[Viral]

I would just go with the NF7-S, especially if it's cheaper. You can't go wrong with it really.

2500+'s are good because they have the same multiplier as 3200+'s. When you up the FSB to 200MHz (which the NF7-S and AN7 support without overclocking) the 2500+ is effectively a 3200+. It shows up as one and most run fine at stock voltage perfectly stable if you have good DDR400 RAM. In my NF7-S BIOS under the 'softmenu III' menu the very first option allows you to run the CPU as a 2500+, 3200+ or user define.

IMO, save some money and get the 2500+ with some nice DDR400. Then set it as a 3200+ in the BIOS. If it's unstable.. bump up the v-core a little (you shouldnt have to), it then should be perfectly stable.. i've never had problems with runnin mine as a 3200+ with stock voltage(1.65v).

[jhaluska]

I had a friend use 2800+, it didn't seem to overclock much better than a 2500+. Then again he had crappy ram, so it was probably the best solution for him.

[Amdnewbie]

Thanks for the info, ok i have a question, If he runs the 2500 barton at normal speeds than he will be at 333 fsb than right? And if he had the good ddr400 ram, thinking about some of that Corsair PC3200 stuff, will it still run at stock speeds or does the cpu need to be oc'd at 3200 to run at all? Not sure if he will overclock or not and want to be sure what i recommend will work in either application....thanks a ton for the help

[Amdnewbie]

One other question that just came up I hope someone can clear up is whats the differance between a Barton 2500+ and the Mobile version? Is it a no brainer and get the Mobile if possible? If it is locked will I still be able to achieve those speeds you speak of with Bios settings alone? Thanks all very much for the hellp!

[The_Ghost]

if you are going to get a barton ,,get a mobile if the mother board that you are getting has the ability to change multipliers and fsb

at a barton 3200+ speed ,they will run cooler then a desktop barton at 3200+ speed

[Amdnewbie]

Thanks Ghost, I was thinking of getting the Abit NF7-S, will PC3200 ram or PC2700 ram work ok whether the system is oc'd or not? The Corsair XMS is a little pricey, is it worth the differance in price? Thanks for the help!

[The_Ghost]

get the corsair xms 3200 LL matched pair ,,you will not regret it ,,your mobile barton will do 200mhz fsb and can use the 400mhz ddr ram

[Viral]

Because all bartons are now apparently locked, the 2800+ isn't a great choice IMO. It is very doubtful that you will reach 2.5GHz which is what you need toi reach to get a 200MHz FSB. So you will actually need to get a higher clock speed than you did on a 2500+ just to outperform it because the FSB will be lower.

To get '3200+' speeds you will need to set your FSB to 176MHz, that will give you 2.2GHz. Obviously it wont perform as well as a real 3200+ due to the lower FSB.

So get the 2500+ mobile if you can, it's unlocked, runs at a lower voltage, and overclocks better than any desktop barton can :D

[bigdroo]

Yeah, I've heard of some rediculous overclocks on the mobile 2500+.

I may (only slightly) disagree with the 2800+ not being a great choice for a regular Barton. Since the multipliers are locked now, the regular Bartons will have a realistic ceiling of around 200-210mhz FSB. (Of course mileage does vary with the quality of RAM and chipset used) At least with a 2800+, you're starting with a higher multiplier, so assuming the proper cooling is in place, you should, at least theoretically, have a little more MHZ to play with. Now is it as cost efficient as a 2500+? That's a whole other ball game. Just my opinion. :)

[Amdnewbie]

Ok, great info...gonna order a mobile barton 2500+ today. Now I'm not seeing any Version 2.0 on these Abit NF7-S boards, can I assume any board sold today will be automatically V2.0? So forget about AN7 right, NF7-S is the way to go?

[Amdnewbie]

Also, i see a mobile 2600+ for only 6 bucks more, is that a better choice or is the 2500+ just a superior chip in all respects? Thanks for all the help guys ;)

[The_Ghost]

i doubt that there is enough difference to pay the extra $6

[GottaLoveAMD]

I would go with the 2600+. I would say that on average, it should overclock slightly better since it has the same voltage, but higher stock speed. $6 is like one trip to McDonalds...

[Slipknot3Chris]

My choice would have been the AN7, but i am probably too late. I like the uguru stuff. Seems like a fun thing to play with.

[Amdnewbie]

Actually I havent bought the mobo yet, I'm digesting to much info and starting to get information overload. Yesterday I threw the DFI Infinity Ultra B into the mix....it seems like a really nice board. Although every build over the last few years I've been involved in has been Abit, I'm wondering what to do.

[SSmokEE]

I have read there is a bug in the NF7-S rev2.0 regarding the opitcal output not working. I remember spotting a thread on it in the maxpc forums where a guy was trying to hook up I think the logtech z680 speaker set through the optical output, which resulted in severe sound distortion. Im pretty sure that problem was not fixable with a BIOS update either. I believe they have fixed that bug in the AN7.

No biggie if you never plan on using an optical hookup for sound though.

[Roachtek]

It depends on what your goals are. If you want to overclock, the NF7-S is better from what I've heard. If you run stock speeds, the DDR400 will throttle down just fine.

I like mine very much. 8)

[Slipknot3Chris]

The main differences seems to be the AN7 has 1 extra IEEE-1394 port, Optical in, u guru, better component placement (IDEs), post code LED display, its more colorful and has rounded board edges. Had to throw the last 2 in.

The NF7-S has a PATA-SATA converter included that the AN7 does not have.

[bigdroo]

The AN7 still has the sweet Soundstorm sound that the NF7-S has, right? I remember that was an issue when we first strted talking about it at it's release, but I can't remember what the answer was...

[Amdnewbie]

Well its just about crunch time and I need to get off the fence and pick this mobo. I've pretty much talked myself out of the DFI Ultra B board and I'm going back and forth between the NF7-S and the AN7. I was starting to think that since the NF7-S has proven to be such a winner all this time that it's probably the way to go and another thing that I thought might be a reason was that the AN7 didn't have the soundstorm on it. But after looking at this http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/tec ... &model=158 I see that it does have it after all. I know the NF7-S is a huge hit with alot of people but for some reason I have this voice that keeps going off inside my head telling me that the AN7 is the new improved NF7-S and with the Uguru and all that maybe I should give it a shot. Such a dilemna ;) I already have the mobile barton 2500+ thats going in it and I'm getting a gig of Corsair low latency 3200 XMS ram to go with it. My plan is to overclock it and run it like a 3200+ so I'm planning on getting the SLK 947U and a "Viral" type fan for it. Will I need any other type of cooling for that application for the north or south bridge chipsets? Thanks for any advice in pushing me one way or another between these 2 fine mobo's.

[GottaLoveAMD]

This review was posted on the main page a while back. You should take a look since it's one of the more recent ones.

[wyjkk]

Actually nf7(-s) is enough to oc the BARTON 2500+ , and the AN7 with the uguru stuff is unnecessary and it's 20$ more than nf7-s!

[duby229]

AN7 has a better more refined BIOS.

I have had both boards,and would suggest the AN7 for its better BIOS and very near identical board layout.

I would go with the mobile 2500+ becouse of the multiplier. No other reason.