Iwill xp333-r VS Asus A7N8X DLX

[Jay23]

How much of a performance difference will i see between these two boards? (im not planning on using dual DDR and i dont really care about the sound storm on the a7n8x

so, anyone know how good these boards compete against each other? :D

[Shade00]

The XP333 is a great board. I loved mine. However, it had its issues.

You'll probably see about a 7-10% difference between a highly tweaked XP333 and an A7N8X. You'll likely have to use WPCRSET to tweak some of the chipset registers or your performance won't be too hot. Also, if you think you'll hit 200 out of the box, think again. Most XP333s won't make it. There is a vmem mod that will help you make it, but you're not guaranteed. Also, many of the late XP333s did not have the capability to change multipliers. This was one of the drawbacks of my board.

In short, the XP333 is super quirky. The A7N8X will likely give you far better stability. The XP333 will work with Bartons but it won't recognize their name strings properly.

So, I'd have to say go with the A7N8X. The XP333 is a good board, but it's past its prime.

[cherryp00t]

its def a noticible difference if you have the money going nf2 is the only way to go =d

[Mr B]

I have a XP333-R and an NF7-S 2.0. Go with the nF2 board, hands down.

I'll second that the Iwill, while a great board, is "quirky". When I got mine (a Rev 2.1, BTW), I tried setting it up with a T-Bred 2100+ "B". No post. It took me forever, and a lot of searching, to find out why.

Iwill revised the board after the 2.1, and didn't change the revision number....:mad: The "early" 2.1's (like mine) will not correctly read default multipliers over 12.5x (the 2100+ is a 13x defualt multi).

The board was trying to post at the rediculous settings of 20 x 100FSB. :rolleyes:

I finally found a thread in the Forums here, which linked me to a thread at another forums, which outlined the problem, and the solution, which was to put a strand of wire in the CPU socket bridging two pins, to enable 5.5 x thru 12.5x.

The "later" Rev. 2.1's supposedly don't have this issue, but there's no way to tell them apart unless you install a 2100+ or higher chip on it, and see what happens. You might be good to go, or you might have to stick a hunk of wire in the socket, and be limited to a max of 12.5x for a multiplier.

The XP333-R does have a 1/5 divisor, and I've read several times in several places, a 1/6 divisor as well (never got mine that high.....)

The Asus board will run any AMD chip from the Duron 600 up to the Bartons, has Dual Channel for the DDR if you wanted to use it down the line, has much better onboard sound than some add-on cards, and will (I'd bet a dollar on it) net you a higher overclock.

Consider the Abit NF7-S 2.0 as well...... I've got one, and I'm very happy with the performance I've gotten from it.

Cheers!

Brian

[Crism]

definitely get the nf2