I am planning to build a new computer and then overclocking it. Which motherboard b/w the gigabyte 7N400 Pro 2 or Asus A7N8X-X is better to overclock a amd xp athlon 2500+. Also which heatsink is better in cooling and noise level. The volcano 11 or the aero 7+.
Thanks 4 ya helps ppl.

I'd go with Gigabyte out of those two, the GA-7N400 Pro 2 has the better nForce Ultra400 northbridge, whereas the A7N8X-X only has the nForce 400 northbridge, for overclocking, you might want to look at the Abit NF7-s.

I'll go with Adam on the ranking order: nf7-s, 7n400, then a7n8x-x, but would like to note that the a7n8x-x is now made with the same ultra400 northbridge as the other two, so all three now support 400fsb.

Many mobo makers did not change their model numbers when they went from the nf2 chipset (only 333fsb guaranteed, but over 400 very likely) to the nf2u400 chipset (400fsb guaranteed), so there are a lot of spec descriptions still on the net which say 333fsb max, though I don't think anyone is still making such a board and all have moved to the u400. Some resellers still have the old 333 boards in stock though so you should check with your seller to make sure you're getting the ultra400 version.

The a7n8x-x is only single channel memory which is why the gigabyte is better. Of these three, only the nf7-s has the mcp-t southbridge with the built-in audio processor which has the best 6 channel sound you can get and also offloads the cpu for sound processing.

Oops I see that I misread Adam's post. Sorry.

He correctly pointed out that the a7n8x-x does not have the nf2 ultra400 (dual channel memory, 400fsb) but has only the nf2 400 (single channel memory, 400fsb). I mistakenly thought he was saying that not only did not have the ultra400 but just had the original nf2 which made it not as good of an overclocker. The nf2 ultra400 and the nf2 400 (non-ultra) both overclock to the same max fsb, and that's all I wanted to point out. non-ultra means single channel, which does not hold back your cpu overclock, and only holds back your system max throughput if your memory is the weak link and needs the dual channel bandwidth to catch up, which is usually not the case if you have pc3200 memory or higher. Probably just should have kept my mouth shut.

EpOX 8RDA3+ hands down.

Thanks for pointing that out, should have included the exact differences between the two chipsets in my initial post.

From my understanding (& I have absolutely NO experience with DDR RAM), dual channel is wasted on the Socket A system because it can't take full advantage of it...here's what it says about it at Tom's Hardware:

"Buyers enticed by dual channel DRAM should note one crucial thing: in theory, a dual-channel memory link does not bring any benefits since the data rate is limited by the FSB bus's bandwidth. It's fixed at a maximum 200 MHz (Athlon XP 3200+) to give a bandwidth of 3.2 GB/s. Even using fast dual DDR400 memory with an access time of 6.4 GB/s has no effect on the Front Side Bus bottleneck of 3.2 GB/s. With that in mind, it's really not so inappropriate to question dual-channel memory technology on the Socket A platform.

A single memory channel combined with DDR400 - and cleverly connected at the Northbridge - has a bandwidth of 3.2 GB/s. What's more, this solution saves money."

http://www17.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20030908/index.html

I just had my NF7-S rev 2.0 board a week...wow...this thing rocks!..I was all for getting the asus but have no regrets...and serial ata adapter thrown in too...
built in sound is unbeleivable....get it ..you wont regret it..
Abit have now released a bios update programme in windows...a one click upgrade...so simple and stable too...
Running Xp2600 400mhz dual channel ddr 2x 256
Get one...!

Abit nf7-s
Barton 2500+ -> 3200+ in a blink of an eye
or even better!