I recently picked up a refurbed A7N8X-X from Newegg.com...it came as the bare board with no accessories. I haven't installed it in a case yet, but since I only have a 15 day warranty, I wanted to test it. I used a Duron 1200, single stick of 512mb PC3200, GF2 32mb AGP, & 450 watt PSU to benchtest, & everything appears OK. I played around for about 10-15 min, checking the various BIOS options & stuff...my CPU temp was about 32C. OK...on to my question. I've read that the onboard sound is pretty good & had expected to use it, but what I didn't realize is there's no gameport....there is a gameport "header" that I can plug into though. I do have an old gameport/bracket with cable from another system that looks like it will work. Should I give it go? Or should I just install my 6-channel PCI soundcard & be done with it? Here it is if you care to have a look: http://www.chaintechusa.com/tw/eng/product_spec.asp?MPSNo=16&PISNo=92 Also, I plan on running my 1800+ temporarily until I can scrounge up a 2500+. I'm hoping for 8.0 x 200mhz...ya think I can go straight to it? or should I increase the FSB gradually? Thanks for your input....

It would hurt nothing to try your AV-512 card as you already have it, I suggest you look for and disable the onboard game "header" to avoid conflicts. If you experience issues getting it to work, try a cheapo Joystick/USB adapter. Those guys @ radio shack might even let you have it for free for being a loyal customer ;~). ____________________________ The greatest risk is not taking one

Hey, was that a jab about my choice of thermal paste?

Either am getting rusty or I need to replace my sparring partner, that delivery was meant to be an upper cut...................LOL ____________________________ The greatest risk is not taking one

Hmmm....maybe warp9pnt9 would be a more worthy opponent? LOL