New GA-7N400Pro

[scriptasylum]

Well, I went ahead and bought a new board. I'm pretty anxious to get it (ordered from Newegg today), but I have a question. In some of the pictures for this board, there are the solder holes in the PCB for the optional power card, and in some pictures it's not there. Does someone have this board that can tell me the answer? Not really a big deal, but I'm kinda hoping it doesn't because I think it looks stupid (yes, i know... anal ). I know I could just wait about 4-5 days to see for myself, but I'm impatient.

Also, I currently have 512MB Corsair XMS PC3200 LowLatency (2x256MB) matched pair memory that I had purchased a while back specifically for use in a dual-channel mobo. I've read some places that say Corsair is the wrong memory to use because it causes problems in dual channel mode (but works OK in single channel), while others say it works great. Any opinions there?

From what I've read on the net in various places, people seem to be generally pleased with this mobo, memory issues aside. Plus, the price (at $120 US) is just about as much as I like to pay for a mobo. I was able to justify the purchase cause the kids mobo is acting up and I convinced myself my upgrade would be able to free my current mobo for them.

No matter what, I think I'll be satisfied until the Opteron/Athlon64 becomes mainstream in the retail market. I figure it'll take about 6-9 months before all kinks, drivers, chipset issues, etc are worked out, which is just in time for another upgrade.

 

[Taurus]

i looked through all of gigabyte's "7N400..." boards and some had that empty space behind the ports as if a power card slot and the otheers don't have that space at all. in none of them do i actually see a slot. weird.

but if you indeed got a 7N400 Pro (not 7N400 Pro2, 7N400V Pro, etc etc), then you will probably have that ugly bald spot. sorry, man.

 

[scriptasylum]

Aww crap! I thought I was getting the 400 Pro 2. When I went to giga-byte.com, i was searching by chipset type and didn't see the lone "nForce2" down at the bottom of the drop-down list. You'd think they would put all the nForce's together.

Look at the drop-down list here to see what I mean:
http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_NewProduct_List.htm

Newegg doesn't seem to carry the Ultra version. I might cancel the order and go elsewhere.

Are there any other good, reliable, and reputable online stores that carry gigabyte boards?

 

[scriptasylum]

Well, I went to the GB website and did some comparison. The difference between the "GA-7N400 Pro" and the "GA-7N400 Pro2" (besides the bald spot) is board layout, and the Pro2 has gigabit LAN while the regular Pro doesn't. It looks like the Pro2 is the next version of the regular 400Pro.

I was going to stop the order on the 7N400Pro in favor of the Pro2, but I can't find the Pro2 anywhere! The GB site says it's available now, but where? I might wait a couple/few weeks for the Pro2 to come out; I don't want to buy so close to obsolescence.