• For information about the nForce2 technology, read our technology overview.
• For nForce2 performance, read the latest part of our nForce2 coverage.

We won't delay you any further with chitchat, so read on to find out more about six retail nForce2 motherboards…

ABIT NF7-S Version 1.0: Basic Features

Motherboard Specifications
CPU Interface	Socket-462
Chipset	NVIDIA SPP North Bridge NVIDIA MCP-T South Bridge
Bus Speeds	100 - 237MHz (in 1MHz increments)
Core Voltages Supported	up to 1.85V (in 0.025V increments)
I/O Voltages Supported	N/A
DRAM Voltages Supported	up to 2.7V in 0.1V increments
Memory Slots	3 184-pin DDR DIMM Slots
Expansion Slots	1 AGP 8X Slot 5 PCI Slots
Onboard ATA RAID	N/A
Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394	USB 2.0 supported through South Bridge Realtek RTL8801B FireWire PHY (MAC in South Bridge)
Onboard LAN	Realtek RTL8201BL controller (nForce LAN)
Onboard Audio	Realtek ALC650 controller (nForce2 APU)
Onboard Serial ATA	Silicon Image 3112A RAID controller
BIOS Revision	nf7_11.b01 (11/25/2002)

Despite the fact that ABIT's NF7-S isn't a MAX series motherboard, the NF7-S still packs an acceptable punch. Besides, it's hard to argue that nForce2 isn't the most fully-featured Socket A chipset on the market, so some may not even mind that ABIT skipped MAX for their nForce2 series of motherboards.

In order to take advantage of NVIDIA's nForce2 Ethernet, ABIT has outfitted the NF7-S with a Realtek 8201BL Ethernet PHY. The RTL8201BL is the physical layer for the nForce MAC integrated into the MCP-T; it is interesting to note that ABIT did not take advantage of the dual integrated MACs in the MCP-T, unlike ASUS.

Yet another feature Realtek seems to dominate are sound controllers, this time in the form of their ALC650 chip, which can be found just below the NF7-S' I/O ports, and which handles all sound output for the board. Remember that the nForce2 APU only acts as a DSP, final sound quality is still greatly determined by the DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) in the ALC650 AC'97 codec.

The I/O ports aren't configured in an especially interesting way; Here you'll find two PS/2 ports, two serial ports, one parallel port, two rear USB 2.0 ports, one LAN port, a SPDIF port, and five 1/8' jacks, which are driven by the onboard sound. Nothing exciting to note here, as this is pretty standard among nForce2 motherboards.

Silicon Image's SI3112A Serial ATA RAID controller has recently started to become popular among high-end and high-performance motherboards, including ASUS's P4G8X Deluxe (Intel E7205 chipset), Intel's D845PEBT2 (Intel 845PE chipset), Epox's 4PEA+ (Intel 845PE chipset), and ECS's L4S8A (SiS 648 chipset). With this onboard Serial ATA chip, you can setup two independent Serial ATA devices as well as RAID 0 (striping) and RAID 1 (mirroring) arrays. Onboard Serial ATA, in our opinion, is a nice perk, but nothing more. Serial ATA drives are finally trickling into the market but you won't see widespread support until SATA controllers are integrated into South Bridges in 2003.

The ABIT NF7-S doesn't support a large number of IDE devices, certainly nothing too interesting. The Primary and Secondary IDE connectors form the only type of onboard IDE support, supporting two channels per IDE connector. Therefore, the NF7-S supports no more than four IDE drives total, which really shouldn't be an issue with the vast majority of users (and yes, even power users).

The MCP-T South Bridge supports USB 2.0, or up to six USB 2.0 ports total. Besides the two rear USB 2.0 ports, there are two USB 2.0 headers located towards the bottom of the NF7-S. Here you'll be able to add a maximum of four USB 2.0 ports through whatever means you deem fit (using the bundled two-port USB bracket or otherwise).

For some, the NF7-S' support for FireWire is a plus, thanks to the integrated FireWire MAC in the nForce2 MCP-T.

ABIT bundles a two-port FireWire bracket with the NF7-S for you to use with the two onboard FireWire headers. Since the RTL8801B controller can support no more than two FireWire ports, the bundled FireWire bracket is especially useful.

ABIT has been trying to separate themselves from other motherboard manufacturers as much as possible lately. This goal couldn't be better exemplified than by their Serillel converter technology. Essentially, the Serillel converter converts an IDE hard drive into a serial ATA hard drive just by converting the parallel signal from the IDE hard drive to a serial signal. The current advantage of Serillel is that you can add an additional IDE drive to your system (for a total of five instead of four). This seems nice, but remember that there will be some performance loss because of the Parallel to Serial conversion; on paper the performance loss shouldn't be too great but we'll be investigating that in the coming weeks.

One positive of ABIT's Serillel converters is that you get the benefit of Serial ATA cables without having to wait for Serial ATA hard drives to hit store shelves.

ABIT NF7-S: Board Layout

Luckily enough, there weren't too many layout issues to point out with the ABIT NF7-S.

We really weren't too keen on the positioning of the ATX (20-pin) connector on the ABIT NF7-S. Instead of being on the left-hand side of the motherboard, we would have preferred to have seen it located on the right-hand, upper portion of the motherboard. This is the best place to position an ATX connector, as the thick wires won't obstruct the installation/uninstallation of the CPU's heatsink.

Oddly enough, the ABIT NF7-S had an AT12V connector located on its PCB. We've seen maybe two Athlon XP motherboards with an ATX12V connector in the past. We wonder what the purpose of this connector is for Socket A, considering AMD hasn't set any new guidelines as far as needing to implement ATX12V to feed enough juice to the CPU; though, as the Athlon ramps up, this may be inevitable.

One feature we felt ABIT shouldn't have missed was the four mounting holes around the CPU socket that are so vital to all those Swiftech and Alpha users and cooling fanatics in general. However, the official word from ABIT is that the NF7-S will indeed ship with four mounting holes even though our sample didn't have this feature. Admin and owner of Hexus.net, David Ross, was good enough to alert us to this fact. 12-10-02 UPDATE Apparently, the first few thousand NF7-S motherboards will ship without the mounting holes.

The Primary and Secondary IDE connectors are annoyingly positioned below where our video card is installed. Placing the Primary and Secondary IDE connectors this way makes it difficult for the IDE cables to reach the uppermost bays of a full-sized ATX case. There's a good chance the IDE cables will get tangled up with the video card as well, especially since the IDE connectors are placed horizontally instead of vertically on the motherboard.

Too many motherboard makers like to place the DIMM connectors right next to the video card. Unfortunately, ABIT is one of those motherboard makers with the NF7-S. The DIMM connectors are basically impossible to unhinge unless you go through the hassle of unscrewing and then physically uninstalling your video card just to throw in a stick of memory. For those that are picky about memory and frequently like to install different types of modules, the DIMM connector's position will be an annoyance. However, this won't be an issue with video cards that are shorter in length than our ASUS GeForce4 Ti4600.

The USB and FireWire headers are positioned fairly well. There are two USB 2.0 headers located near the bottom of the NF7-S PCB, but not quite far enough to our liking. The way these USB headers are positioned makes it difficult if you decide to use the onboard Serial ATA connectors for a future SATA hard drive or something. Despite the small size of Serial ATA cables, USB bracket cables can still overlap them and this just causes a mess.

ABIT NF7-S: BIOS and Overclocking

ABIT utilizes their own modified BIOS, dubbed Soft Menu III. Soft Menu III has been a huge hit among enthusiasts, so we had high hopes for ABIT's nForce2 BIOS.

The Winbond W83627HF I/O chip powers the PC Health section of the Soft Menu III BIOS.

You'll find lots of readings in the PC Health section of Soft Menu III, including System and CPU temperatures, fan speeds (CPU, chassis and power), Vcore, PSU readings (all rails), and battery and standby voltage readings. In addition to the PC Health readings, you'll find options for enabling CPU shutdown temperature and adjusting CPU warning temperature. All in all, this is a common hardware monitor to have for a high-performance motherboard.

The Advanced Chipset Features section doesn't contain as many options as the other nForce2 BIOSes do, but this can be attributed to the fact that this is the only Advanced Chipset Features section of the nForce2 BIOSes that has been significantly modified from NVIDIA's original Advanced Chipset Features layout. ABIT does this by separating the DRAM timings from all other frequency adjustment options (including FSB, memory, etc.).

The Advanced Chipset Features section contains options for adjusting Precharge to Active, Active to Precharge, Active to CMD, and CAS Latency among other minor adjustments. Interestingly enough, the Active to Precharge timing can be adjusted as low as 1T, and up to 15T in fact. Though it's obviously not possible to get to 1T, we were able to go as low as 4T.

What's unique about nForce2 BIOSes versus VIA, SiS and Intel BIOSes is the "CPU Interface" option, which can either be enabled or disabled. Enabling CPU Interface does add some noticeable performance as far as actual benchmark numbers are concerned, but the real world difference is nonexistent. We actually first saw this "feature" on NVIDIA's reference board, which indicated that it simply tuned FSB performance. We saw no degradation of stability in any of our tests but again, the performance increase is only there in the benchmarks and isn't really tangible to end users so enable it at your own risk.

The "Soft Menu III" section listed at the very top of the NF7-S BIOS contains all the frequency adjustments you would normally find in the Advanced Chipset Features section of other nForce2 motherboard BIOSes. In "Soft Menu III" you'll find options for tweaking the FSB up to 237MHz in 1MHz increments, AGP up to 99MHz in 1MHz increments, multipliers ranging from 5X to 22X, FSB/DRAM dividers, and of course the CPU Interface. As is common with nForce2 BIOSes, there are "Optimal" and "Aggressive" options that automatically adjust various settings in the Advanced Chipset Features section. However, we suggest you simply select the "Expert" option for full customization, assuming you have some experience with BIOS tweaking.

There are also some fairly nice voltage options buried inside the Soft Menu III section. For example, Vcore is adjustable in .025V increments all the way up to 1.85V. This maximum Vcore isn't all that great, especially if you plan on using a .18-micron Palomino processor (whose default Vcore is 1.75V). However, Thoroughbred-B users should do quite well with a max of 1.85V, especially since running your CPU higher than 1.85V can be detrimental to the longevity of the CPU's lifespan.

VDIMM is yet another adjustable option in the Soft Menu III section. VDIMM can be altered up to 2.7V in 0.1V increments, which is just fine for most users. Memory overvolting usually doesn't yield too much better of a memory overclock anyways, so there's nothing to worry about there.

The NF7-S BIOS version we received contained an AGP lock set at 66MHz, but we were unable to find any PCI lock set at 33MHz in this BIOS. We asked ABIT why the AGP lock was included in the NF7-S BIOS but not the PCI lock, and we were basically told that the only reason you don't see a PCI lock in the BIOS is because ABIT doesn't want users fooling around with PCI frequency, especially since it offers virtually no performance gain. We don't have any way of independently verifying ABIT's PCI lock claim ourselves, so take this piece of information as you will.

As with all the nForce2 motherboards tested here today, it was very easy to overclock the NF7-S. Here were our FSB overclocking results using the following setup:

Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed
Processor:	Athlon XP 2400+
CPU Vcore:	1.65V
Cooling:	AMD Retail HSF & Thermal Pad
Power Supply:	Enermax 300W

With this very common, and therefore quite conservative, overclocking setup we were able to hit 186MHz FSB. This is a very good overclock and is the norm for all nForce2 boards tested here today.

We'd quickly like to mention something before we go on. The great thing about Athlon XP processors is that they can be unlocked (unlike modern-day Intel CPUs), and being able to unlock a processor is a boon for computer hardware review sites such as AnandTech, as it gives us the ability to test the true maximum FSB a particular motherboard can handle.

For our overclocking tests on the NF7-S, we simply lowered the multiplier of our 2400+ processor down to 8X and jacked up the FSB as high as we could, which ended up being 186MHz FSB in the NF7-S' case (or 186MHz X 8.0).

The divider options available in the NF7-S BIOS are very good; quite a few memory tweakers should be delighted to see the huge array of memory dividers options available on this motherboard. Just some of the many available memory divider options include 4:5, 3:4 and 1:1. For a more complete list, see the above picture.

1. Chipset and motherboard stress testing was conducted by running the FSB at 186MHz.
2. Memory stress testing was conducted by running RAM at 333MHz and 400MHz with as many modules populated as possible at the most aggressive timings possible.

1. Jedi Knight II: Passed
2. Quake 3 Arena: Passed
3. Unreal Tournament 2003: Passed
4. Comanche 4: Passed
5. Serious Sam: Passed

The way our Tech Support evaluation works is first we anonymously email the manufacturer's tech support address(es), obviously not using our AnandTech mail server to avoid any sort of preferential treatment. Our emails (we can and will send more than one just to make sure we're not getting the staff on an "off" day) all contain fixable problems that we've had with our motherboard. We then give the manufacturer up to 72 hours to respond over business days and will report not only whether they even responded within the time allotted but also if they were successful in fixing our problems. If we do eventually receive a response after the review is published, we will go back and amend the review with the total time it took for the manufacturer to respond to our requests.

The idea here is to encourage manufacturers to improve their technical support as well as provide new criteria to base your motherboard purchasing decisions upon; with motherboards looking more and more alike every day, we have to help separate the boys from the men in as many ways as possible. As usual, we're interested in your feedback on this and other parts of our reviews so please do email us with your comments.

1. ABIT clearly explains that they will accept and process direct RMAs.
2. ABIT guarantees a 10-day turnaround policy on all RMAed motherboards.

ASUS A7N8X Deluxe: Basic Features

Motherboard Specifications
CPU Interface	Socket-462
Chipset	NVIDIA SPP North Bridge NVIDIA MCP-T South Bridge
Bus Speeds	100 - 211MHz (in 1MHz increments)
Core Voltages Supported	up to 1.850V (in 0.025V increments)
I/O Voltages Supported	N/A
DRAM Voltages Supported	up to 2.7V in 0.1V increments
Memory Slots	3 184-pin DDR DIMM Slots
Expansion Slots	1 AGP 8X Slot 5 PCI Slots
Onboard ATA RAID	N/A
Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394	USB 2.0 supported through South Bridge Realtek RTL8801B FireWire PHY (MAC in South Bridge)
Onboard LAN	Realtek RTL8201BL controller (nForce LAN)
Onboard Audio	Realtek ALC650 controller (nForce2 APU)
Onboard Serial ATA	Silicon Image 3112A RAID controller
BIOS Revision	1003

The ASUS A7N8X is part of ASUS's series of Deluxe motherboards. There is another stripped down version of the A7N8X without Serial ATA, dual LAN, SoundStorm and FireWire.

Much like ABIT, ASUS used the RTL8201BL physical layer to implement the nForce2's integrated Ethernet. ASUS went one step further and included a second PHY, the Altima AC101L to provide dual LAN functionality driven by the MCP-T's integrated 3Com MAC.

Again, it's no surprise to see that the Realtek ALC650 is used on the A7N8X. Remember that the nForce2 APU only acts as a DSP, final sound quality is still greatly determined by the DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) in the ALC650 AC'97 codec.

ASUS sets up the I/O configuration in an interesting way. Here you'll find two PS/2 ports, one serial port, one parallel port, four rear USB 2.0 ports, two LAN ports, and six 1/8' jacks, which are driven by the onboard sound. Each LAN port is powered by a different MAC; the LAN port closest to the PS/2 ports is powered by 3Com's 3C920B MAC, while the LAN port situated on the other side of the I/O ports is NVIDIA's own Ethernet MAC.

The ASUS A7N8X Deluxe is yet another motherboard that uses Silicon Image's SI3112A Serial ATA RAID controller.

Other high-performance motherboards that include this onboard Serial ATA RAID controller include ABIT's NF7-S (NVIDIA nForce2 chipset), ASUS's P4G8X Deluxe (Intel E7205 chipset), Intel's D845PEBT2 (Intel 845PE chipset), Epox's 4PEA+ (Intel 845PE chipset), and ECS's L4S8A (SiS 648 chipset). The SI3112A controller lets you setup two independent Serial ATA devices as well as RAID 0 (striping) and RAID 1 (mirroring) arrays.

The A7N8X Deluxe doesn't support as many IDE devices as we have seen on other motherboards in the past. This is due to the fact that the A7N8X Deluxe doesn't come with more than just one Primary IDE connector and one Secondary IDE connector, both of which offers two channels each for a maximum of four possible IDE devices (for example, two hard drives and two optical drives). But as we mentioned before, it is rare for users to take advantage of more than 4 IDE devices so this isn't really a downside.

IDE RAID would have been a nice addition to this motherboard, though we're sure the A7N8X Deluxe wouldn't be as much of a bargain; currently, you can purchase the ASUS A7N8X Deluxe for about $140 online in the U.S.

The MCP-T South Bridge supports USB 2.0, six USB 2.0 ports altogether. There are two USB 2.0 headers located at the bottom, right-hand corner of the A7N8X Deluxe. Just plug in the USB 2.0 bracket that comes bundled with this motherboard into one of the two onboard USB headers and you can have six USB 2.0 ports if you so desire.

Onboard FireWire support is controlled by Realtek's RTL8801B, which supports up to two FireWire ports. You can connect the FireWire bracket that comes bundled with this motherboard into the two white FireWire headers located on the left-hand side of the motherboard, next to the 3rd PCI slot.

ASUS A7N8X: Board Layout

There were very few layout issues with the ASUS A7N8X. This nForce2 motherboard had one of the better layouts for the most part.

Looking at the positioning of the ATX (20-pin) connector, we see that ASUS placed it on the right-hand side of the motherboard. This is the best place to position an ATX connector, as the thick wires won't obstruct the installation/uninstallation of the HSF or passive North Bridge heatsink, as well as any other components that you may decide to modify or uninstall. Unfortunately, the ATX connector isn't located high enough; the ideal position would be at the very top, right-hand corner of the motherboard, perhaps just over the DIMM slots.

We're glad that ASUS places the Primary and Secondary IDE connectors to the right of the DIMM slots and just above the midsection of the motherboard. We've experienced what a hassle it can be to have the Primary and Secondary IDE connectors placed on the lower portion of the motherboard. It makes it more difficult for the IDE cables to reach to the uppermost bays of a large-sized ATX case, which can get tangled up with the video card.

There are a lot of motherboard makers that place their DIMM connectors too close to where the video card is installed. However, ASUS doesn't make this mistake, and places their DIMM connectors far enough away from our GeForce4 Ti4600 and with a fair amount of room to spare, as is apparent from the motherboard picture in the previous section. We always like it when mainboard manufacturers do this because we're not forced to uninstall the video card if we want to uninstall memory, which is a common occurrence for people who upgrade frequently.

The USB and FireWire headers are positioned fairly well. There is one lone USB header located at the bottom of the board, right where it should be. There are also two (white) FireWire headers located on the left-hand side of the motherboard, right next to the RTL8801B controller. The FireWire header position isn't as good, since the bracket wires will get in the way of other PCI cards (assuming you decide to install one).

ASUS A7N8X: BIOS and Overclocking

ASUS has always used their own unique BIOS format, though the A7N8X BIOS is still based on Phoenix Technology's Award BIOS.

There is a good deal of readings available in the A7N8X Hardware Monitor portion of the BIOS.

These readings include CPU and motherboard temperatures, Vcore, PSU readings (all rails), three different fan speed readings (CPU, chassis, power), and ASUS's very own patented Q-fan control, which regulates your CPU fan speed based on how taxed your system is at any given moment. These are fairly basic readings for a high-performance BIOS, but it's quite acceptable nonetheless.

The Advanced Chipset Features section includes a fair amount of options. These include adjustments for FSB (up to 211MHz), CPU multiplier, memory frequency, various memory timings, Vcore, VAGP, and VDIMM. The picture above doesn't show the VAGP or VDIMM adjustments, but they're certainly there.

The A7N8X BIOS has some fairly decent voltage tweaking capability. First off, Vcore is adjustable in .025V increments all the way up to 1.85V. Like the NF7-S, this is pretty low for Palomino users, but we suggest you use a Thoroughbred-B processor anyway, as a 0.2V increase in Vcore should be more than enough for avid Thoroughbred overclockers. Running any higher than 1.85V really isn't recommended, even with heavy-duty cooling setups.

In the A7N8X BIOS you're able to adjust VDIMM up to 2.8V in 0.1V increments. Memory overclockers shouldn't have any trouble with this type of memory voltage availability, especially since we were able to get a decent memory overclock with VDIMM set at just 2.6V.

The A7N8X BIOS definitely does contain an AGP bus lock at 66MHz. However, what about the PCI bus lock at 33MHz? For this question we headed over to ASUS and asked them what was going on. ASUS's response was simply that they have a PCI bus lock set at 33MHz and that you have nothing to worry about as far as running your devices out of specification while performing FSB overclocking.

Overclocking the ASUS A7N8X Deluxe was very easy for the most part. Here were our FSB overclocking results using the following setup:

Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed
Processor:	Athlon XP 2400+
CPU Vcore:	1.65V
Cooling:	AMD Retail HSF & Thermal Pad
Power Supply:	Enermax 300W

We were able to reach 185MHz FSB (370MHz DDR) using this conservative overclocking setup. This overclocked FSB frequency is normal compared to the other nForce2 SPP motherboards we've tested here today.

Using a factory locked Athlon XP 2400+ processor, all we had to do was simply lower the CPU multiplier down to 8X and increase the FSB as high as we possibly could without jeopardizing stability and without increasing voltages. This was made possible by a great feature the ASUS A7N8X Deluxe affords (as do all nForce2 motherboards), and that's the ability to adjust the CPU multiplier in the BIOS without having to do physical modification to the CPU. Therefore, all you have to do is install your multiplier-locked Athlon XP CPU into your nForce2 motherboard and voila; you can adjust all the available multipliers to your heart's content. However, make sure you purchase the right type of Athlon XP; only Thoroughbred-B processors have this capability on nForce2 motherboards. You cannot change the multiplier of a locked Palomino or Thoroughbred-A processor in any of the six nForce2 motherboards being reviewed today.

There also are lots of divider options available, exactly the same ones you'll see in most nForce2 BIOSes. You can adjust memory in many different ways, and as high as 400MHz if you'd really like to. See the above picture for more info.

1. Chipset and motherboard stress testing was conducted by running the FSB at 185MHz.
2. Memory stress testing was conducted by running RAM at 333MHz and 400MHz with as many modules populated as possible at the most aggressive timings possible.

ASUS A7N8X: Tech Support and RMA

The way our Tech Support evaluation works is first we anonymously email the manufacturer's tech support address(es), obviously not using our AnandTech mail server to avoid any sort of preferential treatment. Our emails (we can and will send more than one just to make sure we're not getting the staff on an "off" day) all contain fixable problems that we've had with our motherboard. We then give the manufacturer up to 72 hours to respond over business days and will report not only whether they even responded within the time allotted but also if they were successful in fixing our problems. If we do eventually receive a response after the review is published, we will go back and amend the review with the total time it took for the manufacturer to respond to our requests.

The idea here is to encourage manufacturers to improve their technical support as well as provide new criteria to base your motherboard purchasing decisions upon; with motherboards looking more and more alike every day, we have to help separate the boys from the men in as many ways as possible. As usual, we're interested in your feedback on this and other parts of our reviews so please do email us with your comments.

ASUS's RMA policy is pretty straight forward as follows:

Dear Sir/Madam Please provide the following information so that we may process your request for warranty repair service. Once we have obtained that information from you, we will issue an RMA # and provide the proper shipping instructions. Please read and provide all of the information below. We cannot complete your request, if all of the information below is not provided. Thank you, ASUS Computer International PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH: 1) THE MODEL & SERIAL NUMBER OFF OF YOUR PRODUCT model (name of product) serial# (10 digits/characters long, no dashes) 2) YOUR FULL NAME/NAME OF COMPANY (Only provide company name if the shipping address is to a company). 3) YOUR SHIPPING ADDRESS (no PO boxes please) 4) YOUR DAYTIME PHONE/FAX NUMBER ASUS Computer International (USA) is a warranty repair service center. Please contact place of purchase for credit, refund, upgrade, or advance replacement. Asus does not provide these services under any circumstances. ASUS Does not cover physical damage. Please refer to page 2 of your users manual. There is a $15.00 fee to replace a broken socket. There is a $40.00 fee to repair all other physical damage. If a product is not repairable, the product will be sent back to the customer. If a product is sent in with physical damage and is not accompanied with a payment, the product will be rejected and customers will not be reimbursed for shipping charges. A payment can be made by check, money order (payable to ASUS), or a credit card#. The payment must be sent in with the damaged product. Customers from Canada must make payments with a credit card#.

This is a fairly cut and dry RMA policy, with nothing too special that stands out. As is the norm with motherboard makers, you're asked for quite a bit of information in regards to exactly what has to be RMAed. Everything else is self-explanatory.

We are still pretty critical of ASUS for not providing any direct RMA information on their web site. Again, the only RMA information worth reading on ASUS's web site if that you can email a representative at ASUS and ask about their RMA policy by emailing them at [email protected].

ASUS's tech support response time wasn't any better than the last time we sent an anonymous email. The last two times we sent an email to ASUS tech support, it took them just over 200 hours to respond to the first email, and the second time it took them 71 hours, just an hour shy of missing our standard 72 hour deadline. This time around, ASUS simply missed it altogether, not responding to our tech support email before the deadline. This is something ASUS needs to greatly improve upon if they want to keep their reputation as "the #1 motherboard maker".

1. Three 60cm rounded IDE cables.
2. A CBOX2 kit with USB and FireWire along with CPU temperature and POST error reporting
3. Two Serial ATA cables.
4. digital audio out port
5. And the rest, which includes the manual and even a golden Chaintech keychain.

Chaintech 7NJS: Board Layout

We didn't have too many complaints with the 7NJS layout, but there certainly were a few.

Chaintech places the ATX (20-pin) connector on the left-hand side of the motherboard. This isn't the best place to put this connector because the thick ATX wires can easily become a nuisance since it'll obstruct the installation/uninstallation of the HSF in addition to any other components that can be modified around that area.

Thankfully, there are four mounting holes around the CPU socket for those users that desire better cooling solutions than the retail AMD HSF's. Therefore, cooling fanatics as well as Swiftech and Alpha users should be happy with the decision to include four mounting holes for cooling.
The Primary, Secondary and RAID IDE connectors are placed in an awkward position in relation to the AGP slot, just below it in fact. This is a bad layout decision, as you will likely be forced to maneuver your IDE cables in every which way to get them to reach an optical drive at the top of your case. The cables will probably also be hitting the video card on their way up, which yet another annoyance you don't need.

Another poor layout decision was the placement of the DIMM connectors. The DIMM connectors are nearly touching the video card we used (GeForce4 Ti4600). The main reason we don't like DIMM connectors placed so close to the video card is because you're forced to uninstall your video card if you want to install any additional memory, which is simply a hassle.

There are two USB headers on this motherboard, both of them placed towards the bottom of the board. These headers are placed well only if you don't plan on using the Serial ATA connectors and a USB bracket at the same time. If you do use the Serial ATA connectors, you'll be forced to route the SATA cables through the USB bracket wires, causing all sorts of chaos and clutter.

Chaintech 7NJS: BIOS and Overclocking

Chaintech chose Phoenix Technology's Award BIOS for their nForce2-based 7NJS motherboard. This is the BIOS of choice for nForce2 motherboards so far.

The PC Health section lists a good amount of readings. Here you'll find readings on CPU Vcore, PSU readings (all rails), VDIMM, VAGP, battery voltage, system and CPU temperatures and CPU and system fan speeds. There's also an option for adjusting Shutdown Temperature, which can read as high as 100 C if you want.

The Advanced Chipset Features includes the standard nForce2 options and adjustments. In this section you'll find adjustments for the CPU Interface, CPU multiplier, memory dividers, and various memory timings (including Active to Precharge, Precharge to Active, Active to CMD, and CAS latency). Precharge to Active and Active to CMD timings are adjustable from 1-7T and Active to Precharge is adjustable between 1T and 15T. The Active to Precharge timing ends up being the only setting of the bunch to take advantage of the very flexible DRAM timing options.

Another option found in the Advanced Chipset Features section is FSB adjustments. The FSB adjustments go as high as 200MHz. The 200MHz FSB limit in the BIOS isn't a big deal when you consider that we weren't able to reliably operate at 200MHz FSB anyway (even with a low CPU multiplier), as you'll see in our overclocking tests shortly.

We were very impressed with the available voltage tweaking control in the 7NJS BIOS. For example, Vcore is adjustable all the way up to 2.15V in .025V increments, almost as much as the Epox 8RDA+'s Vcore ceiling. This Vcore should be more than enough for even the most extreme overclockers, and that includes HSF and water cooling overclockers. Thoroughbred-B users should have no issue with a max of 2.15Vcore, as default Thoroughbred-B Vcore is 1.65V. Despite what the 2.15Vcore option might insinuate, you'll "only" get as high as 2.11V if you decide to overvolt that high (which we strongly advise against), as default Thoroughbred-B Vcore fluctuated between 1.60V and 1.61V at idle according to the PC Health readings in the BIOS.

Another very impressive voltage tuning option in the 7NJS BIOS was VDIMM. VDIMM is adjustable all the way up to 3.2V in .01V increments, which is more than even Epox's 8RDA+, which managed no higher than 2.9V (2.92-2.93V actual) in it's BIOS. As read through PC Health, VDIMM fluctuates between 2.53-2.54V when VDIMM is set to 2.6V. Therefore, you'll "only" get 3.13-3.14VDIMM if you decide to overvolt that high. Again, you really don't' need to overvolt much to get a decent memory overclock, so we'd say it's pretty useless to run your memory over 2.8V unless you only plan on using your memory for a short period of time. We'd suggest 2.6V or 2.7V at the most.

VAGP was yet another voltage that was highly tweakable in the 7NJS BIOS. AGP voltage is adjustable in .1V increments all the way up to 2.0V. Running your AGP at 2.0V is an extremely high voltage for you to be running at, and we strongly suggest against it. Still, it's nice to have for some video card overclockers, even despite the fact that VAPG tweaking doesn't usually aid video overclockers that much.

Even though there's definitely an AGP lock in the 7NJS BIOS, there isn't any visible PCI lock. According to Chaintech though, the 7NJS does indeed lock the PCI bus at 33MHz, there just isn't an option in the BIOS to tinker with it. We have no way of independently verifying this ourselves, so take it for what it's worth.

The Chaintech 7NJS ended up being one of the best FSB overclockers of the bunch, just a tad bit behind the Epox 8RDA+. Here were our FSB overclocking results using the following setup:

Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed
Processor:	Athlon XP 2400+
CPU Vcore:	1.65V
Cooling:	AMD Retail HSF & Thermal Pad
Power Supply:	Enermax 300W

Using this run-of-the-mill overclocking setup, we were able to hit 190MHz FSB. Not to bad at all, and almost as good as probably the highest overclocking Socket A motherboard on the planet, the Epox 8K5A2+. Thankfully, Chaintech was able to get us their newest BIOS revision to us on time for this review, as the latest BIOS revision added the much needed multiplier adjustments it was lacking with the October 25th BIOS. Therefore, this makes the 7NJS yet another motherboard that is able to adjust the multiplier of a Thoroughbred-B processor without any physical modification whatsoever to the CPU.

These features are necessary to the avid overclocker, which is in part what makes the 7NJS an excellent enthusiast motherboard.

1. Chipset and motherboard stress testing was conducted by running the FSB at 190MHz.
2. Memory stress testing was conducted by running RAM at 333MHz and 400MHz with as many modules populated as possible at the most aggressive timings possible.

1. Your personal Information like your first and last name, location, email address and telephone and/or FAX number(s) (phone/FAX number isn't a required field though).
2. The motherboard model number (7NJS in this case), product serial number and the distributor from which you purchased the product (like Newegg or Googlegear for example).
3. The BIOS version, operating system version and all other system specifications like CPU, VGA, memory and any other devices.
4. Description of the precise problem.

Epox 8RDA+ Rev. 0.3: Basic Features

Motherboard Specifications
CPU Interface	Socket-462
Chipset	NVIDIA SPP North Bridge NVIDIA MCP-T South Bridge
Bus Speeds	100 - 200MHz (in 1MHz increments)
Core Voltages Supported	up to 2.20V (in 0.025V increments)
I/O Voltages Supported	N/A
DRAM Voltages Supported	up to 2.9V (in 0.13V and 0.14V increments)
Memory Slots	3 184-pin DDR DIMM Slots
Expansion Slots	1 AGP 8X Slot 6 PCI Slots
Onboard ATA RAID	N/A
Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394	USB 2.0 supported through South Bridge Realtek RTL8801B FireWire PHY (MAC in South Bridge)
Onboard LAN	Realtek RTL8201BL controller (nForce LAN)
Onboard Audio	Realtek ALC650 Controller (nForce2 APU)
Onboard Serial ATA	N/A
BIOS Revision	10/28/2002

Epox brings a nice combination of features to the table with their first NVIDIA-based motherboard, the Epox 8RDA+ based on the nForce2 SPP North Bridge and MCP-T South Bridge.

The onboard LAN controller is powered by Realtek's RTL8201BL, which is also found on ABIT and ASUS's nForce2 motherboards. Once again, the 8201BL is the physical layer for the nForce Ethernet MAC in the MCP-T. EPoX did not include a second PHY to take advantage of the integrated 3Com MAC so there is only one 10/100 port on the motherboard.

Like most of the other nForce2 boards, EPoX uses the ALC650 AC'97 codec to take advantage of the nForce APU. Remember that the nForce2 APU only acts as a DSP, final sound quality is still greatly determined by the DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) in the ALC650 AC'97 codec.

The 8RDA+ I/O configuration is fairly standard for a high-end desktop motherboard. Included are two PS/2 ports, two serial ports, one parallel port, four rear USB 2.0 ports, one LAN port, and three 1/8' jacks, which are driven by the onboard sound. No rear FireWire unfortunately, but there's definitely a couple onboard FireWire headers.

This is yet another nForce2 motherboard that lacks any significant IDE support. Though having Primary and Secondary IDE connectors supporting two channels each is acceptable for even the power user, there will be some that desire more than "just" four drives. Alas, there are no IDE RAID connectors, so four IDE drives are all you're going to get. Interestingly enough Epox bundles two rounded (and blue) IDE cables for you. They measure 60cm in length and should be quite useful in freeing up clutter and air flow inside your computer case.

The MCP-T South Bridge supports USB 2.0, six USB 2.0 ports altogether. There's only one USB 2.0 header that you can use, but the four rear USB 2.0 ports should suffice for most. Epox does include a two-port USB bracket if the rear USB ports aren't enough.

Onboard FireWire support is powered by Realtek's RTL8801B controller, which dictates the data sent to the IEEE 1394a data path integrated into the MCP-T. There are two onboard FireWire headers that you can use as well as a bundled two-port FireWire bracket. In total, this board supports a max of two FireWire ports.

Epox 8RDA+: Board Layout

There weren't too many layout issues to point out with the 8RDA+, but there were a few that we feel are necessary to point out.

On the left-hand side of the motherboard is where we see Epox decided to place the ATX (20-pin) connector. This is not the optimal position to place the connector since the thick ATX wires can easily become a nuisance since it'll obstruct the installation/uninstallation of the HSF in addition to any other components that can be modified around that area. If you're using an especially large HSF, the positioning of the ATX connector is an even bigger inconvenience.

All three onboard fan headers are placed well. The chassis and power fan headers are placed at the very edge of the right-hand portion of the motherboard. This way, fan wires won't have to travel far to their destination. The third fan header however (the CPU fan header) was placed a bit too close to the CPU clamps and DIMM connectors. This makes it somewhat difficult to sneak your fingers in this area to unplug the CPU fan line, but it shouldn't be too much of an issue unless you have large fingers.

We were surprised to see the Primary and Secondary IDE connectors placed in such an awkward position in relation to the AGP slot. Instead of the Primary and Secondary IDE connectors being positioned horizontally on the motherboard, they are placed vertically. Not only that, but the IDE connectors are placed below our installed video card. All in all this is quite a bad layout decision, as you likely be forced to maneuver your IDE cables in every which way to get them to reach an optical drive at the top of your case. The cables will probably also be hitting the video card on their way up.

Another poor layout decision was the placement of the DIMM connectors. The DIMM connectors are nearly touching the video card we used (GeForce4 Ti4600). The main reason we don't like DIMM connectors placed so close to the video card is because you're forced to uninstall your video card if you want to install any additional memory, which is simply a hassle.

Both the USB and FireWire headers are positioned fairly well. In fact, they're placed right next to each other, at the lower half of the mid-section of the motherboard. By positioning these headers in this manner, you're not going to encounter any case clutter, as you the USB and FireWire bracket wires will be taking up the PCI slots you decide to take up, and not any other neighboring PCI slots or other components.

Epox 8RDA+: BIOS and Overclocking

Epox decided to choose Phoenix Technology's Award BIOS for their first nForce2 motherboard. This isn't unusual, especially since all nForce2 motherboards use Award BIOSes.

The PC Health section of the 8RDA+ BIOS includes an average amount of readings. These include system and CPU temperature, fan speeds (chassis, power, and CPU), VAGP, Vcore, VDIMM, PSU readings (all rails), and a battery voltage reading. There are also two other options in this section for adjusting CPU Warning Temperature as well as CPU Shutdown Temperature.

The Advanced Chipset Features section includes the standard amount of options for an nForce2 board, but is quite unconventional compared to the Socket A BIOSes from VIA and SiS motherboards, as all nForce2 BIOSes are. In the 8RDA+ Advanced Chipset Features section, there are adjustments for the CPU multiplier, CPU interface, memory frequency, various memory timings (including Active to Precharge, Precharge to Active, Active to CMD, and CAS latency). Precharge to Active and Active to CMD timings are adjustable from 1-7T and Active to Precharge is adjustable between 1T and 15T. These are definitely the most flexible timings we've ever seen, though only the Active to Precharge timing is able to take advantage of this fact.

The FSB ceiling in the BIOS was surprisingly low, especially for an Epox motherboard. The max available option is 200MHz, which certainly isn't bad, but we would have liked to have seen something higher, as upcoming 200MHz FSB (400MHz effective) Athlon XP Barton processors won't be able to overclock at all using this particular 8RDA+ BIOS. Somehow we doubt Epox will leave out the option for raising the FSB past 200MHz in a future BIOS. 12/04/02 UPDATE: Apparently, there is a very recent 8RDA+ BIOS out that allows up to 211MHz FSB adjustement.

Voltage tweaking potential in the 8RDA+ BIOS is quite good. Vcore is adjustable up to 2.20V in .025V increments. This should be more than enough for even the most extreme overclockers, and that includes HSF and water cooling overclockers. This is especially true of Thoroughbred-B users due to the fact that 2400+ processors and up have a stock Vcore of 1.65V, meaning you can adjust Vcore by a full 0.55V if need be, which is tremendous. Of course, Vcore fluctuates between 1.65 and 1.66V at idle according to the PC Health readings in the BIOS, so you actually have the potential for 2.20V, though we very strongly advise against operating your CPU at this high of a Vcore.

Epox has been known to include some impressive VDIMM potential in their performance BIOSes, and this holds true for the most part with the 8RDA+. In 0.13V and 0.14V increments, you're allowed to adjust VDIMM up to 2.9V. VDIMM fluctuates between 2.62 and 2.63V per PC Health, so you can reach an actual 2.9VDIMM. Again, this high of a voltage isn't advisable, as operating your memory at anything over 2.7-2.8V usually isn't a very good idea if you plan on using your RAM for more than a couple months.

As far as we can tell, the Epox 8RDA+ contains just an AGP lock, but no visible PCI lock. We've haven't been able to get confirmation from Epox as to whether this board locks the PCI bus at 33MHz or not, but we'll update this section as soon as we hear back from Epox.

We had absolutely no trouble overclocking the Epox 8RDA+, and in fact, this board ended up achieving the highest stable FSB out of any other nForce2 motherboard tested in our labs. Here were our FSB overclocking results using the following setup:

Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed
Processor:	Athlon XP 2400+
CPU Vcore:	1.65V
Cooling:	AMD Retail HSF & Thermal Pad
Power Supply:	Enermax 300W

It really isn't in the least surprising that the 8RDA+ was the best overclocker out of our six nForce2 motherboards, as Epox has made much of their reputation on highly overclockable (and reasonably priced) motherboards. So, with the above configuration we were able to hit 194MHz FSB (multiplier set to 8X). On that note, it's worth mentioning that the 8RDA+ is yet another nForce2 motherboard that is able to adjust the Thoroughbred-B's multiplier without having to perform any physical modification to the CPU bridges as was the case with previous generation Athlon XP processors (namely the Thunderbird and Palomino processors).

The 8RDA+ BIOS also comes with a ton of multiplier options ranging from 3X to 24X. These multiplier options should satisfy all users.

1. Chipset and motherboard stress testing was conducted by running the FSB at 194MHz.
2. Memory stress testing was conducted by running RAM at 333MHz and 390MHz with as many modules populated as possible at the most aggressive timings possible.

1. Jedi Knight II: Passed
2. Quake 3 Arena: Passed
3. Unreal Tournament 2003: Passed
4. Comanche 4: Passed
5. Serious Sam: Passed

The way our Tech Support evaluation works is first we anonymously email the manufacturer's tech support address(es), obviously not using our AnandTech mail server to avoid any sort of preferential treatment. Our emails (we can and will send more than one just to make sure we're not getting the staff on an "off" day) all contain fixable problems that we've had with our motherboard. We then give the manufacturer up to 72 hours to respond over business days and will report not only whether they even responded within the time allotted but also if they were successful in fixing our problems. If we do eventually receive a response after the review is published, we will go back and amend the review with the total time it took for the manufacturer to respond to our requests.

 

The idea here is to encourage manufacturers to improve their technical support as well as provide new criteria to base your motherboard purchasing decisions upon; with motherboards looking more and more alike every day, we have to help separate the boys from the men in as many ways as possible. As usual, we're interested in your feedback on this and other parts of our reviews so please do email us with your comments.

Leadtek K7NCR18D Rev. B: Basic Features

Motherboard Specifications
CPU Interface	Socket-462
Chipset	NVIDIA SPP North Bridge NVIDIA MCP-T South Bridge
Bus Speeds	100 - 200MHz (in 1MHz increments)
Core Voltages Supported	up to 2.00V (in 0.025V increments)
I/O Voltages Supported	N/A
DRAM Voltages Supported	up to 2.7V (in 0.1V increments)
Memory Slots	3 184-pin DDR DIMM Slots
Expansion Slots	1 AGP 8X Slot 4 PCI Slots
Onboard ATA RAID	N/A
Onboard USB 2.0/IEEE-1394	USB 2.0 supported through South Bridge Realtek RTL8801B FireWire PHY (MAC in South Bridge)
Onboard LAN	Realtek RTL8201BL controller (nForce LAN)
Onboard Audio	Realtek ALC650 Controller (nForce2 APU)
Onboard Serial ATA	N/A
BIOS Revision	11/06/2002

Leadtek is known as a video card manufacturer more than anything else, so seeing a Leadtek-powered motherboard review is quite rare indeed. However, today we take a look at Leadtek's latest motherboard, the K7NCR18D. Based on the nForce2 SPP and MCP-T, lets first take a look at what features this board has to offer.

The K7NCR18D uses the same RTL8201BL PHY that we've seen on other motherboards. Even though the MCP-T South Bridge has support for a dual onboard LAN ports, Leadtek decided to leave out the second (3Com) port and PHY to minimize costs.

You'll also find a Realtek ALC650 AC'97 codec onboard the K7NCR18D, which does all the sound processing. Remember that the nForce2 APU only acts as a DSP, final sound quality is still greatly determined by the DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) in the ALC650 AC'97 codec.

There's nothing special to report about the K7NCR18D's I/O configuration. Among the I/O ports are two PS/2 ports, one LAN port, two rear USB 2.0 ports, one parallel port, two serial ports, nd three 1/8' jacks, which are driven by the onboard sound. Though not too shabby, we would have liked to have seen a couple extra USB ports in addition to a SPDIF out possibly.

The Leadtek K7NCR18D is yet another nForce2 motherboard that lacks IDE RAID or any other form of additional IDE support besides the standard Primary and Secondary IDE connectors. With support for up to two channels each, the K7NCR18D is capable of supporting no more than four IDE drives total. So, if you can deal with a max of two hard drives and two optical drives (or a similar combination thereof), then you shouldn't have anything to worry about with this particular motherboard.

The MCP-T South Bridge supports the latest serial standard, USB 2.0. In fact, the MCP-T supports six USB 2.0 ports altogether; two rear USB 2.0 ports and two onboard USB 2.0 headers that support an additional four USB 2.0 ports if the rear ports aren't enough to meet your needs. Unfortunately, Leadtek doesn't bundle a USB 2.0-compliant bracket with their K7NCR18D, which is a notable setback.

Leadtek K7NCR18D: Board Layout

There were a few glaring layout issues that we feel are worth pointing out.

The Leadtek K7NCR18D places the ATX (20-pin) connector on the left-hand side of the motherboard below the left-hand corner of the CPU socket. This simply isn't the best place to position the ATX connector layout-wise due to the fact that thick ATX wires can obstruct the installation/uninstallation of the HSF in addition to any other components that might be modified around that area.

There are a total of two onboard fan headers on the included with the MSI K7N2-L. One is the CPU fan header, which is spoken for, and the other is the North Bridge fan header, an RPM reading of which you will find in the BIOS. Of course, you'll have to mod the motherboard with a North Bridge HSF that fits if you want to use this onboard header, though you can always use it for a case fan.

For those users looking to mount their 4-hole heatsinks, have no fear, Leadtek has kindly included four mounting holes around the CPU socket for your installing pleasure. Therefore, you should be able to use Alpha PAL and Swiftech SLK HSF's without issue.

Annoyingly enough, Leadtek places the Primary and Secondary IDE connectors in a similarly awkward position as the K7N2-L and 8RDA+'s location. The Primary and Secondary IDE connectors are located so low on the K7NCR18D that they almost touch the very bottom of the board. Again, we would find it hard to believe if IDE cables running from these connectors would even be able to reach the upper two drive bays of a large sized ATX case. Assuming you're using a long video card, your IDE cables might also get tangled up with your video card. All in all, this isn't too convenient of a location if you plan on keeping your case nice and clean.

Thankfully, Leadtek positioned the DIMM connectors well enough away from the video card to prevent any installation issues. The GeForce4 we used had plenty of room between itself and the DIMM connectors. It's nice to see this space between DIMM connector and video PCB as you aren't forced to uninstall your video card if you need to add memory to your system. An example (which we previously just mentioned with the MSI K7N2-L) of a common scenario where you might need to add memory to your system while your video card is installed is when you're upgrading your system for the first time in quite a while, and you decide to add a large stick of high-speed memory to boost application performance.

There are two USB 2.0 headers located on the K7NCR18D, where you can plug in up to four USB 2.0 ports. We have always liked this type of header location because the bracket wires won't get engulfed between other cables and wires that may be connected to the motherboard. Therefore, the location of the USB headers decreases clutter and increases air flow, which is exactly what you want.

Leadtek K7NCR18D: BIOS and Overclocking

Leadtek decided to go for Phoenix Technology's Award BIOS with their K7NCR18D series of nForce2 motherboards.

The BIOS hardware monitor, dubbed PC Health, includes a nice combination of readings and overheating protection options. As far as the readings are concerned, they range from system and CPU temperature, three fan speed readings (CPU, AGP and system), Vcore, PSU readings (3V and 5V rail only), VAGP and VDIMM. There are also three different options for CPU overheating protection; CPU Warning Temperature, Shutdown Temperature and W/O CPU Fan Power Warning. All in all, this is a nice combination of BIOS features to have, especially if you ever run into thermal issues with our Athlon XP.

The K7NCR18D contains an Advanced Chipset Features section with various options for adjusting any of a number of things. Here you're allowed to adjust the CPU interface, memory dividers, and various memory timings (including Active to Precharge, Precharge to Active, Active to CMD, and CAS latency). As with all the other nForce2 BIOSes, the Precharge to Active and Active to CMD timings are adjustable from 1-7T, and Active to Precharge is adjustable from 1-15T. No other non-nForce motherboards contain such flexible timings.

Another option within the Advanced Chipset Features section is an adjustment for FSB overclocking up to 200MHz in 1MHz increments. This doesn't bode well for overclockers planning on upgrading to 400MHz FSB Athlon XP Barton CPU's next year, as this leaves zero room for overclocking. However, we can't rule out the possibility that Leadtek will release a BIOS that contains higher FSB adjustments. Still, a FSB ceiling of 200MHz isn't bad by any means for the vast majority of users (and especially those that don't overclock, which is by far the majority of users). 12/04/02 UPDATE: Leadtek has a slightly newer BIOS out that allows FSB adjustments up to 211MHz, while everything else is kept the same.

There's one section of the K7NCR18D BIOS that makes this board "stand out" somewhat, and it's called the X-BIOS II section. Here, you have access to a fair amount of voltage tweaking options, including AGP frequency adjustments up to 100MHz in 1MHz increments, VAGP and Vcore.

Vcore flexibility is much better than some of the other nForce2 boards tested here today. In .025V increments you can adjust Vcore up to 2.00V. Luckily for some, this voltage can be attained in reality, as the default Vcore as read by the PC Health section of the BIOS reads a steady 1.64V, meaning just about 2.00V is possible. So, Palomino and Thoroughbred overclockers of almost all walks should be quite pleased with this setting. Unfortunately, Leadtek wasn't equally kind enough to include any multiplier adjustments in their BIOS, meaning your CPU will likely become the bottleneck before the FSB does, which isn't ideal whatsoever. Remember, we used an 8X multiplier for all nForce2 FSB overclocking.

For some odd reason, there doesn't seem to be any VDIMM adjustments available anywhere in this BIOS. While not a huge loss for a majority of users, it's definitely a loss to the tweakers and (some) overclockers out there. Due to the fact that we couldn't adjust VDIMM

VAGP is also adjustable in the X-BIOS II menu. You can adjust the VAGP in 0.1V increments up to 1.7V from the default 1.5V. If you were to set VAGP to 1.7V, you'd get more like 1.68V according to the BIOS hardware monitor, so video card overclockers should be pleased, even though raising VAGP usually isn't necessary to begin with. AGP frequency is also adjustable in X-BIOS II. In 1MHz increments, you can adjust AGP frequency up to 100MHz. Yes, this is clearly overkill, but nice to have if you're really into video overclocking. Just be careful you don't run your AGP frequency too far out of spec.

While the Leadtek K7NCR18D has an AGP lock in its BIOS, we were unable to determine if this board enabled PCI locking. We asked Leadtek about this, and so far we haven't received a clear response. Once we find out what the deal is with PCI locking, we'll update this section. 12/04/02 UPDATE: Leadtek has finally gotten back to us and, according to them, their K7NCR18D does not include a PCI bus lock at 33MHz, and therefore the PCI bus will be overclocked at certain overclocked FSB speeds.

The Leadtek K7NCR18D ended up being the poorest FSB overclockers of all the nForce2 boards, but that can simply be attributed to the fact that there are zero multiplier options available in the BIOS of this board. Here were our FSB overclocking results using the following setup:

Front Side Bus Overclocking Testbed
Processor:	Athlon XP 2400+
CPU Vcore:	1.65V
Cooling:	AMD Retail HSF & Thermal Pad
Power Supply:	Enermax 300W

As just mentioned, the K7NCR18D BIOS does not include any multiplier adjustments. This fact makes it impossible to independently verify what the true maximum FSB the K7NCR18D is able to operate at. Since all the other nForce2 motherboards reached overclocked FSB numbers into the mid 180's, we used an Athlon XP 2600+ (333MHz FSB) CPU for our overclocking tests to see how much further above 166MHz FSB the K7NCR18D could go. With stock retail cooling, not too far obviously. We were able to get to 176MHz max, though this was using a 12.5 multiplier. We're sure some users would like Leadtek to release a new BIOS with multiplier adjustments in the future, as this would definitely boost FSB overclocking past 176MHz.

1. Chipset and motherboard stress testing was conducted by running the FSB at 176MHz.
2. Memory stress testing was conducted by running RAM at 333MHz and 376MHz with as many modules populated as possible at the most aggressive timings possible.

1. Jedi Knight II: Passed
2. Quake 3 Arena: Passed
3. Unreal Tournament 2003: Passed
4. Comanche 4: Passed
5. Serious Sam: Passed

The way our Tech Support evaluation works is first we anonymously email the manufacturer's tech support address(es), obviously not using our AnandTech mail server to avoid any sort of preferential treatment. Our emails (we can and will send more than one just to make sure we're not getting the staff on an "off" day) all contain fixable problems that we've had with our motherboard. We then give the manufacturer up to 72 hours to respond over business days and will report not only whether they even responded within the time allotted but also if they were successful in fixing our problems. If we do eventually receive a response after the review is published, we will go back and amend the review with the total time it took for the manufacturer to respond to our requests.

The idea here is to encourage manufacturers to improve their technical support as well as provide new criteria to base your motherboard purchasing decisions upon; with motherboards looking more and more alike every day, we have to help separate the boys from the men in as many ways as possible. As usual, we're interested in your feedback on this and other parts of our reviews so please do email us with your comments.

Leadtek’s technical support process doesn’t seem to be too bad at all. There are two phone numbers you can reach Leadtek tech support at in the U.S., and they are 1-888-Leadtek or 510-490-8076. Leadtek’s phone tech support hours are 9:00am to 6:00pm, which is just a bit better than the standard for motherboard makers these days. Of course, there’s also the tech support email address you can reach Leadtek at, which is as follows: [email protected].

Leadtek's tech support form is concise but not lacking in usefulness. Their tech support form asks you to fill out a number of things, including: