Hi Everyone!

I am currently building a system to have in my living room that will be both my server and media player. I was going to purchase one of the remote MP3 players that would stream MP3s from my PC to my living room, but for a few hundred dollars more I could make a whole new PC.

My question is regarding which motherboard to get. I am currently looking at getting another A7N8X Deluxe because I have had such great luck with the one I have now, not to mention with onboard network and sound, it will save me some money. But I was curious if there are any motherboards for the AthlonXP that have the hardware "APU," onboard network, and onboard video that will output to TV, even at 640x480? I will never be running anything other then Winamp visualizations on this machine, so I do not really need the power of an external GPU.

I know it is a longshot, I have looked at all of the nForce2 motherboard reviews and did not see any with onboard video. But I am sure the experts on this board know better then I do.

Thanks,

Eric Phillips

I have the same board and when I am ready to get another board I plan to do the same thing with mine. I think you should get another a7n8x. I'm sure some of the new nforce boards have a lot of bells and whistles but if you factor the price and features I'm sure you come out ahead with the asus board. good luck.

A7n8x dlx G Bios Agressive settings
xp1700 Paly 2x 256 Crucial 2700@ cl 2.5
ATI Radeon Sapphire 9200 WDCaviar 60gig w 8mb Cache @ 7200
"There is no magic server pixie dust."

The only board I know of to offer all of nVidia's hardware (APU, video, etc) is the MSI K7N2G Delta-ILSR. It's like the K7N2 Delta-ILSR, but the G stands for Graphics.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

Hi stupid_tech_geek,

I had a quick question about the A7n8x-delux...

If you take a peek at the pictures here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/mother [...] 00-09.html

There is the quote: "Asus has integrated as much as possible into the back panel. Thus, there are four USB ports and two 100-Mbit network ports as well as a video output."

Am I blind, or am I not seeing a monitor output? I am assuming the yellow plug is not a composite, but a coxial digital audio out. I see that the MSI board also has an optical digital audio out, but I do not see one on the Asus board. (I actually have an A7n8x, non delux, else I would look on mine) Does the A7n8x Delux have an optical audio out and video out on the board?

Thanks!

Eric

the optical audio out is available on an optional backplate, there is no video out...

Trust me I know what I'm doing... ooops, grab the cat...

ASUS A7N8X Deluxe nForce2 Chipset.

CONNECTORS:

PS/2 Mouse (6-pin PS2KBMS Green Female)(Mini DIN)
PS/2 Keyboard (6-pin PS2KBMS Purple Female)(Mini DIN)

Four USB Ports on BUS ports 0 and 1 (Black four x 4-pin USB)

Serial Port and Header (Teal/turquoise, On 9-pin COM1, One 10-1 pin COM2) COM 2 is a ribbon card ext located on the Motherboard using the A7N8X Serial COM2 Bracket.

2 LAN connections, 1 3COM LAN and 1 NVIDIA LAN for pass through.

Parallel Port (Burgundy 25-pin PRINTER) Adjustable by onboard Parallel Port (Integrated Peripherals)

Audio Connectors (3 1/8" Audio)Turn onboard audio ON/OFF in BIOS (Optional)
For a 2 speaker audio output, the LINE OUT (lime) connects a headphone or speakers. The LINE IN (Light Blue)connects a tape player or other audio source. MIC (Pink) connects a Microphone.

For a 4 or 6 Speaker audio output, the line in (Light Blue) connects to other audio sources. The line out (Lime) connects to the Left/Right Front speakers.The (Pink) connects to a microphone. The Surround L/R audio connector connects to the Left/Right surround speakers. The Centre/LFE connector connects the centre speakers or bass speakers.
Audio breakdown:
1 LINE IN, 1 LINE OUT, 1 MIC, 1 CENTRE/SPEAKER/Bass Speaker, 1 Surround speaker Left/Right, 1 S/PDIF Connector.

Tom's Hardware Guide Motherboard of the year award. I have not had one single problem with this motherboard.

I have some older hardware like my External Hercules sound rack that plugs in via a small PCI card.
I run my HP USB 720 Digital Camera and Dock and a Saitek Cyborg USB EVO Joystick. I also run 1 Printer off the Parallel Port and my Cannon i850 photo quality printer USB.
I also use my Link Sys Router and 1 USB scanner.
Some of those components are 2 or 3 years old as well as the driver packages/firmware.

This motherboard is the best personnel board I have ever owned it never glitches it simply functions.

Up time not including restarts/OFF has been 1 month.









Barton 3200+ 400MHz
A7N8X Deluxe
Liquid
2x512 KinstonHyperX PC3200
GeForce FX5900
Maxtor DiamondMaxPlus9@80Gig
SONY CD 52x
SONY RW 52x/24x/52x
SONY DVD 16x/40x

S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) Connector, This function is built into the A7N8X Deluxe to answer your question directly MR SQUICK...


S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface) is a newest audio transfer file format, which provides impressive quality through optical fiber and allows you to enjoy digital audio instead of analog audio. Normally there are two S/PDIF outputs as shown, one for RCA connector, the most common one used for consumer audio products, and the other for optical connector with a even better audio quality. Through a specific audio cable, you can connect the SPDIF connector to other end of the S/PDIF audio module, which bears S/PDIF digital output. However, you must have a S/PDIF supported speaker with SPDIF digital input to connect to the SPDIF digital output to make the most out of this function.





Barton 3200+ 400MHz
A7N8X Deluxe
Liquid
2x512 KinstonHyperX PC3200
GeForce FX5900
Maxtor DiamondMaxPlus9@80Gig
SONY CD 52x
SONY RW 52x/24x/52x
SONY DVD 16x/40x

"This motherboard is the best personnel board I have ever owned it never glitches it simply functions."

Well I guess that just says it all. The board is very stable and I usually run it for several days at a time when I'm downloading something. It's got lots of goodies and if you want one with an integrated video card (I wouldn't recommend it but if you're strapped for $ go for it). Good luck.


A7n8x dlx G Bios Agressive settings
xp1700 Paly 2x 256 Crucial 2700@ cl 2.5
ATI Radeon Sapphire 9200 WDCaviar 60gig w 8mb Cache @ 7200
"There is no magic server pixie dust."