Gigabyte GA-7NNXP - motherboard - ATX - nForce2 Ultra 400

.../> I stumbled across the Gigabyte 7NNXP whilst looking through a computer magazine, and they had given it a golden rating and it was obviously highly recommended. I found many more good things written about the Gigabyte 7NNXP, on the internet mainly, and jumped at the chance of owning one myself. I was lucky enough to see it available on the Dabs website in the B-Grade stock section (my favourite place for looking for PC components). Apparently ...
...Company History*

Gigabyte is one of the most recognised high-quality motherboard producers, a very reputable company that has been established a very long time, that is one of the leading companies in this field and that has also produced many other components (graphics cards, etc). Therefore I didn't have to worry about the quality of this motherboard, I knew that this was a company that I could trust. Even if something was to go ... more

*Introduction*

When I decided to build myself a computer from scratch, I firstly had to have a think about what I will be using my computer for in its day-to-day tasks. The fact the computer would mainly be used for playing computer games, watching DVD's, listening to music and using the internet, meant that quite a powerful PC would be required (No point under-estimating the power required, otherwise I will have to upgrade again, and the computer would be outdated in no time!) I began to search for a motherboard that would fulfil all these needs and maybe a bit more too. I decided on a budget and felt that about a fifth of it could be spent on the motherboard which after all is probably the most important component inside a PC. I had about £100 to spend on this, and went about researching on the Internet and in computer magazines for the most highly recommended motherboards.

I stumbled across the Gigabyte 7NNXP whilst looking through a computer magazine, and they had given it a golden rating and it was obviously highly recommended. I found many more good things written about the Gigabyte 7NNXP, on the internet mainly, and jumped at the chance of owning one myself. I was lucky enough to see it available on the Dabs website in the B-Grade stock section (my favourite place for looking for PC components). Apparently it had been used briefly by one other person, and was still boxed with all accessories, drivers and manuals etc. For £80 I thought it was a real bargain for what I was getting, and at this moment in time it was retailing for upwards £100.

*Brief Company History*

Gigabyte is one of the most recognised high-quality motherboard producers, a very reputable company that has been established a very long time, that is one of the leading companies in this field and that has also produced many other components (graphics cards, etc). Therefore I didn't have to worry about the quality of this motherboard, I knew that this was a company that I could trust. Even if something was to go wrong, I could tell that I would be able to gain support easily thanks to the excellent website which Gigabyte has available. Nearly all of the Gigabyte motherboard reviews I have read have been positive, hardly are they ever criticised or frowned upon. They are one of the leading brands in the market for making top quality motherboards, usually at a fair price.

*The Motherboard & Features*

The Gigabyte 7NNXP is a top quality motherboard aimed at the enthusiast-range of the market, delivering plenty of features and allowing for high-speed computing thanks to the NVIDIA nForce™2 Ultra 400 platform, allowing for the Athlon XP Barton 3200+'s to be used to their full potential. Thanks to the dual channel DDR controller your computer has a lot more power (and if you wish to you can have 3GB of fast memory!!) the AGP8X graphics interface means you are able to use the best graphics cards on this, and will be able to enjoy thrilling games such as Doom3 in all their glory (or gory!). 5 PCI slots are included, which allows plenty of room for other cards to be inserted. This is quite a high number, especially as the motherboard is already crammed with so many other good features. Dual LAN is included, so is IEEE 1394 (Firewire), and the latest USB 2.0 allowing fast transfer of data and enables the use of the latest peripherals. Serial ATA and IDE RAID allow you to have even faster hard drives and other devices, but at the same time offering good data protection. Dolby digital 3D is included, so no need to purchase a separate sound card - you will have excellent 6channel sound supplied. One of the noticeable additions to this motherboard is the DPS - Dual Power System, which is meant to increase overall system and power stability. This is a little circuit board which comes supplied in the box, which slots into the motherboard, near to the CPU. It has its own heatsink and fan on it to keep it cool, and the fan has purple neons on it too! This is a really nice touch, in keeping with the overall stylish looks of the motherboard. It can restrict certain heatsinks however, when plugged in to its socket - I once had a Zalman flower-style heatsink, which took up a lot of room. Though the DPS restricted it a little, the Zalman heatsink was massive so the DPS can't really be blamed. However the motherboard can still be used without the DPS being plugged in anyway, and to be honest you are unlikely to be able to tell the difference. I certainly can't notice any difference with the PC, though I suppose there wouldn't be really if it's just there for overall system stability. Dual Bios is also implemented onto the motherboard, allowing extremely secure anti-virus protection to be used.

A nice feature on this motherboard is that it can monitor the overall system temperature, and the CPU temperature. There are settings in the BIOS which allow you to set the system to shut itself down if the temperature hits a certain point, so it doesn't damage the CPU or motherboard. This is really handy, though the gigabyte 7nnxp actually has a problem in which it incorrectly measures the temperatures of the CPU - over estimating it by about 10 degrees. However there is a fix for this available on the Gigabyte website. You simply have to download a new BIOS and refresh your current version, which is a really easy process thanks to this motherboard - simply run the update program in Windows and it will search for any newer versions before installing it for you.

*CPU Compatibility and installation*

The 7NNXP is a motherboard that recommends the use of an Athlon XP based processor - hence the XP at the end of the motherboards name. Currently I am using the Athlon XP 3200+, quite a powerful CPU. This is one of the fastest processors which you can use on this motherboard, without over-clocking anything anyway! I have previously used an Athlon XP 2600+ until I damaged the pins on it :-(

The motherboard actually supports the following processors -
K7 Sempron 2200-3000,
Athlon XP 2500+-3200+ (Barton),
Athlon XP 1500+-2700+ (Throaghbred),
Palomino AHD 1000+-1200+,
Athlon 650-1.4G,
Duron 600-1.8G

To unlock the processor that you would like to use from the list above, you would have to refer to the Gigabyte 7NNXP manual that lists the jumper settings and motherboard configuration required. In the motherboard this is clearly laid out in a table, and with pictures of the jumpers and how the pins are going to be located. This is really handy, especially as if you were to incorrectly use the jumpers, you could damage your processor and motherboard! Currently my CPU needs a FSB of 400 so I have set up the jumpers on the motherboard accordingly.
Once the jumpers have been adjusted, you can insert your CPU by carefully following the instructions in the manual, and you can then move onto the heatsink and fan. You will need to attach the fan to the heatsink, and then attach this onto the CPU socket according to the heatsink and motherboard manual. A nice feature of this motherboard is that there is plastic protecting the edges around the CPU socket, so if you slip with the screwdriver when trying to attach the heatsink, you don't actually damage the motherboard. The plastic protects you, preventing you from causing scratches or damaging any of the copper tracks, thus rendering the motherboard useless. This is really easily done, and have heard many times about how people have managed to do this, and I'm quite sure I would have too if it wasn't for the protection the motherboard offered.

*Looks & Layout*

The Gigabyte 7nnXP has a really nice funky look to it, with bright vibrant colours being used throughout. This is nice if you have a see-through PC case, but if not it does lose its usefulness - there's not much point having a sexy-looking motherboard when it's hidden away inside a boring grey case. Another really nice touch which I mentioned earlier was the DPS having purple neon lights on the fan. Though it is very handy that all the connectors are colour coded according to their functions - IDE connectors are green, and even some of the jumper pins are colour co-ordinated so that you can't really mistake where to plug cables in. This helps you to easily distinguish what connector you are looking for, though if you are actually creating a PC starting with the motherboard, it is unlikely that you will need much help distinguishing the different connectors - building a PC isn't that simple. A nice example of this is that there are 4 DIMM memory slots, the first orange, the next purple, then orange, then purple. These two colours represent two different channels - DIMM's 1 and 2 are channel A and DIMM's 3 and 4 are channel B. Therefore by plugging the relevant DIMM's into the same colour sockets you can take advantage of the high speed RAM the motherboard offers.
The motherboard itself measures 30.5 x 24.4 cm, which is the norm really for ATX style motherboards, suitable for the ATX type PC cases (Towers).
I feel that the components on the motherboard are laid out really sensibly. The IDE connectors on the side nearest the optical drives and storage drives, so that the cable for this doesn't have to be too long and therefore restrict airflow inside the PC case, and can be tucked away easily. The jumpers and pins for the case power-on button etc are located at the very bottom of the motherboard out of the way, and the rest of the components are located nicely allowing for easy access, which is just common sense really.

*Packaging and Software bundle*

I feel the packaging looks really special, the cardboard is strong and embossed in gold and other attractive colours, making the motherboard really stand out. I feel the motherboard is more then worthy of all of the sexy packaging, and lives up to the standards that are set right before you open the box.
Norton Anti-Virus 2003 software CD is included, allowing your PC to be protected straight away, with the virus definitions lasting about a year. This would have normally cost at least £30, and is nice to have included in the box. Here is a list of the rest of things inside the box:

1 x Driver and Utility CD
1 x User Manual
1 x Quick PC Installation Guide
1 x GigaRAID Manual
1 x SATA RAID Manual
1 x Motherboard settings label
3 x IDE Cables
1 x FDD Cable
1 x IEEE1394 Cable
1 x Gigabyte DPS2 daughter board
1 x 2 Port USB 2.0 panel & cable
1 x Audio Combo Kit
2 x Serial ATA cables
1 x Gigabyte Case Sticker
1 x GC-SATA Card (Includes manual, SATA cable & power cable)
1 x Rear I/O Shield - The rear panel features PS/2 Keyboard /Mouseports,4USB2.0/1.1ports, 2 RJ45 ports, 2 COM ports, 1 LPT port and Audio (Line-in, Line-out, Mic) connectors.

The motherboard manual is really helpful, it tells you everything you will need to know and is nice to have as reference for the motherboard too. Plenty of photos are included and helpful text too, including jumper settings and locations for example, and instructions on CPU installation. The manual is really colourful and glossy, and has lasted a very long time without being damaged! This book is basically the bible to the PC; you really do need it, though you can download a PDF version from the Gigabyte website if the occasion arises.

*My feelings & Conclusion*

After building my own PC with all my own components, it is quite hard to tell how good the motherboard really is, though you get an idea from all the features which it has available to you. This motherboard is crammed with features on it and is so simple to set up and use, and I have had absolutely no problems with it (except the incorrect temperature monitor! But there is a fix!). The computer seems really fast and very reliable, and thanks to the FSB of 400MHZ I can use quite a powerful CPU. Everything seems to run really smoothly, and the BIOS seems really detailed but still easy to use. I feel that the components on the motherboard are laid out really sensibly, everything is easily accessible. It looks really attractive and futuristic, which is nice if you have a see-through case or a window in your case. I feel that the software bundled with the motherboard is top class too, saving you lots of money. If overclocking is your thing this motherboard would be just up your alley, with a simple overclocking program actually on the driver CD included. This allows you to change settings from windows, without actually having to do anything. Though this motherboard wasn't cheap at the time of its release, it's sure to have gone down a lot by now. One bad thing about this motherboard if you were to purchase now is that quite a few changes are going on at the moment with motherboards - with the implementation of PCI express cards, and other faster technologies. Therefore you may be best off buying a motherboard which will have all the latest features on, though the popularity of these newer motherboards aren't too great yet. But until these become more popular and mainstream I recommend the Gigabyte 7NNXP due to the features crammed on, the motherboards sexy looks, and the fact that you know you will be more than satisfied with what you are buying - it has the make Gigabyte written on it.
 

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