new motherboard

Hello,
I'm building my own system (first timer, so if i'm not to bright at it at the moment bear with me i'm still learning the ropes), and i've been looking through newegg to find a good motherboard for overclocking. I'm going to be running a athlon xp mobile chip, and i was wondering what kind of motherboard brand you would recommend for overclocking. My friend recommended the asus "a7n8x-e deluxe" for the system i'm going to set up. here's the link to the motherboard.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-478&depa=1

what do you guys think?

Asus and Abit are some of the most common overclocking mobos. Be sure you get the Nforce2 chipset (like that board has). If you were really into it, you might want to look for a board with active cooling on the northbridge (or you can buy such a cooler later on).
That board should be fine, but I'd at least take a glance at what abit has to offer as well.
More important though will be the cpu you get (never know how good any given chip will OC), and the cooling (heatsink, fans).

The chips i was looking at were these:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-439&depa=1

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-401&depa=1

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-436&depa=1

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-482&depa=1

I haven't really decided how much money i want to pump out into the chip quite yet but i know for sure it will be one of those up there... any opinions?

edit: oh yeah... i looked into the abit motherboards and i found this one:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-184&depa=1

but it doesn't have any reviews or anything so i was wondering if anyone has any experience with one.

not sure about the cpu's...i just use xp instead of mp


but about the abit motherboard.i use the NF7-S2 and i believe that S2G motherboard is an upgrade.the S2 is awesome so possibly that one will be too

I would go with the 2500+. The 3000+ costs too much more, and needs higher voltage to start with, which eliminates some of the advantage of getting a mobile cpu instead of the regular xp.

The desktop 2500+ is well known as a great overclocker, and the mobile version is the same chip, but tested to run stable at 1.45v instead of 1.65, and starting with a 133fsb instead of 166 (easily changed)

With good cooling you should be able to get quite an OC out of the 2500+.

i was thinking about getting the 2500+ that's what my friend has in his comp and his runs very well when he's o/cing it. i was looking at the 2600+ (just so he doesn't complain about me taking his setup or something), anyone have anything to say about that particular chip?

It should perform similarly to the 2500+, which is why the 2500+ is such a deal. The price difference is only $7 though, so its not a major concern. Either will do just fine.

Alright i figured it wouldn't be that much of a difference but i wasn't to sure about it. I guess my big question now is which board is better for o/cing? Asus or Abit? or is it just one of those everyone has their own brand that they like to buy things?

You could google for some comparisons, I think tomshardware has one, and maybe anandtech. Really, deciding between those brands will be little or no difference performance wise. You have the right chipset, and you're not looking at stuff like pcchips, so either will do. I like abit because its what I've used and had good experiences with. Others like Asus for the same reason. Flip a coin.

i prefer abit.asus arent bad either. i thought id add if you are going to o/c then definately get good ram

yeah i made another thread about it in the comp hardware section asking which kind of ram would be good, i've heard things about corsair but i want to know about some of the others before i decide

I've got the Barton 2500 O/C to 3200 very easily with off brand memory (2700) and a cheap Biostar mobo (M7NCD). I added a Thermaltake HSF but I don't think it did much better than the stock HSF. The biggest thing for my success was changing from a little case to a bigger Antec case that allowed the heat to escape better. My CPU temps in my current case are about 2 degrees C hotter at 3200 than 2500. Just boost the FSB up and leave everything else default and hopefully your chip will be happy as a clam. I'm at 37 idle and 50 load at 2.2 GHZ.

Are there any other board makers out there that are comparable or better then abit or asus? i was looking at msi and dfi, but i don't know how they compare

Been reading some reviews about the ABIT "NF7-S2G" motherboard and it sounds like most people think it's a piece... anyone here bought this board and tried it out yet?

Both have good reviews. I've used MSI (intel cpu), and it worked great, and the connections were all well marked. Never used DFI, but heard good things. They can both be more expensive though.