If you are using a discrete sound card, you don't need the MCP-T for audio. So any nF2-400 board should be fine. I personally ran the GA-7N400L in the day for a few years (until upgrade to Athlon64) and it was fast and trouble-free, unlike my housemate's A7N8X-Deluxe, which had compatibility issues with just about everything you could have issues with.

Best is subjective, but the best nForce2 boards are:
- DFI Infinity NF2 Ultra (routinely can hit 250MHz FSB for benchmarking runs)
- Abit NF7-S v2.0 (best for stable long term overclocking)
- DFI Lanparty NFII Ultra (hard to find at a good price, some had poor quality control compared to the above mentioned boards)
- Chaintech 7NJS Zenith Ultra (similar overclocking and stability to the Abit above)

Abit NF7-S v2.0 (best for stable long term overclocking)

ABIT AN7 > ABIT NF7-S. Although not significantly.

DFI Lanparty NFII Ultra

DFI LanParty NFII B Ultra is much better. Both original nForce 2 and i875P LanParty boards were ok, but unrefined. DFI Infinity was based on that board design (B).

If the cool factor considered: Gigabyte 7NNXP is very interesting boards, although it's rare and not the best overclocker as DFI or Abit.

gives plenty to consider, back in 2002/2003 the only boards I looked at said ECS because I was a high school student, I ran an ECS KM400 board, nforce2 was something I never really go to play with until an adult, and highend boards nope, my A7N8X was something I found

candle_86 wrote:

gives plenty to consider, back in 2002/2003 the only boards I looked at said ECS because I was a high school student, I ran an ECS KM400 board, nforce2 was something I never really go to play with until an adult, and highend boards nope, my A7N8X was something I found

KM400? Owch.

Poor student here too. Before my GA-7NF400L (which I picked up as 'defective' for EUR 10, but a CMOS clear got it working again...) I used an ECS K7S5A. Cheapest SoA board and fastest at the time too - but the nForce2 was noticeably faster.