mobo advice

[ktulu]

Well it looks like it's time to upgrade my mobo (don't ask... has something to do with cooking my nb chip tho :( )

All this talk of the A7N8X seems to point me in that direction, but I want to know if anyone else has any recommendations/advice/experiences.

The board has to have:
* Support for AMD TBred
* Mounting holes for CPU cooler
* Locked PCI/AGP
* Bios that supports O/C (of course)... multi adjustments, 166MHz FSB minimum, decent voltage adjustments (but doesn't need to cook eggs ;) )
* Proven stability

Would be nice (but not essential) if board has:
* sATA
* On board LAN
* On board raid
* Better on board sound than a SB Live 5.1 (what I currently have)
* Support 200MHz+ FSB

Cheaper the better (but I don't want to sacrifice too much performance).

I've done a bit of searching, but I'd like opinions of users now.

Cheers
Ktulu

[SecretSquirrel]

Hans already stated that your soundcard > on-board, even on the ASUS board.

Personally, $100 less, I'm getting me an Abit board, its got the mounting holes, if you get rev 1.1, which Dragon has, and no doubt you could get also :D

[_N_]

go for ASUS,
you get what you pay for,
And to me, ASUS has those little things that make life easier,
Also, if you plan on keeping this board for a while, it will pay to have something that won't give you headache, :)

[ktulu]

Originally posted by SecretSquirrel
Hans already stated that your soundcard > on-board, even on the ASUS board.


yeah, but that one with the vacuum tubes on it has got to give most sound cards a run for their money

[SecretSquirrel]

Nforce2 with valve on-board???

I was under the impression it was only two Aopen P4 boards that had the valve-loving.

[Humantuckshop]

A7N8X all the way bro. ;)

So far I've had mine going hard @ 195MHz FSB. That's with Elixir PC2700 too......... And yes it is stable.

Max VCore of 1.85V - which is good enough for my 1700+ TBred B, it runs @ 2.1GHz @ 1.775V.

Max DDR Voltage of 2.8V - if you're using good quality high spec RAM, eg: Mushkin PC3200 then 2.8V will be fine - not sure about the higher speed GEIL RAM tho...

It's got mounting holes. ;)

IMHO, the onboard sound (nVidia Soundstorm) is of better quality than my old SB Live 5.1.

On board LAN x2. ;)

200MHz FSB +.

sATA.


I should have some Mushkin PC3200 arriving in a couple of days so then i'll really be able to find out what she can do cap'n.

[Maverick]

well, you are definately looking at Nforce2 from your list of specs.

The BEST way to make use of the nforce2 soundstorm is to use digital output to some spreakers/decoder combo -whether hifi or multimedia. Then throw away the live! for good.

The analogue sound has to run through the Realtek codec, and is of inferior quality to your Live!'s DAC's.
The other components on the motherboard may also contribute to noise. Going digital is the best way to beat that AFAIK.

..of course with onboard sound YMMV

[ktulu]

Originally posted by SecretSquirrel
Nforce2 with valve on-board???


I never said anything about Nforce 2 with valves ;)

Cheers guys, sounds like Asus it is (that'll be 3 PC's in the house with Asus boards).

[[H]arls]

You've probably already decided, but Id like to put my vote in for the A7N8X. I never liked Asus boards much, until lots of people starting talking about this one and silver ranted persistantly about it. :D
I've had mine about a month. I initially had teething problems which turned out to be low quality, faulty RAM but its running sweet as a honeynut now. Awesome sound, great overclocking, enough plugs in the back to satisfy even the most cable mad of geeks :D

I've really changed my mind about Asus boards now, this thing is great.

[Ragnor]

Originally posted by SecretSquirrel
Nforce2 with valve on-board???

I was under the impression it was only two Aopen P4 boards that had the valve-loving.

I Wouldn't get the Abit, yes they added mounting holes with the new revision but they are practically useless due to way too many components, surface mount resistors etc too close to the holes..

Go the Asus, or Epox if someone is actually importing them

[soven]

Dragonpc is stocking the epox 8rda+ but I would suggest checking the forums of www.amdmb.com .

[DiscoStu]

Originally posted by [H]arls
silver ranted persistantly
Nothing new there :p