Advice... getting a new socket 754 mobo: MSI, Asus, Chaintech or Epox ??

[DJQuanta]

I'm on the market for a new A64 Socket 754 mobo. My budget is limited so I'm considering this not-so-pricy models:

MSI K8N NEO-FSR - $92 at Zipzoomfly

Chaintech VNF3-250 - $72.75 at Newegg

Epox EP-8KDA3J - $73 at Newegg

ASUS K8N - $89 at Newegg

What would be your advice on this decision... I've read about some quality issues with the chaintech's boards, don't know about the Epox. It seems people talks good things about the MSI, and I think I've read that the ASUS is not a board for overclocking.

Any feedback will be very much appreciated.

Quanta

 

[CraigRT]

$89 at newegg

 

[BW86]

Why is it that some nforce3-250's support 1000mhz HTT and some support 800mhz HTT?

I would get the chaintech. ITs a good overall board and a great overclocking board. Some people got boards that made a high pitched noise though.

 

[DJQuanta]

BTW....I'm pairing this board with an Athlon 64 2800, Corsair Value Ram 512 and a Info-tek Radeon 9600 PRO, so if there are some issues with this components and any of the boards it would be good to know.

Ive heard of some issues about the ASUS and 9XXX Radeon vid cards.

Also, reliability is a plus, since I'm outside the US it would be a nightmare to get a faulty board.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: BW86
Why is it that some nforce3-250's support 1000mhz HTT and some support 800mhz HTT?

The nForce3-150's support 800 MHz HTT and the nForce3-250's support 1000 MHz HTT as far as I know.

The ASUS is a very good deal for the price, and much more known than Epox or Chaintech. I have an ASUS Pentium 4 board and it is very stable at 3.4 GHz from my original 2.6 GHz P4 (it's a very good overclock with stock cooling, but this is a Pentium 4, not an Athlon 64). I have never had Windows XP crash outside of overclocking. Mine has an Intel 865PE chipset. I also had an ASUS VIA KT400A chipset board and it was a lot better than the Gigabyte board I had in terms of stability. I have a Radeon 9500 PRO and have had no issues whatsoever with stability. If you can afford it, the MSI would be good also.

 

[DJQuanta]

I can afford the MSI K8N Neo ($92 at zipzoomfly) and its currently my top choice.

Any other comments ??

 

[BW86]

If your going to overclock get an nforce 3 board, that rules out the asus.

 

[KoolHonda]

For what it's worth, I haven't had any problems with my K8N Neo Platinum.

 

[ChineseDemocracyGNR]

The ASUS listed is an nForce3 board; as for HTT support:

nForce3-150: 600MHz.
nForce3-250(Gb): 800MHz:
nForce3 Ultra: 1000MHz.

I would get the Epox board, I don't see a reson to spend more on the others. If you want something that works on the first try I wouldn't recommend the MSI K8N board.

 

[Losty]

I got the chaintech vnf3 250 and a64 2800+ retail for 235 shipped at mwave.com and it came with a free farcry cd ... (thanks to Zebo for the info on it)

I also got corsiar value select memory (512mb pc3200)

System runs fine right now.

pretty good for the price

Only thing is the onboard sound isn't that great ...
has built in lan also (not gigalan)

-Losty

 

[DJQuanta]

Originally posted by: Losty
I got the chaintech vnf3 250 and a64 2800+ retail for 235 shipped at mwave.com and it came with a free farcry cd ... (thanks to Zebo for the info on it)

I also got corsiar value select memory (512mb pc3200)

System runs fine right now.

pretty good for the price

Only thing is the onboard sound isn't that great ...
has built in lan also (not gigalan)

-Losty

And what Video Card you got with that rig ?

 

[DJQuanta]

Well.... I'll think I'll go with the Epox.... that way I'll save $30 that will help me get a better vid card.

I'm picking the Epox over the Chaintech for two reasons:

- Epox comes with the nF3-250Gb chipset
- Epox has a better integrated sound chip (although I know that everything integrated usually sucks)
- Epox has more recent bios updates than chaintech

What's your take, is this a good decision ?

Quanta.

 

[DarcMetal]

I just bought the same Epox board as a replacement. I did have a Gigabyte K8NS which was great. But then again, I don't overclock and stuff like that. The Epox board was my original 2nd choice. It seems better when I read about it.