Barton CPU/ Which Mobo?

[MrMet]

Looking into upgrading to a 2500+ or 2800+ Barton CPU and was hoping for some suggestions on Mobos. Not really into overclocking much. Reliabilty is one if the biggest factor in my decision. No onboard sound or video wanted. Have always liked ABIT boards but am open to and suggestions. Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[eklass]

i really like my giga-byte ga-7vaxp ultra. very feature rich and stable. not much of an overcloacking board (no pci/agp dividers) but the stability and features are defo there

has onboard sound and lan, but i suppose you don't have to use them if you don't want to. i use it with a tbred and a radeon 9700 with no problem. i've got pc2700 ram and i'm planning on going barton this fall 🙂

 

[M O M O]

Loving my abit nf7-s v2. Got two systems running them, one with a 2500barton the other with a xp1700. Sata raid still has bugs, other then that i've got them running 24/7.

 

[bgeh]

i recommend the Abit NF7-S Rev 2.0

 

[Peter D]

the epox 8rda+ is good, but im saying that cuz i have one 😉 i think any of the higher end nforce2 boards would do well (abit, asus, epox)

 

[pspada]

Originally posted by: Vegetto
the epox 8rda+ is good, but im saying that cuz i have one 😉 i think any of the higher end nforce2 boards would do well (abit, asus, epox)

This is true, any decent nforce2 board would do. But FIC makes the Epox m/bs, and has an exact match to the 8rda+, but cheaper. Even my AN19E (KT400 chipset) is stable, and still overclocks via the BIOS.

 

[Shimmishim]

considering you don't want all that junk..

get either the epox 8rda or abit nf7

both are relatively cheap... the 8rda is less than 90 i believe.. so that may be your best choice if you're strapped for cash...

 

[hungrygoose]

my abit kd7 seems to work well....has onboard sound and lan.....the sound seems to kick ass so far.....has optical audio out and everything....of course i'm running an xp 1700+ rite now but am about to upgrade to barton

 

[MrMet]

Onboard lan is nice. Any one have any probs with it? I heard a couple of horror stories when the first started apearing on boards 2-3 years ago. I use my system mainly for gaming, i should have mentioned that earlier. Thanks again for all the info guys. Makes buying so much easier when u have honest reviews and not magazine hype ups to read.

 

[CraigRT]

Soltek SL-75FRN2

no reason to buy a more expensive board unless you want semi crappy features (S-ATA) I only say semi crappy because it's good, but PCI solutions are often better from what I read (has something to do with a certain chip)

for it's price, this mobo cannot be beat.
you can even buy an XP2500+/mobo combo at NCIX.com for a killer price.

 

[chocoruacal]

nForce2 and NOTHING else...avoid VIA's crap at all times!!! kt333, kt400, kt400a (snicker, snicker) can't compete. I've got two 8RDA+ boards and they are great, though I'm sure the offerings from Abit and Asus are just as good. Can't say about the others...Soltek, Leadtek, as I've never owned any of their boards.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: chocoruacal
nForce2 and NOTHING else...avoid VIA's crap at all times!!! kt333, kt400, kt400a (snicker, snicker) can't compete. I've got two 8RDA+ boards and they are great, though I'm sure the offerings from Abit and Asus are just as good. Can't say about the others...Soltek, Leadtek, as I've never owned any of their boards.

Soltek are awesome boards.. very reliable and easy to setup.
my SL-75DRV4 gets my vote for my most favorite motherboard to date, and I've had some good ones.. 😉

 

[Jeff7181]

If you're not into overclocking or tweaking... I'd have to say stay away from the A7N8X from Asus. Don't get me wrong, it's a great board, and I'm happy with it. But for some reason, you can only make one major changed in the BIOS at a time... if you make too many at once, it won't reboot unless you completely shut the power off, and then turn it back on. That's the only thing I liked better about my KT400 board than this one... after a BIOS update, I could go into the BIOS, change every setting to the setting I wanted it at, and reboot once and it would be fine. The A7N8X takes about 10 minutes to change a couple things, reboot, change a couple things, reboot... etc...