Best Athlon mobo for $125 or under

[kantonburg]

This is our limit and last purchase

Putting a system together for my cousin and we need a motherboard. I've always been partial to ASUS but it's been awhile and I don't know if things have changed. He's getting an XP1900+ so we are in need of a reliable motherboard. O/C won't be necessary just want something reliable.

Sound isn't necessary and neither is onboard lan but I see a lot come with both these days so if it doesn't it doesn't matter. We'll use the LAN and disable the sound.

Thanks

 

[Peter]

If that's all you ask for, then that money actually buys you two ... like ECS K7S5A, this one's been around for about 20 months now, you won't find a more mature board anywhere. Yes it has onboard sound (quite good actually) and LAN (also available without).

Reliability is not a function of the mainboard alone. Inject some of the money saved into a decent power supply unit, good CPU cooling and quality RAM.

 

[kantonburg]

Thats the mobo I have but it's really a coin toss if you're getting a headache. He's getting the same case I have (Antec SX 835II 350w smart power) and I've had no problems with it but I know there are tons of people that have and rather not build a system I can't trouble shoot after he takes it home.

 

[Peter]

Wouldn't you think that building the same thing you already know is working would SAVE you from headaches?

 

[Insane3D]

The Epox 8K5A2+ is an excellent motherboard, and it's under $100. It has onboard LAN, 5.1 sound, ATA133 RAID (which can be used for just hooking up extra drives), and 6 USB 2.0 ports. Stability is top notch, and it's pretty much the fatest KT333 board out there, and beats some KT400 boards. Also, if your cousin wants to upgrade in the future, it will support all future Athlon's up until the hammer, including the yet to be released 333mhz FSB ones. Pair that board up with that XP and some good PC2700, and you're good to go...

 

[CaptnKirk]

Yep - Insane3D's right, he knows the Epox.

 

[ChrisADuffy]

Epox 8K5A2+ , I agree with that one too.

 

[kantonburg]

Well I do have my share of headaches from the board like it resetting the bios default values (which seems to be common) small things like that I don't want him to fool with. It's not a big issue but it's annoying.

Anyway we really aren't looking for a raid setup but if it'll run just fine with a single drive and the extra usb ports are really nice.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[Widedaimon]

IMO, the best bang for the buck at the low end is the A-Open AK75. It uses the SiS 645 chipset, is rock solid and stable, an easy, no brain install, and cheap ($63 at newegg). The onboard sound is decent--much better than C-Media. It seems much better built thn the other SiS boards I've seen. I doubt it's much of an overclocker (Haven't tried). BTW, bootup is fast on this board.