best budget 939 agp mobo??

[WendeXT]

okies iv decided to make the move to 939, Iv decided upon a 3000+venice due to there overclocking potential, however I'm after a cheapish agp board as I plan to keep my 9800pro for the moment and go pcie in the new year so I dnt want to spent to much on the motherboard, but I would like to get the most from my 3000+ atm Im pondering a Gigabyte K8NSC
http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_Spec_GA-K8NSC-939.htm
but I can find an reviews on it
anyone kno of any reviews or have any other sugestions?

 

[Aenslead]

It looks like a very good board. Nice layout, good brand, great chipset. You're good to go.

 

[BTA]

Friend of mine had that board for a while and it was quite nice.

 

[RobbyG]

Check out the Abit AV-8 currently $98 over at Newegg. Not sure if they ever resolved the temperature reporting problems, but heard good things about this board.

 

[rammstein junkie]

erm the Epox boards are nice from what i hear

 

[Texun]

The AV8 is a solid board but it does take a strong power supply. As far as the temp problem... I've heard they show high but mine has always reported cool temps, which probably isn't accurate, but the XP-90 is cool to the touch and Speedfan reports 30C on the PCU.

 

[o1die]

I would also decide if you ever want to upgrade to the x2. Anand has an approved list of boards in today's article, and most are nforce4, which don't provide agp support. I doubt if the x2 prices will come down enough for me to buy, but it's something for you to consider.

 

[Mattd46612]

I just ordered the Epox EP-9NDA3J. $88 from newegg or $95 shipped from zipzoomfly. Took me 3 days to decide and it seems like the best for the money.

 

[suszterpatt]

Bump.



A friend of mine is in need of help in exactly this matter. Our best bet so far would be the MSI Neo2 Plat. Budget is critical, but all opinions are welcome.

 

[rocky123]

I'm in the same boat. Looking to hold on to my 9800 pro for a while longer and am looking for a solid AGP mobo for the Venice 3000+ I'm planning to buy. I'm also looking at the Epox EP-9NDA3J but I'm worried about the last few comments about it on Newegg. One is that this board does not support the Venice core(posted on 8/5)and the other that it has a max FSB of 280Mhz limiting the OC to 2.52Ghz(posted on 8/6). Are either of these true? I want to get a good AGP board to OC without spending more on the mobo than the CPU. Thanks!

 

[Aries64]

Originally posted by: suszterpatt
Bump.



A friend of mine is in need of help in exactly this matter. Our best bet so far would be the MSI Neo2 Plat. Budget is critical, but all opinions are welcome.

Hey suszterpatt and rocky 123, Mwave sells the Retail K8N Neo2 for $115.50. There is also a $25.00 Mail-in Rebate good through 8/31/05 so that brings the price down to $90.50 plus shipping (and tax if you're in California).

If you're in California and nor too far from Mwave (Walnut) you can also place an order online and then Will Call your order. Mwave charges a bogus $5.00 Will Call Fee but then you don't have to wait for UPS or pay shipping. Heres a link to that page at Mwave:

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/DeepSearch.hmx?scriteria=K8N+Neo2&ALL=y&TP=2

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

ASRock 939Dual-SATA2, ULi M1695/M1567, ? USB 2.0/LAN/SATA RAID/SATA II/7.1 Audio (ALC850) ? 1x AGP, 1x PCIe x16, 1x PCIe x1, 3x PCI ? Echter AGP-Port!
$60,00
has both, an agp and a pci-e system, so if u like the performance and stuff then u could upgrade to pcie later...if not, 60$ is a fair deal, nothing to regret.

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

the gigabyte is a great budget board, some of my buddies have it and they all like it.

 

[CU]

Where can you get the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 for $60?

 

[arswihart]

Originally posted by: rocky123
I'm in the same boat. Looking to hold on to my 9800 pro for a while longer and am looking for a solid AGP mobo for the Venice 3000+ I'm planning to buy. I'm also looking at the Epox EP-9NDA3J but I'm worried about the last few comments about it on Newegg. One is that this board does not support the Venice core(posted on 8/5)and the other that it has a max FSB of 280Mhz limiting the OC to 2.52Ghz(posted on 8/6). Are either of these true? I want to get a good AGP board to OC without spending more on the mobo than the CPU. Thanks!

No, thats not true. Venice runs fine. Many have reported inability to run memory @ 1t though with the Venice's, while this isn't really an issue with the Winchesters. Epox technicians have responded that this doesn't really impact performance. I've seen countless OC's above 300 as well, its one of the best for this. Also, Epox finally released a beta BIOS with X2 support for the 9nda3 series today! I think it is a fine choice, and very cheap.

 

[designit]

Originally posted by: CU
Where can you get the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 for $60?

Asrock dual is at mwave.com for $74.
Gigabyte GA-K8U939 w/ Uli1689 is also good.
Chaintech S1689 is the best and cheapest $55 at mwave
whatever you buy just remember any mobo socket 939 w/ nvidia chipset are not any good w/ agp because it has compromised the performance.
ULi m1689 is a true agp in socket 939. its new and gigabyte is not available anywhere that I know of.
But chaintech S1689 is @ mwave. It was $49 2 weeks ago but now it is $6 more because this ULi is new and people are just finding out and jumping on it. I think the price will go up again. Anandtech has a excellent review on Uli m1695 (8/5/05) which is the PCIe and AGP combined version. M1689 is the single version for AGP only.
I bought the Chaintech along w/ venice and waiting for my Patriot XBLK and evga FX5500 agp card to arrive. I am hoping to run my ram at 250 fsb and my cpu at 2550 (2.55 ghz) after downloading latest BIOS from chaintech.

 

[Aries64]

Originally posted by: designit

Originally posted by: CU
Where can you get the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 for $60?

"...
whatever you buy just remember any mobo socket 939 w/ nvidia chipset are not any good w/ agp because it has compromised the performance..."

designit I know that the S939 Nvidia AGP boards have been out for a year (some a little longer) but WTF are you talking about when you say "any mobo socket 939 w/ nvidia chipset are not any good w/ agp because it has compromised the performance"? Are you basing this on the fact that AGP is an older technology that is being replaced by PCI Express, (and in this case I agree that choosing a "new" motherboard using an AGP-based graphics system is not the best idea) or are you saying that all AGP-based S939 boards suck?

The fact of the matter is that WendeXT was interested in a "cheapish" AGP board so he could make his 9800 Pro last a little longer - please note that I inferred "cheapish" as inexpensive (read the difference between "cheap" and "inexpensive"). Cheap is usually crap while inexpensive means it doesn't cost a lot.

However, IF someone is going to be building a new system or is planning to upgrade to S939 and they want the newest 3D graphics then they definitely want to go PCI-E. I posted the link to the K8N Neo2 at Mwave becuase suszterpatt and rocky 123 mentioned it. It also happens to be one of the highest performance, most stable, and feature laden AGP-based S939 boards out there, thanks to an overall excellent design and a year's worth of BIOS revisions to support the latest S939 CPUs'.

 

[munchow2]

You seriously can't wait 4 months to save the money for your PCI-E rig in December?? Well if you must, the ASUS k8t800 used to be quite good.

 

[OvErHeAtInG]

Bump. I'm also in this situation. The Gigabyte K8NSC mentioned by the OP looks good, but does anyone know if it has respectable OC'ing options? And is it like ly to boot up out of the box with a Venice?

The K8T800 also looks good. Same questions?