Best Budget am2 motherboard

[richecker]

I am building a computer for a friend of mine. He does a lot of business work on his computer so his files are very important to him. Hence, I was going to set him up with a raid 1 solution. My question is, he is not going to overclock or need sli; What motherboard should I get for him? I am setting him up with a X2 3800. I was thinking one of these 3 but please help me out:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131022

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130050

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138026


Remember stability is key here. I do not need to OC.

 

[supastar1568]

I just bought the MSI one for my brother, will be building it tomorrow

 

[richecker]

I am trying to save as much money as I can on this. Am I going to lose anything by going with the MSI? If I lose ocing options, its not that big of a deal.

 

[Captante]

As long as you make sure to get DDR2 rated @ 1.9 vdimm, the Asus M2N-E is a very good board... I'd go with Corsair only at this point because it seems to have the fewest problems based on what I've been reading here on AT, although I'm sure there is other stuff that will work fine too.
I've had good luck with several MSI boards in the past, but I don't know much about the model you lasted above & while Biostar has improved a lot recently, I'd still hesitate to put one of their boards in a customers machine.
One further thought if stability is your main concern is going with a fully mature socket 939 solution like the Asus A8N-E instead and avoiding any of the potential pitfalls of going with a newer chipset, performance differences will be small and all the bugs will already be worked out.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: richecker

I am building a computer for a friend of mine. He does a lot of business work on his computer so his files are very important to him. Hence, I was going to set him up with a raid 1 solution. My question is, he is not going to overclock or need sli; What motherboard should I get for him? I am setting him up with a X2 3800. I was thinking one of these 3 but please help me out:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131022

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130050

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138026


Remember stability is key here. I do not need to OC.

If he's not overclocking, I'd go with the Asus M2NPV-VM
He can start with Raid 1 and morph to Raid 5, it has firewire, HDTV, on-board 6150 graphics with dual-head output (in case the graphics card ever has a problem), and it's under $90...

 

[Smartazz]

I have the M2N-E, but it isn't that cheap, a great motherboard though, so many features, but no firewire.

 

[opmike]

If you do go with the M2N-E, be VERY careful of what memory you pick. My Corsair 667 has given me complete crap from the start, and I can only run it at 533. Seems that the XMS2 runs fine though.

And I am still waiting on a BIOS update to address the little issue that arises when I boot the computer while overclocked. Occasionally it will just hang right before it's supposed to give the POST beep, and just sits there. It seems to be known problem, because a guy at the XS forums has the same issue, as well as numerous people at the ASUS forums. Maybe us with buggy boards just got bad ones. I don't know...

 

[brokejumper]

Let me 2nd the warnings about M2N-E... very picky about RAM and I have yet to get mine to even post with 2.0v RAM. If these are buggy boards I have heard of very few people who have good ones. Maybe my opinion of Asus was a bit too high before buying this, but it isn't now!!!

 

[Smartazz]

Originally posted by: brokejumper
Let me 2nd the warnings about M2N-E... very picky about RAM and I have yet to get mine to even post with 2.0v RAM. If these are buggy boards I have heard of very few people who have good ones. Maybe my opinion of Asus was a bit too high before buying this, but it isn't now!!!

I have an M2N-E, great motherboard. How long did it take to devolop problems though?

 

[brokejumper]

Never got it to even post. It probably has something to do with the unstable bios and limitations on the RAM that everyone on the Asus support board seems to be complaining about. I just don't have time to play around with a board whose bios do not seem ready for release.

Everyone is hoping that the forthcoming 303 bios update solves all the problems but I am ready to just RMA the board and try again.

What RAM did you get to work on the M2N-E and which bios are you running? These seem to be the biggest issue with this board and if the original poster is going to try and go this route it is something that you had better know.

 

[Valis]

That new 3800+ X2 Energy Effective is awesome, shame it costs so much more than the normal one.

 

[imported_inspire]

FYI - if you get the M2N-E, you're going to need to update the BIOS to fix some possible stability issues. Don't do it in windows. It takes maybe 15 minutes total to do.

 

[Smartazz]

Originally posted by: brokejumper
Never got it to even post. It probably has something to do with the unstable bios and limitations on the RAM that everyone on the Asus support board seems to be complaining about. I just don't have time to play around with a board whose bios do not seem ready for release.

Everyone is hoping that the forthcoming 303 bios update solves all the problems but I am ready to just RMA the board and try again.

What RAM did you get to work on the M2N-E and which bios are you running? These seem to be the biggest issue with this board and if the original poster is going to try and go this route it is something that you had better know.

My RAM is Corsair XMS2 PC6400 RAM, it's 1.85 volts which allows it to work with the board. I made sure this RAM worked with it before I bought it too.