Best Cheap Motherboard for a beginner

[ruatechnut]

I am looking at building my first computer and have reviewed several motherboards from Abit, ASUS, IWILL, MSI, EPOX, Gigabyte, & Shuttle on various web sites and postings from here. The problem is, while I have found alot of good information if I was going to overclock, I do not see myself overclocking since this is my first build. Stability and ease of set up are most important I am looking at using PC133 memory since it appears to be the best value. Here is what I am planning on for components: Duron 850-950mhz CPU, 128-256 MB Crucial ram, 20 GB Maxtor hard drive, a 48-52x CD rom, modem & sound card (unsure which brands), Teac CDRW, an Iomega internal Zip drive, a old Gateway 17" monitor (if that matters), and a Antec 300W case compliments of Best Buy's recent deal. If I have read correctly, I may want to use a raid board since I will have more than 2 main IDEs on the same board, ie. 1-hard drive, 1-Zip drive as Iomega suggests that the Zip be on its own IDE, and master & slave the CD & CDRW. The raid feature would also give me future expandability if it was needed. I may want to upgrade to an Athlon XP in the future as this would provide a cheap upgrade but not a necessity. Any suggestions on which motherboard to use as well any sites I may want review on building a computer would be greatly appreciated. Also should I consider on board sound even though most people here do not speak highly of it. Thanks a million.

 

[Wind]

If u r building from scratch (all new components), I suggest u look at the KT266A chipset mobo. It is significantly faster than the KT133A chipset mobo. Brand like ECS provide great value, installation is bout the same as others, stability...I dun think its an issue if u r running at stock speed.

 

[Yoshi]

Just because you are a beginner does not mean you should buy a cheap board. Most board regaurdless of cost are setup the same. As with anything else spending a bit more can get you better quality and more features.

Just buy the board that suits your needs.

 

[DragCity]

I would agree with the previous replies. Just look for a board that is in your price range and has the features you're looking for. If you are going for a stable, non-OC setup you will find plenty of resources that should make the process relatively painless.

I had been on a PIII500 for over two years and just built an XP1600+, Epox 8KHA+ system as my first do-it-yourself attempt. My previous experience was basically switching video cards once. I found plenty of help with documentation and forums and everything has been great so far.

 

[Texun]

I agree with not going for cheap just because this is a "beginner" system, but if you want fast and cheap, the ECS K75SA has received several positive reviews and is considered by many as a very fast and stable AMD board. Check around and read a few reviews. you can read one review here., or read their comments copied below...



Overall, the Elitegroup (ECS) K7S5A is a fantastic budget solution for those
wanting to go the AMD route, and for those not interested in overclocking
provides some of today's fastest benchmark scores. It managed to topple
Iwill's flagship XP333 in every benchmark bar one, and not by an insignificant
margin. In terms of features, the ECS cannot be faulted for the price, and
I have found it to be highly stable and overall a pleasure to use. For these
reasons, it fulfils the criteria necessary to win a coveted OcPrices.com
best-buy award.

SPECS:
ECS K7S5A Specifications (Taken from ECS's web site)

PROCESSORS
? AMD® Athlon (K7) processors
? Full series of Athlon/Duron CPU including the future Athlon processors

CHIPSET
? SiS® 735 System Chipset
? Super I/O and LPC - ITE8705F
? System Hardware Monitor: Built-in ITE8705
? LAN: MAC integrated in SiS735 & PHY on board
? AC97 Audio Codec

MEMORY
? 2 DDR DIMM sockets and 2 DIMM sockets support (can not be used simultaneously)
? Two 184-pin DDR SDRAM (DDR200, DDR266) or
? Two 168-pin 3.3V SDRAM (PC100, PC133)
? Maximum: 1.0GB (DDR or SDRAM)

SYSTEM BIOS
? AMI 2MB Flash EEPROM
? Supports Plug and Play 1.0A, AMP 1.2, Multi Boot, DMI
? Full Support for ACPI revision 1.0 specification

I/O INTERFACE
? Supports Plug and Play function
? PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse connectors
? Dual USB Ports and LAN connectors
? One - EPP/ECP mode parallel port
? Two - 16550 high-speed serial I/O ports
? Audio Ports (Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in, CD-in and game port)
? Dual PCI IDE interfaces - support four IDE devices (PIO mode 4, DMA Mode 2, Ultra DMA 33/66/100)
? Supports 360K~2.88M Byte, 3 Mode FDDs or LS120
ATX Power Supply Connector ports, Headers and Others:
? IrDA Cable header
? Extra USB header
? Two CD-In headers
? Front Panel MIC/Line-out header
? Green, HDD, Power indicator LED headers
? CPU and Case Fan headers
? Modem Ring Wake Up Header

RTC & BATTERY
? SiS® 735 included 256 bytes of CMOS SRAM
? With CMOS SRAM hardware clear jumper

EXPANSION SLOTS
? 5 PCI slots, 1 4X AGP slot, 1 AMR slot

FORM FACTOR
? ATX (304mm*244mm), 4 Layers


If I were building a system for someone who wasn't into overclocking or wanted the greatest tweaks and toys I would give it serious consideration as an AMD platform. Pricewatch.com has it with a Duron 800 for $88 or an Athlon 1.2g for $159. You'll notice that it will use either 168 or 184 pin DIMMS which gives you some wiggle room depending on far you want to take it and how much you want to spend, or have left over.

Good luck,
R

 

[Peter]

I do think a simple board will suit your needs, and not be over your head during installation. Things like the suggested ECS K7S5A don't
have any settings or jumpers to toy around with (or scratch your head about ).

What you don't get from ECS is explanations. Their manuals describe everything, but explain nothing. Knowledge required. But anyway,
even ASUS 300-page manuals can't replace this knowledge. I strongly suggest you have a local expert guide you through your first DIY.
Too many subtle and expensive mistakes lurking in there.

regards, Peter

 

[NelsonMuntz]

<< I do think a simple board will suit your needs, and not be over your head during installation. Things like the suggested ECS K7S5A don't
have any settings or jumpers to toy around with (or scratch your head about ).

What you don't get from ECS is explanations. Their manuals describe everything, but explain nothing. Knowledge required. But anyway,
even ASUS 300-page manuals can't replace this knowledge. I strongly suggest you have a local expert guide you through your first DIY.
Too many subtle and expensive mistakes lurking in there.

regards, Peter >>


It's too bad most folks don't have a "local expert" at their disposal. I think that with a little bit of foreknowledge and planning anyone can put together a good PC system for themselves. I have helped people do it in the past (maybe I am a "local expert" in Tempe, Arizona) and it can be done pretty painlessly. I think that the ECS K7S5A sounds like a pretty good board for you because it can take both PC133 and PC2100 RAM, so you can start off with the inexpensive stuff and move up to the higher performance with the more expensive stuff later when you switch CPUs up or whatever. Plus the board is inexpensive and pretty easy to set up. I would have put one together for my folks a few weeks ago, but they were out of stock at Newegg at the time so I used the Shuttle AK31A instead. I will say that RAID seems a little like overkill right now for your situation, but if you want to jump to that level, then go for it. The boards will cost more, but you can probably find a reasonably priced one based on the KT133A chipset which uses PC133 RAM but will not let you jump to PC2100 later. A KT133A board to check out is the ABIT KT7A RAID for $114 at Newegg. I personally think you would be better off going with the ECS K7S5A and getting a PCI RAID card later when you have a greater need. As for running your internal Zip on its own IDE channel, I have been running mine as slave to my CD-RW since I got it and it has worked flawlessly. BTW I also have my DVD-ROM slaved to my hard drive so I have all the IDE devices full in my machine as well. I will probably get an onbard RAID board on my next rebuild, but that won't need to happen for another year or two.

 

[ruatechnut]

Thanks for the info...Anybody live in the Pittsburgh, PA area that would be interested in helping me build my first computer as Peter suggested??

Also not necessarily looking at buying the cheapest board, but do not need $175-$200 board with a 1700mhz Athlon XP processor....just a good all round board.

Anybody else want to put their 2 cents in would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Slogun]

As you can see by my signature, I like the ECS boards, I have two systems with them.....
Among other things, with the onboard LAN it actually saves you the price of adding a PCI NIC.

 

[Texun]

Lemme axed you somethin.... (that's how dey talk down here in Lousianna), are you maybe a little concerned that the ECS might be too cheap? I had those thoughts before but they were pretty much moot because I wanted a board with more bells and whistles. However, I failed to mention another option for a quality board that runs around $95'ish without a cpu, the iWill brand motherboards. iWill came up almost overnight and has turned out some decent boards. Pricewatch has the KK266+ and an Athlon 900 for around $159. Not as cheap, but read the reviews on it. Aandtech found the KK266 to be better in terms of stability than the ASUS or ABIT... but keep in mind that it is a KT133A chipset which isn't bad, but there are better options available now. I had one, it was almost bullet proof right out of the box and came packaged with a good installation kit and instructions.

For what you described, I wouldn't shy away from the ECS as your first system, but read the reviews on many of the major MB's at AMDMB.COM and see if that helps you decide. You'll find good and bad on every board listed, but it will be informative.


R

 

[Slogun]

Hehe, I gave up on the D@#n link thing too.