Best MB for a cheap system?

[OzzieGT]

I need to build a really cheep system for basic desktop apps (Office, Internet, etc.). I would also like it to be small if possible. I was thinking a Duron 1.4 with an MSI KM2M Combo-L in an Inwin IW-L545P is about the cheapest it's gonna get for a respectable system at about $130 + drives and peripherals.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Vette73]

Juat got done buiding a chrap system like the one you are talking about. The board I used was the Biostar M7VIZ

It uses a KM400 chipset with a 8237 southbridge. The UniChrome onboard video is GREAT for movies, office work, etc.. The onboartd sound is Cmedia, which I think is better then the cheap 655 or 650 real tek. The board also even has SATA ports, the only KM400 board that I know that has these. The board goes for only $57 at newegg.com

I used some basic PC2100 kingston ram and a used Athlon 1600+ chip in it. 32meg to the video and rest for the system running WinXP. Very fast and 100% stable. My customer was VERY happy.

 

[fibes]

I would go for the ECS K7S5A PRO. Newegg has them for $41.00 Link. I just built one the other day. I recycled some SDR, 64mb video card and (2)hard drives and it started the first try. Good luck :beer:

 

[pspada]

I'd go with the ECS K7VTA3. the K7S5A Pro has some issues, like loosing the bios settings, and sometimes not starting up properly.

 

[Peter]

The most radical approach, and totally sufficient, is to use one of those ECS boards that come with a pre-mounted, non-upgradeable Duron and onboard everything. K7SOM+, L7VMM3, and their PC-Chips aliases M810DC and M825ULC.

http://www.pcchips.com.tw/product/M825LUv72c.html

http://www.ecs.com.tw/products/pd_list.asp?submenu_id=22&function_id=19

 

[o1die]

I could not get a k7vta3 to post the first time with an nvidia chipset video card. I tried 4 different boards from Fry's. If you're using ati, you should be ok. I would also get the 1.6 duron, as mine runs easily at 2000 without a voltage increase.

 

[brentkiosk]

I agree with Marlin1975. Consider the Biostar M7VIZ. I also recently made a system based on this board. Used onboard video, audio and LAN. The computer gets used for AIM, Homework and other basic apps; no gaming. The main user is very happy. Since I didn't have to buy video or sound cards, I was very happy with the price.

 

[mechBgon]

Let me toss the Asus A7N266-VM/AA onto the pile too. It's older technology but I've had good results with the ones at work. We've got about 30 of them now, and I think we'll probably even use them for next fiscal years' builds (with 2400+'s). Their stability is exemplary and the performance seems pretty good for IDE-equipped systems (SCSI for me, thank you).

Their weak point in my mind is mainly that the onboard video is not super-crisp at higher resolutions. Add a low-end AthlonXP, 256MB of Crucial PC2100, and Windows2000 Pro, and you're all set for typical office uses. I usually set the systems up to use 8MB or 16MB of the system memory for video, although it can be set to 32MB if you're planning to play some UT2003 Demo after hours or something (yes, it can handle it if you don't get greedy with the eye candy and resolution ).

Oh, and I build ours with Antec Plus660AMG cases, with the TruePower330 power supplies. I'm sure the TP330 seems like overkill, but we want a five-year lifespan out of these systems and I wanted to get the "towing package," if you understand what I mean.

 

[optimistic]

Biostat M7VIG Pro
Basic Specs
- KM266 chipset
- Takes SDR / DDR (2 slots each)
- Cmedia sound. USB 2.0
- Prosavage 8 integrated video, LAN

$45 bucks at mwave.

 

[pspada]

Originally posted by: o1die
I could not get a k7vta3 to post the first time with an nvidia chipset video card. I tried 4 different boards from Fry's. If you're using ati, you should be ok. I would also get the 1.6 duron, as mine runs easily at 2000 without a voltage increase.

I've had several working just fine with nvidia video cards. In fact, I have one running with a MX-440 8X card now.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Juat got done buiding a chrap system like the one you are talking about. The board I used was the Biostar M7VIZ

(...) The board also even has SATA ports, the only KM400 board that I know that has these. The board goes for only $57 at newegg.com

It's not the only one anymore. That one is KM400A/8237, bringing SATA (RAID) as well as FSB400, DDR400 support, giving the integrated graphics a healthy boost. Same thing, different badge.

 

[Zepper]

I really like the KM2M Combo L (see my review in "User Reviews" at techimo.com). Many of the others don't yet have the P4 connector which allows fairly heavy power sucking CPUs to run comfortably on inexpensive/low power PSUs. But the integrated video might be a bit problematic if you wish to use Linux. There are drivers for that chipset, but a newbie may have an interesting time installing them.
. I don't think you could go wrong using that mobo for your business system. Just download the latest BIOS (1.4) while you're waiting for it to arrive. And the Duron Applebred CPUs will blow you away. See the recent budget CPU review over on the Anandtech site...
. Feel free to PM me with any questions you may have re. the KM2M etc.
.bh.
:brrrrrrrrrrrr...

 

[Peter]

VIA have the best Linux driver support for their integrated stuff you can possibly have. www.viaarena.com

 

[Zepper]

Peter,
. I consider good support being able to select the driver from the list presented when installing the distro. No excuse for Via/S3 not making that happen.
.bh.

 

[Peter]

For this to happen, particularly the XFree graphics system is simply moving too slow in their releases. Integration of the other drives (those that go into the kernel) keeps up quite well.
OS installations on bleeding edge new mainboards is always going to require driver downloads and installations. Noone complains about having to download and install a graphics driver on Windows XP, so what's wrong with having to do that in Linux?

 

[KF]

>Noone complains about having to download and install a graphics driver on Windows XP,
>so what's wrong with having to do that in Linux?

True. Won't Linux set up the board with working basic video, even if not optimal? I don't know anything about the VIA driver. But the Nvidia Linux driver, while being called that, is really more of an ancient TNT era thing. If you want the good nvidia driver (like for Quake 3), you need to get it at the Nvidia site. And it IS "interesting" to install that driver, although all you have to do is follow instructions. Those instruction don't resemble anything like Windows, and printing them out so you don't skip anything is a good idea. Just remember to set it back to default if you update your distro someday. There are people mad at Nvidia for this situation, but Nvidia is not about to put the driver into open source, or to disclose the proprietary info to write an open source driver. I'm sure if Nvidia would let them, the big distros would do it automatically.

 

[watkins]

Have several systems with the Asus A7N266-VM/AA mobo for a year now. All running stable and in an office enviroment. Crucial DDR2100/256mb, AMD XP 1700-1900,on board sound/video and this makes for a relatively inexpensive system.This is older n-force technology but proven to be quick and stable. Anyway, no problems to date.

 

[pspada]

Seriously, even Windows XP sometimes needs drivers loaded for newer devices. Why should it be such a hardship to do so under linux? It's not like you have to recompile the kernel to do so.

Besides, in 2 months there'll be a new version of your favorite distro that has those drivers available.

 

[Texun]

Originally posted by: watkins
Have several systems with the Asus A7N266-VM/AA mobo for a year now. All running stable and in an office enviroment. Crucial DDR2100/256mb, AMD XP 1700-1900,on board sound/video and this makes for a relatively inexpensive system.This is older n-force technology but proven to be quick and stable. Anyway, no problems to date.

I second the A7N266-VM/AA. I have built just one, and it was for a friend who asked for a clean and reliable board for his daughter. I used an XP1800 with a Speeze Falcon Rock cooler and it has been solid as a stone. Total for the board, cpu and cooler was about $120. A Duron would cut that down to about $105. Regarding the case: The INWIN you mentioned has a shipping charge making it $42 delivered, and it has a 180W PSU. You may want to look at this case. Although it has a generic PSU it does have free shipping, and at $40 you would get a 350W instead of the 180W. You're close to $145 for a case, board, Duron, and cooler not including any extras.

A word of advice about combo boards... be sure to get at least 256 megs of memory since onboard video is shared. The A7N266-VM/AA has an option in the BIOS for setting the shared video memory from 8 to 32 megs. Not sure about the rest of the boards.

One more thing- Flash the BIOS if you get this board. It has install problems on the first try but went smooth as glass after the flash. Not a big deal really since you are a DIY guy.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: Peter

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Juat got done buiding a chrap system like the one you are talking about. The board I used was the Biostar M7VIZ

(...) The board also even has SATA ports, the only KM400 board that I know that has these. The board goes for only $57 at newegg.com

It's not the only one anymore. That one is KM400A/8237, bringing SATA (RAID) as well as FSB400, DDR400 support, giving the integrated graphics a healthy boost. Same thing, different badge.

That has to be a misprint as the KM400 CHIPSET only support 333mhzFSB. The KM400 is a updated KT400 chipset with the Uni-Chrome graphics in the north bridge. Unless there is a KM400a chipset I have not heard about??

 

[mechBgon]

If you do go with a microATX board, I also saw an interesting Inwin microATX case that comes with a USB 2.0 memory-card reader and front audio & USB 2.0 ports. At $46 + shipping, it's not the cheapest, but the memory-card reader struck me as interesting, and it has a 250W Powerman (OEM Sparkle Power) power supply. Or is it 300W? The photos show it as a 300W unit. If anyone gets one, let us know what you end up with! Here's the link.

 

[Peter]

KM400A does exist. I specifically mentioned it is KM400A, you even quoted me on that! See the ECS page to find out how the previous model "KM400-M2" got updated to "KM400A-M2", swapping the KM400 for a KM400A chip, as well as the 8235CE south bridge to its (equally pin compatible) 8237 successor.