Best motherboards on the Market

[Acoshi]

What is the absolute best motherboard to have for an AMD Athlon 64. Because I want to have a motherboard that will not only be durable but will be somewhat future proof.

If at all possible name the top 5 best motherboards to own. Price isn't an issue

 

[BW86]

GIGABYTE GA-K8NSNXP-939

 

[yezhou]

Asus A8V - 939

 

[Acoshi]

Is the new Abit AV8 any good?

 

[Platyply]

I would not reccommend the A8V Deluxe; I've been fighting with mine for nearly two weeks trying to get WinXP installed. I have a single SATA drive and an IDE drive, and its nearly impossible to get the the OS installed cleanly because Windows just doesn't know how to work with the Promise RAID controller to install the OS on the SATA drive. You'll run into all kinds of critical and fatal errors, I've reformatted (the long way) at least eight times between both drives trying to get Windows to install. Haven't found a suitable alternative yet, so I have $1500+ of equipment uselessly sitting under my desk.

 

[Acoshi]

So the Gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP-939 is one of the best motherboards on the market?

 

[CraigRT]

there are quite a few good boards out there

 

[DaWolv]

Ive been holding out for that DFI Lanparty UT n3. The review for it here looks real good.
Looks to be in stock this week...*holds breath*

 

[Ironmanstl]

Asus A8V set up sata drives easily for me,
I have 2 sata hard drives and a sata dvd writer, as well as an ide cd writer

Neo2 is a little more difficult to set up, mine died, and since I switched to the a8v, I can overclock my video card higher, and stability is rock solid

I read a few reviews that the gigabyte has trouble fitting the stock amd heatsink bracket to the board, capacitors are in the way.

 

[Imyourzero]

It depends on what your needs are. As has been said, there are several great boards available.

If you plan on overclocking, your first and only choice should be the DFI LanParty 250 board.

If you don't need a lot of extra features and just want a fast, rock solid stable motherboard, the ASRock K8S8X comes very highly recommended. The only downside to this mobo is that it only has 2 DIMM slots. For running 2 x 512 like a lot of people do, it would be just fine...but if you ever wanted to go to 1.5 or 2 GB, you'd have to buy the more expensive 1024 MB DIMMs.

The Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR is an awesome board also. It is very fast, very stable, and has more features than the ASRock but is slightly more expensive. I recently built a system with this mobo and it was a breeze, and the system has been extremely fast and solid. Aside from a funky onboard LAN problem I recently experienced, this mobo has been problem-free. I certainly recommend it.

 

[Neptune3000]

vnf-250

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: Imyourzero
It depends on what your needs are. As has been said, there are several great boards available.

If you plan on overclocking, your first and only choice should be the DFI LanParty 250 board.

If you don't need a lot of extra features and just want a fast, rock solid stable motherboard, the ASRock K8S8X comes very highly recommended. The only downside to this mobo is that it only has 2 DIMM slots. For running 2 x 512 like a lot of people do, it would be just fine...but if you ever wanted to go to 1.5 or 2 GB, you'd have to buy the more expensive 1024 MB DIMMs.

The Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR is an awesome board also. It is very fast, very stable, and has more features than the ASRock but is slightly more expensive. I recently built a system with this mobo and it was a breeze, and the system has been extremely fast and solid. Aside from a funky onboard LAN problem I recently experienced, this mobo has been problem-free. I certainly recommend it.

whats you funky onboard LAN problem? my NForce drivers won't cut it when trying to set it up.. still has a yellow exclamation mark on the NVIDIA ethernet controller, and I have no idea why.

 

[siberain]

If i were you.. i'd wait.. as of right now Each motherboard has its problems .. each board you pick is like flipping a coin 50/50 it'll work great or your stuck with problems..

my suggestion, wait till the end of october Nforce4 is around the corner,

and it will be fully loaded.. you'll be gettin nvidia lan, soundstorm 7.1 will be back and more..

link:
http://www.nforcershq.com/modu...=News&new_topic=15
http://www.amdboard.com/nforce4.html

its up to you..

personally i want an 939 but not with the motherboards out there now.. there is no stability in any brand..

There are already previews of an EpoX/Abit Nforce4 motherboard out and it looks really nice..

Here are some links :

ABIT:
refer to link below

EpoX:
refer to link below

Gigabyte:
refer to link below

BioStar:
refer to link below

Asus:
http://www.tweakers.net/ext/i.dsp/1096533994.jpg

for more pictures head to:

http://www.amdboard.com/socket_939_boards.html <-- refer here.. all pictures are listed here.

Whats weird is that AT hasnt posted any topics on any of these boards...

Post your thoughts

 

[Imyourzero]

I don't see why everyone is saying to wait for the NF4 boards. They look nice on paper, but I definitely wouldn't want to buy one of them early on. Just like most any chipset, there are bound to be issues and kinks that need to be worked out in multiple motherboard revisions. This has happened time and time again in the past. If anything it would be better to wait until the NF4 boards come out, and then buy a NF3-based chipset since they will drop in price (and they've been out for a while so there are bound to be less issues).

 

[Tab]

Is it just me or do those layouts looks backwords? Maybe its just me Aren't these the Nforce4 chipsets? Wait, they are!

 

[tphss]

Gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP
Asus A8V
MSI Neo2 Platinum

 

[LocutusX]

Originally posted by: siberain
If i were you.. i'd wait.. as of right now Each motherboard has its problems .. each board you pick is like flipping a coin 50/50 it'll work great or your stuck with problems..

Agreed! they all suck ... in one way or another

my suggestion, wait till the end of october Nforce4 is around the corner,

yeah, hopefully nvidia will have learned from their mistakes in their 3rd attempt at a a64 chipset eh?

and it will be fully loaded.. you'll be gettin nvidia lan, soundstorm 7.1 will be back and more..

no, sorry. there is no soundstorm in it. there was a big discussion on this a while back...

 

[BF04]

Im in the same boat. What I did was purchase the

SOLTEK "SL-K8TPro-939" VIA K8T800

From what Ive read no big problems and runs fast and stable. It was pretty cheap at $114 @newegg.

Ill have it on Wed. Ill use till the Nforce 4 comes out then switch.


Wish DFI had their 939 out alot eariler...or at all :/

 

[savoybc]

The Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 is a nice board and single channel DDR RAM works perfectly. But if you want to try Dual Channel, you're up for a lot of configuration modifying in the BIOS. It can work, but you'll be relaxing your RAM timings.

I am sure there is more BIOS updates around the corner for this board ... I am not impressed with the current F4 BIOS.

Overall, this board is amazing if you get it working the way you want it, I know so because I have it

My system is in my signature.

 

[Macro2]

Waiting for the nforce4 boards. Due this month. Then I'll wait another month or two for the BIOS bugs to be worked out.

 

[imported_manchild]

MSI K8N Neo Platinum

 

[darXoul]

I wanted an efficient but relatively affordable socket 754 rig since socket 939's "future proof" status is a myth in my eyes. I wanted a stable, feature-rich and fast mobo (preferably nForce3 250Gb) with decent overclocking capabilities. I chose ASUS K8N-E Deluxe and I'm absolutely satisfied. Unless you're an aggressive overclocker (in which case I'd recommend DFI Lanparty), I'm sure you'll be happy with ASUS.

 

[flawlssdistortn]

Ok, I don't know why some of you have been recommending the Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 board. Obviously you don't own one. Let me just say that this board was released in a state comparable to a premature baby with a cocaine addiction. The parents have refused to acknowledge any problems and take no accountability. Numerous flaws in the BIOS - incorrect temperature readings, memory timings that wouldnt save, RAID problems, hard drive LED problems, and (i dont know if others had this problem but i did) a slight default overclock on the HT, AGP, and memory buses. It took months of complaining to Gigabyte's ignorant tech support before they actually admitted to any problems and got around to putting out the F4 BIOS. This only solved some of the problems including the temperature readings and the hard drive LED. Also, many people have had instability when using DDR400 in dual channel. I myself finally managed to rid myself of the frequent BSODs and attain some amount of stability after weeks of posting/reading in the forums, and many trials with the memory timings. Let me just say that if you insist on paying the 70 or 80 dollars extra to get this board, make sure to get memory that is on the compatibility list put out by AMD or the memory manufacturer!! Stay away from Corsair memory, it's not stable. I've heard good things about Crucial Ballistix RAM. I know the K8NSNXP-939 has had some good reviews, but one should always check the forums to get the "real" scoop. I think anyone interested in this mobo for the nForce3 chipset should look at the MSI board instead.

 

[imported_Harbinger]

Originally posted by: Platyply
I would not reccommend the A8V Deluxe; I've been fighting with mine for nearly two weeks trying to get WinXP installed. I have a single SATA drive and an IDE drive, and its nearly impossible to get the the OS installed cleanly because Windows just doesn't know how to work with the Promise RAID controller to install the OS on the SATA drive. You'll run into all kinds of critical and fatal errors, I've reformatted (the long way) at least eight times between both drives trying to get Windows to install. Haven't found a suitable alternative yet, so I have $1500+ of equipment uselessly sitting under my desk.

I dont understand why you could not possibly install windows (xp I pressume) on a raid HDD. All you have to do is hit F6 while windows setup starts (it prompts you as well) in order to provide drivers for your sata controller. Thats all. I build a system (check my sign) a week ago and had absolutely no problem with A8V. First startup after assembling and thats all. Everything went like breeze, features are extremely rich, rock stable even in overclocking, speed is great and in general I did not find a single mistake. Even its price is right (about $130 I think). Just 2 things: If you decide to buy A8V go for the rev2.0 which have a working agp/pci lock (unless you dont care about overclocking. And be aware that if you plan to use gainwards 2400 6800gt graphics card there is a minor problem. Card is very lengthy and fat (takes up the first pci) and gets in the way of Via's onboard sata connectors. Of course this mobo includes a secondary controller from promise which I had to use to connect my 2 sata drives.

 

[LocutusX]

Originally posted by: flawlssdistortn
Ok, I don't know why some of you have been recommending the Gigabyte K8NSNXP-939 board. Obviously you don't own one. Let me just say that this board was released in a state comparable to a premature baby with a cocaine addiction.

lol, funniest way to describe a mobo i've seen yet.