best nforce2 IGP from new egg?

[Schadenfroh]

which nforce2 400 IGP would you reccomend from newegg for my mom. I am building a rig for her and the most graphic intensive game she will be playing is Sim City Classic (the one that came on a single 3 1/2" floppy). So, the IGP will be just fine. i already have a Athlon XP and 2 256mb sticks of crucial pc2100. i would like one barton compatable for future upgrade path. Me and my dad just had a very bad experiance from biostar and i would prefer not going for them. budjet is $90 or less (shipped)

 

[Vette73]

If she is not playing hard core FPS games and the sort then get a KM400 board instead. Will save money and the better ones have ture SATA ports.

I like the Biostar M7VIZ . Has the 8237 southbridge and C-Media sound. There is supposed to be a KM400a boad out there but I cant find it


If you just have your heart set on a nForce2 IGP board I like the shuttle MN31N . It has the MCP-T southbridge so you get soundstorm sound and Firewire.

 

[o1die]

Newegg has the asus a7n8x-km400 for $90 shipped. It has dual display. You might also check out the abit va-10 for only $60 at newegg. It might be all she needs.

 

[Elcs]

Im not sure on prices but possibly the NF7-M. Im sure that it will be good... as the other NF7 boards have proved to be performers and stable.

 

[Schadenfroh]

im not screwing with VIA, i dont want 4 in 1 drivers, i have seen some that my friends have had and i dont want to go thru their suffering

btw, no need for SATA, quality sound, firewire, or many usb ports

but do need 400mhz fsb

 

[mechBgon]

I got the Shuttle MN31N for my mom's new system. I threw in a leftover 1GHz Duron and a couple of Crucial PC2100 modules for now, and it runs Half-Life Platinum Edition great. The MN31N's BIOS is more tweakable than the Asus micros, if that matters at all.

If you don't even need USB 2.0 or 333MHz FSB support, you can't go wrong with the Asus A7N266-VM/AA. Passively-cooled northbridge, takes all 266MHz-bus AthlonXPs, stable as heck, under $60, 3-year warranty, and has the MCP-D southbridge with two flavors of S/PDIF-out (laser & coax) in case you ever want to hitch it up to a home theater system. The onboard video is certainly a step down from nF2 IGP but still, I've played UT2003 Demo on one... and you can ask Engineer whether it constituted a handicap to me or not, LOL... :evil: You can also get a plug-in accessory card from Newegg for about $25 that gives the onboard GF2MX a DVI-out, which I think makes it dual-head.

We now have 36 A7N266-VM/AA's at work and they are great. I didn't pick it for Mom because I did want USB 2.0, Firewire and the better IGP of nF2.

 

[Bonesdad]

Shuttle MN31N is a good board. I picked up an Abit NF7-M for my wife's machine (most intense game she plays is Scrabble v2). Got it at Newegg refurb for $59! Works like a charm. Can't go wrong with either of these. You might keep your eyes peeled for a refurb from Newegg too...