Budget AM2 board

[Gautama2]

Whats a good AM2 board with either nforce4 or 5, $80-$100, and has good overclocking abilities. Doesnt have to be passively cooled.

Thanky

 

[Captante]

I'd say the MSI K9N Platinum 570 Ultra is the best of a semi-shaky bunch at the moment, it really seems like all the big companys attention is being focused on Conroe and/or the very high end AM2 mb's. (ie: +/- $200 range)

If you want another suggestion, I'd say the Epox MF4 Ultra NForce 4 is a pretty solid choice @ $90 or you could also try the DFI Infinity NForce 4 which seems decent & is really cheap @ $88 ... Just stay away from the Asus M2N-E 570 Ultra which looks like a great choice on paper but is a total lemon of a design.

 

[alex123]

Do not know much about NF4 boards, however here are some opinions about NF 550 and NF 570 Ultra boards (NF 570 SLI or NF 590 are out of your budget, they are $130 USD+ I guess)

Only NF 550 and NF 570 Ultra (no SLI) boards:

- GOOD - Biostar board based on Nvidea 550 chipset - people say it is not a bad overcloker for the money (2.8GHz x2 3800 if I remember correct). I wish it was available in stock here in Canada!!!

- BAD - MSI K9N Ultra - the one based on NVidea 570 Ultra (no SLI) - it has some problems like it suddenly shutdowns when you use your network card. There is a big thread on MSI's forums about that issue. MSI says that if your board has board version "MS-7250 VER 2.x" (between PCI slots) then it should be RMA'ed.... So be careful here... Yeah, and if it is different board VER, then it looks OK

- ??? - MSI K9N Neo-F - NF 550 chipset.. Hmmm I am not sure, maybe it has the same issue as MSI K9N Ultra board

it is remarkable that higher 570 SLI + boards from MSI appear to not have this issue with shutdowns

- BAD? - Asus M2N-E - this has a sticky thread here at Anandtech, and this is the one that I am testing right now with X2 3800 CPU... What should I say.... I cannot get it higher than 2.3 GHz which is really bad, however, some people have managed to run it at 2.7 GHz with VDIMM mods. Also this board is picky for memory (no OCZ memory!!!!) Memory should be running at 1.8V. Bottom line, I will be trying to exchange this board for something else.



... there are some GeForce 6150 and 6100 boards I am currently considering instead of M2N-E... Heh, any board could do 2.3 GHz... (well I guess I am not that savvy with OCing either)

 

[customcoms]

Epox also has some boards that look good. From what I have read, at this price range the DFI Infinity nForce4 AM2 baord is your best bet.

 

[Gautama2]

Is their much of a noticeable difference between nf4 and 5?

 

[Zap]

I've now had the chance to play around with two socket AM2 motherboards.

Biostar Tforce 550 AM2
GOOD: Will hit 280MHz HTT
has all worthy settings in BIOS
cheap
lots of PCI slots
BAD: won't POST over 280MHz HTT
some incompatibilities with RAM

Biostar Tforce6100 AM2
GOOD: Will POST up to 335MHz HTT, maybe stable at around 330MHz HTT
even cheaper
mATX
BAD: some incompatibilities with RAM
chipset runs hot because passively cooled

I'm selling my 550 and getting another 6100.

 

[Zap]

DOH!

 

[alex123]

Originally posted by: Zap
I've now had the chance to play around with two socket AM2 motherboards.

Biostar Tforce 550 AM2
GOOD: Will hit 280MHz HTT
has all worthy settings in BIOS
cheap
lots of PCI slots
BAD: won't POST over 280MHz HTT
some incompatibilities with RAM

Biostar Tforce6100 AM2
GOOD: Will POST up to 335MHz HTT, maybe stable at around 330MHz HTT
even cheaper
mATX
BAD: some incompatibilities with RAM
chipset runs hot because passively cooled

I'm selling my 550 and getting another 6100.

Any opinions on Foxconn 6100 board?

It could be similar to Biostar. It also looks to be more available than Biostar

 

[alex123]

Originally posted by: Gautama2
Is their much of a noticeable difference between nf4 and 5?

As I have learned from Anandtech article about NF5 chipset, in NF5 they have fixed some bugs with "nvidea firewall" and "fast link" or whatever they call that network card TCP/IP hardware acceleration (uses a bit less of main CPU when sending IP pockets).

 

[Captante]

Originally posted by: alex123
BAD - MSI K9N Ultra - the one based on Nvidia 570 Ultra (no SLI) - it has some problems like it suddenly shutdowns when you use your network card. There is a big thread on MSI's forums about that issue. MSI says that if your board has board version "MS-7250 VER 2.x" (between PCI slots) then it should be RMA'ed.... So be careful here... Yeah, and if it is different board VER, then it looks OK

I just finished building a system for a friend of mine using the MSI K9N Platinum (570 Ultra) & although it did seem a little immature in the BIOS/oc'ing department, it was 100% stable using a 4200+, 2gb's Corsair XMS & X1900XT, certainly worlds better then the Asus M2N-E that I tried first (& rma'ed) ... no rebooting issues whatsoever for me, maybe I just got lucky though!

One thing thats a good bet concerning the NForce 4 vs the 500 seris boards is that they are likely to be much more mature solutions with most of the kinks worked out, so maybe the DFI Infinity is actually your best bet right now.

 

[alex123]

Captane,

just out of curiosity, could you take a look what PCB version is your MSI K9N Platinum? They said it is printed in between PCI slots. It should say something like "MS-7250 VER 2.x". People who had "... VER 1.x" board were not affected by "shutdowns" issue. I just wonder what PCB version is yours?

 

[Captante]

Its actually version 1 as far as I can recall (Built it for a friend, so I can't easily look)

Edit: Just built a system myself last week based on the Asus Crosshair 590 SLI & so far its running great, however the price is way over the top @ $249... if it comes down to $175 or so it would be a great choice.

 

[IndieSnob]

I myself built two systems around the ASUS M2NPV-VM. I bought two dual core XP3800+'s and two 2 gig Patriot Mem Kits (DDR2-667).

One board did fine with the processor and memory, however the second board hated both sets of memory. I ended up swapping the memory back at Fry's, and still no luck. I then ordered a pair of the Patriot from Newegg, and still had problems (keep in mind that the memory from Newegg tested bad in both boards). I then ordered a pair of Mushkin in hopes of getting it to work, and of course it didn't. I returned the board back to Fry's and swapped it for another Asus M2NPV-VM. I tested it there, and BIOS didn't lockup, so I assumed I was safe to leave.

I got home with the new Asus board just to get millions of BSOD's with the Mushkin memory, and it wouldn't boot in dual-channel mode with the Mushkin. Finally, I took the board back to Frys again and swapped it for the MSI K9N SLI Platinum board. I had problems with the Mushkin memory in it at first, but setting the ram voltage to 1.9, and updating to the newest bios, and the thing was rock solid. I've burned it in with Memtest and all that, and so far no issues.

Yeah, so I guess this is just the long way of telling you to avoid that Asus like the plague, as it has severe issues with mem compatability, and the newest bios release only made it worse.

 

[Gautama2]

So the DFI Infinity only supports DDR2 667? I was hoping to use DDR2 800...

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: alex123
Any opinions on Foxconn 6100 board?

I haven't used that particular board, but have used other Foxconn boards (mostly Intel chipset socket 478 BITD). From what I remember they were great values and solid boards, but were not "enthusiast" in that they didn't support much overclocking. Perhaps someone else has more recent experience than I and can give you the 411 on the newer models.

 

[Captante]

Originally posted by: Gautama2
So the DFI Infinity only supports DDR2 667? I was hoping to use DDR2 800...

It took a little poking around to find it, but according to DFI's website you can use up to DDR2-1066 with all 3 of the Infinity seris boards... I'm not sure why the specs only list 533 & 667 on the main product page. Also be advised that although it looks like these boards don't support X2 A64's, they all do according to the CPU compatability page.

 

[Gautama2]

DRR2 1066 support on a 90 dollar board, thats kinda odd isnt it?

 

[Captante]

Originally posted by: Gautama2
DRR2 1066 support on a 90 dollar board, thats kinda odd isnt it?

Take a look for yourself... my bet is it posts at 667mhz, but 1066mhz (& maybe higher) should be available by overclocking

http://us.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_product...TEGORY_TYPE=LP&SITE=US&PRODUCT_ID=4755