Getting an Athalon 64 3000. What Features Do I Want in a Motherboard?

[Mister Dark]

I should have said in a "cheap" motherboard, because I'm definitely going to have to get a low end board. But what are some common features I should make sure my MB has for use with the Athalon 64 3000. I have two sticks of 512 meg 3200 and 6800 video card, if that makes any difference ...

Any suggestions on features I should just insist on?

 

[joelslaw]

Am I the only one confused?

did you just start a new topic, or are you carrying this thought over from a different one? in either case please put a link to the other topic, or explain better, etc. No one can help you if we don't know what the heck you're talking about.

 

[Mister Dark]

No, you're not the only one. Now I'm confused too. What was it, exactly, that confused you about my question? I'll try to phrase it in a slightly different way that (hopefully) makes more sense ...
I'm getting a new CPU. An Athlon 64 3000. To go with my new CPU, I need a new motherboard, because my current one is not compatible with the CPU I have now. So I am asking for opinions as to what features I should look for in a new motherboard for my new Athlon 64 3000 CPU. And that's it - that's my question. In addition, because I don't have a whole lot of money to spend on a new motherboard, to go with my new CPU, I said that it should be low end model (I didn't mention that bit of information in my thread title, so I threw it in at the start of my post.)

Does that make more sense?

 

[joelslaw]

Ok, I think I understand. And I definately know why I was confused before: CPU refers only to the processor (your 64 3000+) CPU is not a term you can use to talk about everything inside your case. For instance you said: " I'm getting a new CPU ... To go with my new CPU" That is very confusing. Acceptable alternatives: I'm getting a new CPU to go with my new pc / system / rig / machine / computer / etc. See what I mean. (by the way, i'm not trying to sound condesending or anything. I'm just trying to help you see what I mean. I meant no offence, and hope none was taken)

anywho - now that I understand what you mean, it helps to know: 1 what parts you already have or plan on purchasing, 2 what you plan on doing with your new pc (gaming,video editing, etc), and 3 If you plan on overclocking.

List those things and i'm sure lots of ppl will have suggestions

 

[CALIKUSH]

It depends on what you need and what socket your new a64 chip is going to be. If you get a socket 754 athlon then their are plenty of cheap boards to pick from. These are the features you want. Gigabit-lan, firewire, sata, and onboard audio. The rest should be standard. If its a S754 chip you want then get a chaintech/epox nforce 3 250gb board (you can find them on newegg for under a bill) If you are getting a socket 939 chip ( don't be like me and get burned with s754 over a few pennies) then I suggest the SiS 755FX s939 motherboard. Anandtech just did a little writeup on it and it looks nice. It has all the features you would need in a s939 mobo, and it's going to be cheap. If you're not planning on overclocking then get that.

 

[justly]

Originally posted by: Mister Dark
I should have said in a "cheap" motherboard, because I'm definitely going to have to get a low end board. But what are some common features I should make sure my MB has for use with the Athalon 64 3000. I have two sticks of 512 meg 3200 and 6800 video card, if that makes any difference ...

Any suggestions on features I should just insist on?

If you are looking at a budget (cheap) motherboard you might want to ask what to avoid as much as what to look for.

Mainly I would suggest you avoid the nForce 3-150 chipset for starters there are much better chipsets and boards available. Gigabit-lan and firewire are not needed for most people (they are mostly marketing buzz words) unless you already know that you need them dont worry to much about these features. The nForce 3-250 is a popular chipset for overclockers but the cheap versions can be pretty stripped down in the feature department, so make sure you compare before you by, there might be a better board in the same price with a SiS or VIA chipset. Also if we are talking about a socket 754 board most come with 2 or 3 memory slots, only two can be used with AMDs "cool and quiet" due to the third slot requiring its own seperate clock generator (there may be a performance hit on some boards when useing 3 memory sticks also) so plan on no more than two sticks of memory if at all possible.

This was just off the top of my head but I hope it helps

 

[Mister Dark]

Thanks for the excellent answers!

 

[Mister Dark]

I'm going for a 754 and these are my basic choices:

Asus
K8V-X Athlon64 Socket 754/K8T800/SATA/RAID/GBE/ATX $95
K8V-SE Deluxe Socket 754 Athlon 64 K8T800 Marvell GBLAN $131

MSI
K8MM-ILSR Socket 754 Athlon 64/VIA/FSB 800/DDR400/V/A/L $89
7030-020 Socket 754 Athlon 64/S754/NFORCE3/FSB800/A&L/ATX $106

I'm mostly interested in gaming ... I may end up overclocking, but I'm a newbie and I think I'll be happy with the stock speed for awhile. I don't care about onboard audio because I have an Audigy sound card. My video card is a BFG 6800 OC. I have two sticks of 512 meg 3200 ram ...

Of those above, which motherboards would you recommend? Which might you avoid?

 

[joelslaw]

i have the k8v-se deluxe, and as far as features it's great. But if you plan on overclocking, look elsewhere. This board doesn't have locked agp and pci slots, so if you o/c you may end up cooking cards!

Yo, justly you sound like you've had some experience with SiS chipsets. I've heard some bad things about them, what's your opinion?

 

[WA261]

BE sure youget somethign with plenty of FSB and high Voltage settings. The DFI NF3-250 is ideal for A64's 734.

 

[justly]

Originally posted by: joelslaw
i have the k8v-se deluxe, and as far as features it's great. But if you plan on overclocking, look elsewhere. This board doesn't have locked agp and pci slots, so if you o/c you may end up cooking cards!

Yo, justly you sound like you've had some experience with SiS chipsets. I've heard some bad things about them, what's your opinion?

I haven't used the A64 SiS-755 chipset so I may not be in a position to answer any questions about them, but if you can tell me what bad things you have heard about SiS I can at least tell you if I have had or know of that problem existing on other SiS chipsets.

 

[CraigRT]

I would go with this.... $81 for a wicked board.

http://www.us.ncix.com/product...OLTEK&promoid=1051

 

[joelslaw]

not anything in particular, just general things, not as good for o/cing, generally worse compatability, and that they don't "bring as much to the table" as VIA an nVidia. so it's more like just a bad vibe I get from some of the passing comments people make. It's probably all just in my head

 

[ts3433]

I'd try either the Epox, Chaintech, or Soltek NF3 250 S754 mobos for value--pretty much whichever is cheapest at the time, unless you want a certain PCB color or I'm missing something on their feature sets. (I do not remember exact names off-hand, sorry.) For S939, there isn't anything under $100 at the moment, last I checked.

 

[joelslaw]

there is one 939 at newegg for exactly $100. It's an msi

 

[justly]

SiS motherboards usally are not great overclockers but that is more the fault of the motherboard manufactures than the chipset. Since SiS is usally used on budget boards they tend to have very limited BIOS options.

As for compatibility, I have one SiS based Athlon XP system that has a ATI AIW AGP card and 4 out of 5 PCI slots filled and have never had a problem. That doesn't mean SiS has no problems just that I haven't encountered any.

I have heard that their USB is either slow or a resource hog compared to nVidia (and mabe VIA, not sure about that) but again I have not noticed a problem.

If I used a lot of USB devices or ran cutting edge video cards maybe I would have a different opinion about SiS chipsets, but from my experiance SiS is right up there with the best of them (unless you are a hard core overclocker, even then the blame should go to the motherboard and not the SiS chipset).

I wouldn't doubt that people get the impression that SiS is not on par with VIA and nVidia, but I believe that is mostly due to all the emphasis that is placed on overclocking by enthusiast websites.

 

[Mister Dark]

thanks a lot everyone for all your responses!

I ended up with an MSI K8T Neo. I like it just fine - no problems so far. One thing I'm really impressed with about my new setup is how QUIET it is. The MB has a "Cool'n'Quiet" feature - dumb name but it sure seems to work. Or maybe the 64s are just much quieter than the XPs ...