Good mobo / vid / sound combos.

[BigNeko]

I have seen the problem children, now I`d like to see the combos that work rock solid. Any combos welcome, but I am particularly interested in getting the GA-7VXRP (raid) rev 2 mobo, probably put a 1600XP on it, but do NOT want to spend $200 to $300+ on video card that has problems with the board. Had this problem with sound cards.
ANy OS okay, have different Wins and RedHat 7.3.

Let`s hear about the combos that work!

Thanks.

 

[Insane3D]

Epox 8K5A2+ - $100
1600+ @ 166mhz FSB (1.75ghz) - $55
512mb Samsung PC2700 - $125
128mb Radeon 8500LE - ~$100

$380 for one hell of a "bang for the buck" upgrade.

If you want to avoid problems, you might want to avoid the Gigasuck 7VRXP....

 

[Klosters]

Two budget all-in-one mainboards come to mind. The Asus A7S-VM and the Asus A7N266-VM.

A7S-VM Good points:Works fine with no PCI or AGP cards installed. Bad points: No AGP slot, bad Memory Bandwidth.

A7N266-VM Good points: Built-in GF2 MX(and an AGP slot for your choice of Vidcards), Codec 97 sound(Dolby 5.1 if you're lucky) and LAN card. Fast as a KT-266A, hosts Durons, Thunderbirds and Palomino's through XP 2000+. Bios update will add up to XP 2200. XP 2400+ and 2600+ compatiblility remain an unknown, at least to me. A little soldering iron or X-Acto/Defroster grid repair kit work makes the board overclockable. But it lacks the OC features of an Abit.
Bad points: Read one post by a person saying he couldn't get the built-in GF2 MX to work.

The A7N266-VM is $80, shipped, from newegg. The A7S-VM is now difficult to find.