Help choosing Motherboard

[mattmill]

This is what I originally thought about.

*DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard
*AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice
*GIGABYTE GV-RX70P256V Radeon X700PRO 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card
*OCZ Gold Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)
*Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA NCQ ST3160827AS 160GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
*NEC Silver IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A
*SAMSUNG Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Windows 98SE/ ME/ 2000/ XP - OEM
*Antec Performance I P-160WF Silver 1.2mm Anodized Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
*Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-500 ATX12V 500W Power Supply
*Logitech Cordless Desktop LX700
*WinXP Home w/SP2

But after reading a lot on www.dfi-street.com I am starting to second guess my choice. My second option is the MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX. This is going to be more of a Photoshop than Gaming machine so I am not looking to OC right now. I really want a stable system out of the box that will grow with me over the next few years. The budget is about $1200 without a monitor.

Thanks,
matt

 

[The Pentium Guy]

err - MSI might be VERY problematic. If you want a stable system (without tweaking, etc) look at the ASUS A8N-E.

 

[Jeff H]

mattmill, check out Wesley's recent review of seven nForce 4 Ultra boards.

 

[Kaifu]

Thanks for pointing that link out, Jeff! It helps to have pointers like that for those of us who are just casual users of Anandtech's forums - those who come here for advice but aren't savvy enough for in-depth discussions

The Epox 9NPA+ looks like a pretty nice board. I'm piecing a budget gamer box bit by bit and that mobo seems to be a fairly reliable one.

 

[Jeff H]

FWIW I just set up a 9NPA+ Ultra board, and it went w/o a hitch. As far as I can tell, the only two negatives on the board are the power connection locations, and the lack of upper voltage settings for the RAM. Other than that, it holds its own against any other nForce4 Ultra board.

This is my fourth EPoX board and each one (4SDA+, 4PEA+, 4PDA2+) has been a solid performer.

 

[mattmill]

Thanks for the link. I will go over it this weekend and see what future questions I will have after reading it.

matt

 

[Kaifu]

Originally posted by: Jeff H
FWIW I just set up a 9NPA+ Ultra board, and it went w/o a hitch. As far as I can tell, the only two negatives on the board are the power connection locations, and the lack of upper voltages settings for the RAM.

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I dobut I'll overclock. I liked the comment about the 9NPA+ being an overall more stable performer at base performance.

Noob question here... of what significance is it that the board lacks "upper voltage settings for the RAM?" Is that a compatability concern or more for overclocking?

 

[imported_Husky55]

[

Noob question here... of what significance is it that the board lacks "upper voltage settings for the RAM?" Is that a compatability concern or more for overclocking?
[/quote]

Some MB like DFI allow higher DIMMVoltage to overclock memories like some types of OCZ which require higher voltage.

I second Jeff's recommendation. My Epox is real stable and overclock well. The NB HSF is bigger than others on MSI or ASUS or DFI.

 

[imported_Kensai]

MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum is the only way to go for standard users and mild overclocking.

 

[imported_Husky55]

Originally posted by: Kensai
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum is the only way to go for standard users and mild overclocking.

Did the new bios fix the Venice overclock problems?

 

[mattmill]

Originally posted by: Husky55

Originally posted by: Kensai
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum is the only way to go for standard users and mild overclocking.

Did the new bios fix the Venice overclock problems?

Which bios are you talking about?

matt