Help me pick a motherboard

[Havlock]

Given the following feature requests, what motherboard would you recommend as the best value?

(These are not numbered in order of desirability)
Required features:

1. Support for Athlon 64 X2 3800+ or 4200+
2. Max. memory capacity of at least 2GB
3. Can use PC3200 memory
4. ATX form factor
5. At least one 100Mbit min. Ethernet port
6. At least one serial port (either on-board or attached to MB by cable)
7. PS/2 keyboard connection
8. At least 2 external USB2.0 ports
9. On-board audio
10. At least one SATA header
11. At least one PATA header
12. At least one internal USB2.0 header
13. At least one PCIe x16 slot
14. At least one PCI slot

Features I'd like to have, but can live without:

1. At least one IEEE1394 port
2. Backup/dual BIOS (in case of flash/other BIOS failure)
3. On-board SATA RAID 1 support
4. Jumperless/minimal jumper design
5. Fanless chipset cooling
6. SATA II

Features that I'm indifferent over:

1. SLI support
2. Extra options for overclocking

Feel free to point out any more features that I've overlooked in this list and why they're important and I'll add them.

 

[darXoul]

Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 Ultra and Asus A8R-MVP are two good options - inexpensive, feature-loaded, passively cooled and fast.

 

[Havlock]

Originally posted by: darXoul
Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 Ultra and Asus A8R-MVP are two good options - inexpensive, feature-loaded, passively cooled and fast.

Are you sure about that Gigabyte board's name? I can't find exactly what you listed here, but I can find a GA-K8NF-9 and a GA-K8NF9 Ultra. Which one is it?

EDIT: Moot point anyway since I can't find the Ultra for sale. Is the GA-K8NF-9 a later version of the GA-K8NF9 Ultra?

 

[potato28]

The Ultra has more features on the board(more SATA ports).

 

[Havlock]

I've settled on a motherboard, the Asus A8N32-SLI. It's probably way beyond what I'm ever going to use it for, but after adding up the price of the other components I'm looking at, I had more than enough left over to pay for it and still fall well within my budget. And if I ever decide to upgrade, I'll have a better chance with this board than most.