Help selecting an Athlon motherboard

[pixel9]

Man, I have been out of the PC world a bit too long. So much has changed since my dual overclocked celeron PC. =)

Time for an upgrade, but I have no idea what is out on the market now. I'm definitely going with an Athlon processor, 1.4GHz if I can get a good deal. However, I'm having trouble finding a motherboard with some specific requirements:
- 64bit PCI slot(s)
- total of 6 PCI slots (including any 64bit slots)
- AGP 4x
- DDR memory support
- stable! (I will be using this system mainly for graphics design)

I don't really care about the onboard IDE. I'm not sure if there may be specific hardware conflicts with my current components, so I'll list them as well:
- 3C905B NIC
- Adaptec 39160 dual channel SCSI adapter (this is what the 64bit PCI is for)
- Asus Geforce card (I may upgrade this as well)
- Sound Blaster Live

I know the Athlon MP is coming soon, but I've ruled out a dual processor solution for various reasons, the main reason being cost.

Any suggestions/help is greatly appreciated!!

Thanks in advance!
Yusuke

 

[kmmatney]

I've have never come across an Athlon motherboard with 64-bit PCI slots. I am not sure there are any boards like this out there, except for the upcoming Dual Tyan board. With the advent of the Athlon MP there will probably be boards with 64-bit PCI slots in the future...

 

[Dundain]

Your not going to find any Athlon motherboards that have 64bit PCI slots unless you look at the new 760MP chipset from AMD. And I dont think any board out (theres only the Tyan dual motherboard, and its wickedly expensive) has those slots, and most likely no single processer board will have it

 

[danii8]

Hmm, 64bit PCI slot...
I never seen any mobo with 64bit PCI slot in single-socket-mobo area.
I guess there are none.

If you don't have many SCSI device, just forget about 64 bit slot.
Adaptec 39160 dual channel SCSI adapter is okay with 32 bit PCI slot.

or you can sell your 39160 and get tyan dual mp board(built in SCSI already)

 

[DavLucMac]

sure... all those options are good... by why not a board with onboard scsi... there are a few of those out there... I have one. the MSI K7t master. I'm sure you can find one for DDR.

davlucmac

 

[pixel9]

The Tyan thunder looks really appealing... but what to do with my SCSI card?

I guess I'm just gonna wait a few months and see what other dual processor motherboards come out.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Snowe]

Hmm, If you're willing to go for a Socket A instead of a slot A type Athlon Thunderbird I can say that the ASUS A7V series is excellent. There are two revisions on the shelf though, if you want to do any fiddling with the clocks you have to pay attention to that. Checkout the guide on tomshardware.com if you're interested.

Otherwise it doesn't matter whcih revision you get, just upgrade your bios and install the correct drivers and it's a sweet board ^_^

 

[pixel9]

What's the difference between the ALi and the VIA chipsets?? I'm looking for a motherboard with DDR memory support, but I can't seem to find a VIA-based motherboard with this feature. I'm hoping that the DDR memory will help with 3D graphics. Is this a logical assumption?

All these different chipsets, memory, etc that are available now are really starting to confuse the hell out of me...

Also, on Anand's CPU/Video price guide, there's a (266) next to the 1.4GHz athlon. Some of the other ones have (200) next to them. What spec am I looking for in a motherboard to match this? or more importantly, what is the number? all the different numbers are getting confusing: 133, 200, 266... do they all refer to the bus speed?

 

[Raspewtin]

<< What's the difference between the ALi and the VIA chipsets?? I'm looking for a motherboard with DDR memory support, but I can't seem to find a VIA-based motherboard with this feature. I'm hoping that the DDR memory will help with 3D graphics. Is this a logical assumption? >>




i am no expert, but i would go with the 760 chipset DDR boards. unfortunately they use a Via southbridge. i heard ddr memory will increase performance 10-20% (?) somewhwere in there . if you are not time sensitive, there are more ddr chipsets coming out by Sis and Nvidia (which is what i am waiting for) there is also the mp side, i think some cheaper mp boards are coming out soon (besides the tyan) but i can't remember whose. i think the nforce chipset is worth waiting for the (1) performance (2) unified good driver support (2) audio features

 

[bevo]

<< What's the difference between the ALi and the VIA chipsets?? >>

Ali chipset sucks...