I give up!

[Wipeout1944]

I have been wanting to build my gaming rig for about a month now, I am pretty firmly set on my processor being an AMD 1.4.
But my gawd....all the motherboard reviews have basicly made it impossible to choose!

What I want is what everyone wants- max gaming speed and stability, O/C with a 1.4 I think is not required at this point, maybe later when games get more demanding.
The chipset and board manuf. are the main issues, which chipset and motherboard are easiest to work with and fast ,and have the lesser of the evil crash tendancies?
I plan on running crucial DDR 2100
GeoForce3 (unknown what brand yet)
Antec case
SBLive-X Gamer sound card

I am interested in the EXPERTS opinion on what is the best chipset and M/B at the current moment, that may support upgrades later.

 

[Squibby]

All AMD mobos will be usefull for the next year or so. AMD has said they will use the same socket for their new CPUs.

The KT266A, which just came out, is currently the best chipset, but I don't know of any mobos that have it yet. If you want the best, wait for it. Otherwise, get a board with the AMD 761/ VIA 686B combo, like the Epox 8K7A+ or Abit KG7. Both are great...although it seems the citizens of this forum prefer the Epox. I personally have a KG7-Raid and love it.

Squibby

 

[danielshoes]

According to the latest Anandtech articles this week (have you read it?), KT266A is the best choice, followed by AMD761, both DDR solutions. For now, KT266A is not a viable option, because it was just announced and there are no mobos on the market for now. If you can wait... go for the KT266A, if no... go for the AMD761.

About mobos brandes, stay with the best, like ASUS, ABIT, MSI, IWILL, GIGABYTE, EPOX... but make sure to ever read the reviews. Sometimes a manufacturer makes a fantastic board and the next is not so fatastic...