I recommed Abit IT7 MAx2 Rev2-845PE

[nealh]

IT7 Max2 Rev2:
845PE chipset
with legacy ports for keyboard and mouse
10 usb2 ports
2 IEEE 1394/firewire ports
onboard snd(ok)
Onboard LAN
HPT 374 raid/ata/serila ata
even came with one serial ata/parallel adapter
Board layout is very nice...floppy connector on mobo is up high so less cabling problems

Only bad thing is 4pci slots not 5 or 6 but no need for NIC or IEEE fw
HPT 374, lan and some of usb are on irq with no pci slot overlap
Also has a 4:5 and pretty sure3:4 memory ratios

P2.4@3.0ghz at 1.65 in bios actual is 1.63 load drops to 1.60v...
IT7Max2 Rev2..undervolts
Crucial PC2100 DDR 2x 256 at 2.7v at cas2.5/3/3/6..run memtest 86 default 7 tests for 2 loops no issues but need to do it longer as the extra tests stress the memory for hrs
Radeon 9700
3HDD 80gb 7200rpm DX740 Maxtor on serial ATA via adapter..master
80 gb WD 7200 rpmSE master
120gb Maxtor 5400 rpm master....all 3 HDD are on HPT 374 controller
LTD 16x DVD
Liteon 52246S
Aureal Vortex 2 works in winxp....snds very nice
SCSI adaptec 2906 for my scanner
Onboard realtek NIC
Onboard IEEE 1394
USB2
5 fans..3 sunon at full speed, 2 antec on fan control by PS
Antec True Power 480 w
WinXP

I highly recommend this mobo...zero cold boot problems so far after a week
Very easy seup and very stable so far..though it seems to read temps higher
I had a KR7A raid in same case Antec SX830 with 5 fans..it was overclocked at 147 fsb and case temps were from 8-10C cooler vs IT7 Max2 rev2

The onboard sound is ok...but I love my Vortex 2 and it worked with NOLF2 and in winxp

 

[CraigRT]

Sweet, thinking about considering an Abit board sometime..
been looking really sweet lately.

I *ALMOST* ordered an NF7-S but decided on the 8RDA+ instead.. hope it was the right move... (sure it will be!)

congrats on your nice rig though, looks uBer sweet!

 

[nealh]

thanks Craig