In search of a S754/PCI-E board

[Farmer]

I've tried to sustain my AGP motherboard for a bit longer with an X1950PRO, but due to some misfortune, the card does not work with my current setup. This is, of course, pending a PSU replacement coming this Saturday, but from people who have done it already, it does not seem to solve the problem.

Hence, I will RMA the card, at which point Newegg will give me store credit for the $240 I spent (they no longer carry that card). I am willing to throw in another $75-100 for a motherboard, and use the store credit to buy a PCI-E X1950XT or PCI-E X1950PRO.

Essentially, I am looking for a socket 754 motherboard with 1 x16 PCI-E slot.

Now, I know my choices are extremely limited, and essentially I have to choose between the nForce 4X (crippleware nForce 4 Ultra) or Geforce 6100, and here are two specific examples:

Gigabyte GA-K8NE (nForce 4X)

Biostar mATX 6100 (Geforce 6100)

Biostar also makes an nF4X, and Gigabyte a 6100. The other manufacturers to choose from seem to be DFI, ECS and EPoX (and Abit, but they aren't who they used to be).

Does anyone have any particular suggestions?

 

[Peter]

ECS have the NForce4-A754. Three PCI, one PCIE x16, two PCIE x1, Gbit Ethernet. I have used it in a handful of builds, with no complaints, even with weak 20-pin power supplies (using a Sempron and a midrange graphics card of course).

Besides, there are ATI, SiS and VIA chipset boards out there as well. Plenty more choices than you thought - check out the search engine at Newegg for example.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi...egory=22&description=&Ntk=&srchInDesc=

 

[Farmer]

Thanks Peter.

I would like to avoid the SiS chipset, while I don't know much about the ATI chipset.

Seems like the 6100 and X200 are similar, however the problem is the tall Northbridge heatsink on both of these chipsets; I run a rather large CPU heatsink (an XP-120), and I doubt it will fit properly with that type of Northbridge heatsink.

 

[f4phantom2500]

last year my friend built a new rig with a64 3000 s754, 7600gt and a dfi nf4 4x mobo (cheapest a64 he could get his hands on), he likes it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136162

that looks like it; from what i remember it overclocks pretty well for him, and has 3 ddr slots (not 4 but better than 2), and does raid and jbod; i'd suggest that board.

 

[Peter]

The SiS chipset is a solid offering - in particular, its heat output is extremely low, without compromising the performance. USB and storage controllers even are a hair faster than anyone else's.

ATI southbridges prior to the SB600 have slow USB. Not recommended. If you find an ATI northbridge combined with an SB600 or an ULi south, then that's fine.

So if you can do with a microATX board, the ECS 761 board is worth considering too.

You won't find any more CPU heatsink clearance than on the ECS NF4 board, though.