Last piece of puzzle, which motherboard?

[Thooor]

My head is spinning reading all the forums trying to form an opinion. I am purchasing the following and looking for ideal motherboard. I don't plan to overclock, would rather keep the stability.

XP 1800
512 Mb DDR
GeF3 Ti200 64Mb
80 Gb 7200 Maxtor Drives ATA 133 (maybe dual 40s if I decide to RAID)

Which motherboard? Abit, Asus, Gigabyte

 

[glenn1]

If stability is goal #1, and you don't plan to overclock, then i'd go with the boards in this order:

1. Gigabyte
2. Asus
3. Abit

Some may argue that the Asus is on par with the Gigabyte board in terms of stability, but it's hard to argue with the fact when you compare the two company's KT266A boards, that the Gigabyte GA-7VTXE ($88) is pretty much half the price as the Asus A7V266E ($155), both are Newegg.com prices.

 

[Thooor]

Thanks for the help. Should I pass on the ATA 133 enabled board? Should I pass on RAID? I can't find a Giga board with RAID.

 

[minendo]

Gigabyte GA7DX-R is the raid board.

 

[Thooor]

Thanks, I was only looking at the VIA chipset boards for some reason. Is RAID the only advantage of AMD chipset? Are there any disadvantages?

Now I'm leaning towards the GA-7DXR+ (RAID and ATA133)

 

[tsnyder]

What is wrong with the Shuttle AK31? Soyo Dragon+? MSI?

Personally I think the Shuttle is phenomanal for how inexpensive it is. It's been rock solid under WindowsXP for me.

 

[Mavrick007]

Other chipset boards have raid on them as well, so I wouldn't say that raid is an advantage to the AMD chipset. That is what allows that board to have ATA133 as well, not the AMD chipset, but the Raid chip on the mobo is the newer Promise chip.

 

[Thooor]

Bump

 

[senior guy]

Thooor: As stability is your #1 goal, I would stay away from on-board RAID. RAID 0 reliabliliy is pretty bad, and it's performance benefit is not all that much. IMHO, you would be much better off getting a small (~9GB) drive (as IDE #0 Master) for OS + progs, and a larger drive (as IDE #1 Master) to store your files.

Since overclocking is not important to you, I agree with glenn1's #1 choice. However, instead of the Gigabyte GA-7VTXE you may want to consider the GA-7VTXH. The latter adds built-in Creative sound and Realtek LAN chips for just $10 - $15 more than the 'E'.

 

[Thooor]

Think I got this now. I'm going to go with the VTXH+ if I can find it. Otherwise VTXH. Anyone know where to find the VTXH+ ? ATA 133 would be a welcome addition.

 

[senior guy]

If ATA133 is the only enhancement on the new 'H+', it's not worth paying more or waiting for it. Unless you plan to use a hard drive greater than 128GB capacity, there is no realizable advantage to ATA133 (current HD's don't even come close to saturating ATA100)!

 

[Thooor]

Thanks, I going to order everything tonight except the hard drives, waiting for OM rebates next week!

Final Config:
Giga GA-7VTXH
512 DDR
GeF3 Ti200
XP 1900+
WD 80, 20 Gb 7200 drives

Thanks everyone