Looking for 939 MB with lots of room

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
22,939
1,134
126
I want to upgrade my k7 system. I have a 9800 Pro, which is fine for me. so I'm not really looking to go the PCI-E route unless I have to. So NForce3 250 would probably be the best chipset. Performance wise, a x700 PCI-E should be about on par with my 9800 Pro? If I end up going PCI-E, so I can upgrade down the road. I'd be fine with a video card that didn't cost a bundle, but gave me decent performance.

Most important thing I'm looking for, a clean layout, with lots of room. I have a Thermaltake Beetle heatsink, to say this suckers big would be an understatement. I'd like to not have to cram it on a new MB, and have it block memory, or AGP/PCI-E slots. I have Corsair XMS Pro memory, and the big headspeaders on the chips are enough to get in the way of my heatsink with the few MB's I've tried out (k7 ones) was frustrating.

Onboard sound isn't important. I don't need dual lan, I could care less if it has Par/Serial ports. I do plan to possibly OC some, but nothing extreme. As far as PCI slots, I don't need alot, I use one now (Audigy)

I read reviews of the DFI Lanparty NF4 board, love the features, the layout looks a bit weak though.

The Abit Fatal1ty is another I'm looking at. pretty sweet layout, damn pricey. Don't care much for the red PCB either.

I was on Newegg and scrolled threw their K8 offerings, just too damn many choices. From past experinces I have problems with Gigabit & MSI. I don't have to have Nvidia chipset. Layout wise, is the Fatal1ty about as good as I'll find?
 

Doctorweir

Golden Member
Sep 20, 2000
1,689
0
0
You could e.g. go with the Asus A8N SLI (non-deluxe...) or the A8N-E (non-SLI)...
Decent boards, full upgrade path, but the requirement to change to PCIe graphics :)
To check the board layout with Corsair XMS, see my SigPic...plenty of room... ;)