Looking for advise in a board that is fully intergrated for a cheap system

[777joee]

Looking for some input for a stable board to build a cheap system to send off to my in-laws.

Thanks in advance

 

[Jennifer66]

What type of cpu is it going to be for?

 

[birddog]

get yourself an i810e based board. Onboard video (i740) and sound. THese have no AGP slots, so you never will be able to put a real good video card in them.

Check out Justdeals.com for some inexpensive 810 based boards. They hhave an Abit WP6 810 board for $50 and a Tyan Tomcat 810 board for $60 (not sure of their shipping prices).

My 'burner box' has a MSI 810 board in it (running a celeron 300a at 450mhz, board will also take PII's and PIII's) and does fine for running the burner, word processing, and internet surfing.

 

[ddeder]

Check out the Biostar M7VKL KL133 with onboard video and audio for $79. You can buy your entire system at TCWO.com and pay only $7 for shipping (up to 150 lbs).

 

[aberant]

whatever you do, go nowhere near PC Chips boards - i've had experience with 7 of there motherboards (all different models), and every time i've had to swap it out for something decent. If it's a socket 7, VIA MVP3, otherwise i would go with i815e definately.

 

[Peter]

If it has to be cheap, stay away from Intel chipsets - these are expensive enough to drive mainboard cost up.

Use something made from SiS 630/730 for Celeron/Duron - these all-in-one single-chip monsters have almost everything a system needs - VGA, sound, modem riser support, LAN, and six USB ports.

Unlike the previous poster, I've had good experience with PC-Chips gear. Their M810LMR SiS 730S board sells like hotcakes, and people are generally happy with it. One word of caution, PC-Chips don't do end user business, hence no end user support beyond BIOS updates either. You got to know what you're doing to use their boards successfully.

regards, Peter

 

[TomBilliodeaux]

I agree with Birddog,
I just bought 2 mobo for $39 each, Chaintech 6 OIV2 (see Anandtech users comments) 5PCI, 815e Intel with onboard video and audio.
Prices are wayyyyy down now because Intel is expected to make a major release this fall and are trying to dump P3 and P4 stuff.

I personally use an ABIT SE6 for the integrated audio and video, as I am not a gammer.
You should be able to build a system with a p3, 256mb, monitor, cdrw; for $500.