Looking for Socket 754 (A64) board under $90

[kfranc9]

I'm looking to build a server (home lab) for technical training. It will run some pretty intensive applications/OSs on my A64 2800+.

I'm looking at newegg and I see several motherboards for pretty good prices. But I also noticed CHAINTECH's "VNF3-250" nForce3 250 motherboard. It doesn't have as many votes, but I assume its because its fairly new. What do you guys suggest for a socket 754 mobo under $90?

 

[Bar81]

ASRock K8S8X There is nothing else that comes close.

 

[nick1985]

get that chaintech board you mentioned. it got a great review from anandtech, and from my personal experience i can tell you that it is a great board.

 

[John]

Spend another $9 and get the Epox 250Gb from Newegg

 

[CraigRT]

I'd go with the Asrock as well, for that price

 

[sisooktom]

The ASRock R0x0r5

 

[kfranc9]

what makes the ASRock K8S8X so special? I notice it has 1 less DIMM slot than the VNF3-250...

 

[Bar81]

It's got the best performance and stability. That generally qualifies a motherboard for "special" status Yes, it has one less DIMM, but if you use the three DIMMS in the VNF3-250 you'll be limited to DDR333 speeds and there may be other issues such as stability (as far as I know no one has wasted 3 DIMMs on the VNF3-250 *yet* so I couldn't say one way or another)

 

[kfranc9]

bump..anyone have any opinions?

VNF3-250 vs ASRock K8S8X ?

 

[Bar81]

I give up. You obviously have an aversion to the truth. Just get the Chaintech and be done with it; your loss.

 

[Vette73]

Well do you plan on running a giga ethernet system or just a 10/100?

If 10/100 then the Asrock or Chaintech will both do just fine.

If giga then get a Nforce3 250gb chipset board. That has a TRUE non-pci ethernet card with hardware firewall. The cheapest 250gb chip board is the EPoX EP-8KDA3J



So those are the 3 boards that need your looking at. Giga = 1 cheap choice and 10/100 = 2 good cheap boards.

 

[kfranc9]

thanks alot marlin, i am trying to setup a gigabit LAN eventually. My dorm has Cat 6 and gigabit switches...i minus as well be scalable and not limit my connection. All the PCs will have integrated gigabit NICs.

does the performance of the EPoX compare to the other 2?