Looking for stable A64 mobo

[kcbass]

Ok....

I'm looking for a board for an A64 3200+ 90nm 939 CPU. I can't go PCI-E. I need at least 8 usb ports, so there's no problem with any of the boards i'm looking at. I'm currently running an ATI AIW Radeon 8500 DV vid card, which I believe is an AGP4x card. I plan to go 8x, but that probably won't be for about a year, so I need one that's 4x compatible for the time being. I plan to try the pc3200 memory I have now and hope it works. If not, I'll have to buy some compatible RAM. I plan to eventually plug in a zalman heatsink, so I need mounting holes. I would prefer dual ethernet and 4 SATA connections, but I'm flexible with those two specs. I just want solid chipsets for north/south bridge, and for SATA. I'm tired of shoddy chips. Anyway, here are the options I've narrowed it down to:

ABIT AV8
ABIT AV8 3rd Eye (I think these two boards are the same...just this one has GURU included)
ASUS A8V Deluxe
GIGA-BYTE GA-K8Ns Ultra
MSI K8N NEO2 Platinum

I would appreciate pros/cons of any/all boards. I want as much info on stability and instability.

Thanks all.

 

[Thurgo0dy]

The AV8 and av8 third eye both have the Guru technology. The third eye includes an external monitor displaying temps and other things. I would get the MSI neo2 plat.

 

[keeleysam]

Get the MSI. It's the 0wnage.

 

[kcbass]

The reviews on newegg are mostly positive for the MSI, but the few negatives have me a little hesitant...Is there anything to the stability of the Nforce3 chipset and the complaint about the ethernet performance near the bottom of the page?

 

[OfficeLinebacker]

MSI!

 

[kcbass]

not quite the technical advice i was loking for, but....guess tha's another vote for MSI...

 

[kcbass]

bump 

 

[mdchesne]

M S I

M S I

woot woot woot

M S I

 

[kcbass]

One thing I just noticed...I plan to put a zalman on this chip eventually. I'm gonna buy the retail chip and use the provided cooler for now, but I will upgrade eventually. I've noticed that the neo2 platinum is incompatible with the 7700 cooler, but not the 7000. Will this present a problem? 

 

[The Pentium Guy]

If you're looking for perforamnce/stability at stock speeds, the Soltek is the best performer.

The ASUS A8V is good too, but the MSI is the best when it comes to overclocking

 

[n yusef]

If you aren't overclocking, then this is the best board for you: Link
It offers great stock performance, and has integrated graphics ~ a 9600SE (with DVI onboard). If you ever feel the urge to get a better graphics card, you can upgrade to a discrete PCI-Express solution, but since you were content with your 8500, I don't think this matters much to you.
If you do want to overclock however, I would suggest the MSI Neo2 Platinum. The problem with this is that it's more expensive than the RS480M2-IL, and lacks the integrated graphics solution that is better that your current card (and also the optional upgrade to a good PCIe card in the future). Link

 

[GadgetBuilder]

Before you buy a card which uses an NF3 or NF4 chip, visit the nVidia mobo forums and decide whether you can deal with the problems described there - nVidia doesn't seem to be making much of an effort to correct them so they will likely continue for a while:

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?s=f3...ead353326152f9b12af806c46&showforum=34

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the problems described is that they seem to differ between systems in a random fashion. One user was happy for several months, his mobo died, he replaced it with an identical mobo, and he joined the crowd by seeing problems similar to everyone else who is complaining...

 

[Texun]

This isn't scientific by any means, but I have used ASUS, MSI, Abit, Aopen, iWill and a few others. Of all the boards that I've used the ASUS and Abit have been the most stable and reliable\long lasting. Being stable is good, but stability without longevity doesn't get you very far. I had one and only one MSI board a couple of years ago and it was a incredible, for about a year until it went Tango Uniform. This doesn't mean MSI makes junk, but since it was a board for my main system and it failed miserably compared to Abit and ASUS I opted to avoid the stability at great OC reviews and go with what has served me best. Since ASUS and Abit both make great performers that was not really a concern.

Boards mostly get great reviews based on stability, options and OC potential. Just because one has all three doesn't mean it will last until you're done with it, and just because someone says one brand is better than another doesn't mean you won't catch a dud once in a while. I only use Abit now and so far each and every board has been perfectly solid and lasted until I was tired of looking at it.

FWIW, the board I am using now is the Abit AV8. It fired up perfectly and ran that way until I shut it off 5 days later to replace an old fan. I think I rebooted maybe twice during that time. It seems fine but still too new to say it will be as solid as the NF series.

 

[kcbass]

Those are exactly the sort of things I was hoping to hear. It's interesting though, because I've got a friend in school who will never again use Abit. He doesn't explain why very well, but he's pretty good at building systems, so I trus his opinion to a point.

I guess I should point out that one reason I posted these 5 boards is that I'm looking into the barebones bundle deal that monarch computers is having right now. If I buy the board/chip from them, I can get farcry, 4months of napster, and half life 2 all free of charge. Since that's about 150.00 worth of stuff free, I'm thinking it's worth having them check compatibility for me. I've compared prices with newegg, and they come out about the same.

The boards n yusef recommended look nice, but I need at least 5 pci slots for what I currently run, and while yes, I am content with the 8500DV for now, I won't be for long. As soon as I get the cash, an AIW X800 XT is going in to replace it.

The Nvidia chipset is my main concern. I don't like how they have a full forum of people who have had issues with it, but I've heard people complain just as much about VIA chipsets, too.

I don't plan to overclock, but I'd like the option to...

 

[Promethply]

Out of your five choices, the ASUS A8V Deluxe would be the most stable of the lot.

 

[bob661]

At work, we're been running MSI K8T Neo-FIS2R boards in about 30 CAD machines for about a year now with no stability isuses, hardware failures, or heat problems. These machines don't get turned off. They are powered on 24/7 and in use 8 hours a day/5 days a week. The engineers put a good load on those processors. These aren't secretary computers running Word and Powerpoint. A co-worker and I just upgraded to the MSI K8T Neo2-FIR with an A64 3500 a few weeks ago so we'll see how those work out. I also used the FIR board at home (purchased July 04) and recently switched to the Asus SLI (which I've had no problems with so far but it's only 3 weeks old).

 

[Ike0069]

The MSI Neo2 is a great OC'ing board, but I wouldn't say it is the most stable. This board has plenty of quirks that can give you some headaches, especially when trying to get it up and running initially.
If you OC, get the MSI.
If not and you just want a stable board, my first choice would be the Abit, then the ASUS.

 

[kcbass]

good input. Any more?

 

[imported_Kensai]

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

One thing you're going to see a lot of on NewEgg is components that have 100 positive reviews and a few really bad ones. After combing through much of these types of reviews & forums on the subject I have come to the conclusion that these negatives are usually user errors during the install & hookup that caused the problem. I would say either the Msi Neo2 or the DFI LANpart Ult would be good boards.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Pr0d1gy, I don't think newegg "Accepts" all their reviews.

If you've noticed, NONE of the reveiws have said "WTF! NewEgg sent this in 2 weeks late!!" or something like that. Obviously newegg isn't "perfect" with shipping, true. For example one of my friends orderd some AS5 and got it after two weeks.

Just my theory: I think they filter out the extremely bad reviews.

-The Pentium Guy

 

[Fenuxx]

Well, I have the Neo2, and I have had ZERO stability problems, even when OCed. I can personally vouch for that board, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

As far as any of the VIA boards, just say no. I have had 4 VIA-based mobos in the past (from good ol' P-II to P4), and have fooled around with several other VIA-based systems, and IMO, they're junk. Stability is cr@p, IMO, especially compared to this nForce3 and my good ol' 440BX system. Now, I will admit that over the years VIA has gotten better, but they aren't up to the level that Intel and NVIDIA are with their chipsets. The original Athlon may have gotten its start with VIA, but the A64 got its start with NVIDIA.

Long story short, get the Neo2.

 

[kcbass]

I'll admit, I have been leaning towards the MSI and have been playin devil's advo mostly, but usually I'm the guy that gets a huge stability problem 6 months into a board, and I'm tired of seeing that. That's the only reason I keep hesitating.

 

[kcbass]

for example, my computer just restarted, and all i did was go to zalman's website to look up the weight of their cpu cooler... my computer also restarts when I try to burn a dvd, or try to open adobe reader. One of the reasons I'm so eager to upgrade...

 

[kcbass]

also...I'm wondering about a cpu heatsink. Is the retail box version any good? I've heard they're loud, but I've never bought a retail chip. I was looking at the zalman coolers but am concerned about their weight. A friend pointed me to the thermalright xp-90. What would you all suggest?