Mobo Recommendation For Basic, Kids Machine?

[olds]

Looking to build a cheap system for a kid.
Need:
Socket A
Onboard: Video, Sound, NIC, Modem
Thanks for looking.

 

[Boonesmi]

i really like the biostar m7vig (km266) supports up to xp2600+ has onboard everything (but no onboard modem)

or the newer version the biostar m7viz (km400) same basic specs as the above board, but it supports the 333mhz cpu's also

 

[Peter]

Small kid? Then one of the ECS true all-in-ones with onboard everything - including CPU and fan/heatsink - will do. Add an ECS modem riser CNR card, and you're set.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

I like the Biostar suggestions.. 'boat

 

[jackschmittusa]

Recently bought a board for a project like yours. PCChips with everything built in (modem included on card), sound, video, lan, and an XP2000 for $82us, plus tax. Works fine. (note: for some unknown reason, it comes with the cmos jumper set in the "clear" position.) Dropped in a cheap case with a cheap psu and a 256mb stick of ram ($14.95 after rebate).

 

[Peter]

That's the same thing I recommended above. Different label, same hardware. With the modem riser card included in the $82 package, that's a very good deal for it.
Note that the CPUs are not Athlon XPs, they're Durons with a rather exaggerating "Pro2000+" fantasy name.

 

[DieHardware]

ECS K7S7AG come with everything except the modem. This MB has an onboard Xabre 200 GPU which even comes with it's own 64MB RAM (not shared and in my experience this GPU seems to have the speed of a 64MB Radeon 9000), 6ch sound, USB2, etc.

 

[Jhhnn]

I have deep prejudices against the whole ECS/PCChips/other pseudonyms family from the old days, when their products were inarguably complete garbage.

Spend a little extra, get an asus a7n266vm-aa. Rock solid. Be sure you have 98SE or newer, as it doesn't like older versions of 98...

Decent conexant or agere(lucent) chip winmodems can be had for under $15...

Might want to see about current Dell deals before you do anything- they're practically giving them away from time to time, all things considered...

 

[Peter]

I'll have a CNR/AMR modem over a "decent winmodem" any day. Why? Because Winmodems live on the PCI bus and thus are system resource hogs, while AMR/CNR cards connect to a chipset internal modem engine that lives on a much faster connection.
Particularly, the Conexant (yes, Conexant) solutions included by ECS are nothing short of really good modems. Throughput and CPU load are just like they should be, and total system bandwidth use is a lot less than with any PCI Winmodem.

"Inarguably complete garbage"? Prejudice, yes. I've been using ECS and PC-Chips gear almost exclusively for the past seven years. Yes they've always been catering the budget and all-in-one sector - that makes their boards simple and cheap, but reliable they are.

One single warning though: Driver installation on an all-in-one board requires some concentration, since you can't add one thing at a time, sort its driver and then do the next one. You have to get everything right in one go. (To my experience, that's exactly why people curse their newly bought PC-Chips board ... they have long reacted and provide a well working driver auto-install CD.)

 

[lobadobadingdong]

a cheap nforce2-IGP board would at least give them somewhat decent graphics.
edit: and would be far more upgradeable for the future. \

edit again: on a side note on pcchips, I've bought 4 different socket 370 pcchips boards, everysingle one of them was doa, and upon rma's the replacements where also doa. I would then return them for other boards and not have a single problem. I tend now to stick with biostar for cheap boards, and either shuttle, msi, or asus for better boards.

 

[olds]

Thanks for all the input, I am looking at the links.

Recently bought a board for a project like yours. PCChips with everything built in (modem included on card), sound, video, lan, and an XP2000 for $82us, plus tax. Works fine. (note: for some unknown reason, it comes with the cmos jumper set in the "clear" position.) Dropped in a cheap case with a cheap psu and a 256mb stick of ram ($14.95 after rebate).

Link?

Might want to see about current Dell deals before you do anything- they're practically giving them away from time to time, all things considered...

I looked at the Dell's and like the idea of not having to be the tech support person (PC is for someone elses kid) but I can save about $200 - $300 building it myself.

 

[Peter]

lobadobadingdong, I've seen my share of claimed "the whole shipment is DOA". More than once, this turned out to be the users simply failing to move the "Clear CMOS" jumper off the shipping default "Clear" position.

 

[Boonesmi]

Originally posted by: Peter
lobadobadingdong, I've seen my share of claimed "the whole shipment is DOA". More than once, this turned out to be the users simply failing to move the "Clear CMOS" jumper off the shipping default "Clear" position.

 

[Overkast]

Since it's a mobo for a kid, I say any ole' Intel mobo will do.

They're stable, no OCing capabilities, and they have a 3-year warranty. Just make sure the RAM is compatible with them per Intel's specs.

 

[Overkast]

Aw crap... never mind. I read your post too quick and I didn't see you were looking for "Socket A".

I withdraw my Intel recommendation

 

[jjyiz28]

i can't recommend the biostar mobos. rma twice the m7viz, 1st had restart/shut down issues. the other plain won't go past the splash screen. then i just opted for refund. got the epox 8kmm3i (km400) board instead. worked excellent first bootup no issues.

 

[littleprince]

Take a look at the asrock all in one.
Model name eludes me right now... k7mgx?!?