Mobo Recommendation

[middlehead]

I'm going to be building two seperate systems in the next couple of weeks, and I'm leaning towards putting the same motherboard and processor (Barton 2500+ from NewEgg) in both. Other parts will likely be different, as one is for a somewhat inexperienced user who will mostly be doing web browsing, email, and light office work, while the other is an experienced person with light gaming/movie/music tendencies.

I've got my eye on a couple boards, mostly from GigaByte and Abit, but I'm open to other options. I'd prefer to buy it from NewEgg, and I'm hoping for $60 or less, as both systems are shooting for about $500 total cost. There's some wiggle room in price, but I don't want to go up far enough that I have to shunt money away from something else.

I'm also leaning towards this case for at least one of the systems, if that's worrisome for anyone. If you want to suggest any other parts to go with, I'm all ears

 

[imported_Bunter]

I've put together a couple of systems based on the ASUS A7V8X-X for people about like your first user. It is nothing fancy, but will do the job. FSB of 333MHz on that one with a via KM400 chipset, so it will be fine with a Barton 2500+ (one of the systems I built was that combo). I see NewEgg has them for $58.

They also have an A7VNX-X, based on the nVidia nForce 2. I haven't used that one, myself. It is about $70.

My only worries on cases concern the quality of the power supply. Seems like a significant number of problems turn out to be power supply related. A $28 case is probably not going to have the highest quality PSU. I'm partial to Antecs, others have their favorites.

 

[CraigRT]

A7V8X-X is a decent choice, I've built a few systems with that board, and they work fine.

 

[colonel]

i built a couple of boxes with the chipset Sis 748, there are great choices

 

[xbassman]

Here's another...

I have 2 systems running on this: Shuttle AN35N-Ultra

Both systems were probably the easiest builds I ever had. Boot up, overclock, test, zip-tie and close!

 

[slpaulson]

Are you going to do any overclocking with either of these?

 

[middlehead]

No, not going to worry about overclocking on either machine. One of the two wouldn't need the extra power, and the other just isn't worried about it.

I've seen the Shuttle AN35N a few times, but having all the drive cables and the ATX power that close to where the drives end up worries me a bit. Just seems like a lot of clutter stuck in one place.

The main GigaByte board I was looking at (the 7S748-L) is built off the sis748, so it's helpful to see more good comments about that. Most of the reviews I remember seeing seem to like it for solid systems that don't necessarily have to be speed freaks, so I'll probably look more in that direction.

The features on the Asus A7V8X-X sound good, but it looks really wide. It could just be that the people on NewEgg's staff took the pictures at a silly angle, cause they definetely aren't straight-down shots. Plus it's got the same positioning of drive/power plugs as the Shuttle AN35N. That placement would be so much easier to deal with if I could find decent IDE ribbons that have the drive connectors closer together. Industry standards be damned!
As for the case/PSU, my first instinct was to look for an Antec cheap enough to run with, but everything I found was already at $50 or $60 before shipping. A lot of reviews on AGBP's other cases said their 400W PSU's were surprisingly strong, especially considering the price, so hopefully the one I linked earlier will continue that trend.

Replying in reverse makes me all tingly.

 

[xbassman]

Actually I really liked the ATX connector positioning on the Shuttle. It helped quite a bit hiding wires for a clean look.

I can't really comment on the Gigabyte board. I have been a fan of the Nforce chipset. I have had less troubles with it than any Via or Intel setup I have used. i only had one experience with Sis. (bought an ECS board) I don't really want to repeat it.

 

[imported_Bunter]

The A7V8X-X is the standard ATX size. The picture or the angle must be strange. Not the first time I've seen that from various vendors.

 

[PizzaDude]

Shuttle AN35N-Ultra

 

[GR8Madmax]

Another vote for AN35N Ultra