Motherboard Options?

SMOKE20

Senior member
Apr 6, 2004
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Hi;

Had a thread about 2 weeks ago or so in General Hrdw. but got no difinitive answers. Now I have to find something that is good quickly or my husband will be home tomorrow and I can tell he's leaning back to building an Intel.

We are looking for a motherboard, chip and PCI video card and possibly a sound card if the onboard sound is not good. We will be reusing the Antec Sonata case, the Power supply, the memory and the hard drives/optical drives.

A friend of my husbands had a real problem with a DFI nForce 4 Ultra board (it died and DFI is giving him a big hassle honoring the warranty) so I don't think a DFI board is an option, plus, it's for our sons and they won't be overclocking so that's not an issue. We just need a good solid motherboard with onboard, netowrking, SATA and onboard sound doesn't matter really if it's not very good, we'll buy a new sound card also.

We've talked it over and he wants to stay with a good name brand if at all possible like Abit or Asus but which of their 939 A64 boards is the best, most stable?

Also, which video/sound card would give the best all round performance with the best compatability for games?
 

imported_ecosoft

Junior Member
Dec 23, 2004
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I just installed an Epox 9NDA3+ w/Athlon64 3200+ w/ 2x512 Micron Ballistix running at 2-2-10-2 1T cmd. The 9NDA3+ has all of the features you mentioned and, if you will run it bone stock (click optimized BIOS settings) it will satisfy your need for AMD speed, plus have a ton of overclock capability ... for when your boys learn of Anandtech and/or Toms Hardware :) I bought the all of the above "pieces" at Newegg for less than $550
 

SMOKE20

Senior member
Apr 6, 2004
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I've heard of Epox (while searching for information on A64 motherboards), are they a good company? My husband is more literate in the hardware end, I'd like to build this one though to show him I can, and also, like I said, if I don't decide on something and order it before tomorrow evening.............I know it'll end up being another Intel system.......LOL!
 

imported_ecosoft

Junior Member
Dec 23, 2004
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Ooops! I neglected to address all of your questions with my original post. First, I'd strongly recommend the NVIDIA 6600GT-AGP video GPU as it's the best relative value for the money.

Second, unless you want to spend a ton more $$$, stay with an AGP motherboard, else you will have to buy a 939 PCIe mobo needing DDR-2 memory.

Third, the onboard AC-97 sound is decent ... if you have amplified speakers and subwoofer. I'm also a audiophile and I have a $20K reference system and attend the Milwaukee Symphony concerts regularly, so I can make a valid, reasoned judgment here :) When listening to MP3 music (cruddy cruddy compared to 24 bit CD) or playing games (mostly machine guns and bombs blasting) you become so absorbed in the gaming experience itself that the "sound quality" becomes secondary, if noticed at all! If, you want to brag audio buy an Audigy or M-Audio, however that can always be added later.

Fourth, the Epox gigabit network chip works flawlessly, and the 9NDA3+ has a really trick SATA RAID setup as standard. I use three Raptors, but any 7200 IDE drives (WD800JD is outstanding value) would work quite nicely.

Fifth, you do need a good, stable power supply ... I'm running my Epox on an Antec Truepower 380 at the moment, but tomorrow my new P160 case w/550 Truepower will be delivered. The P160 is a superior case ... said after having a dozen previous cases, none of which address all of the "problems" one experiences with every other design I've seen, or used.

Have fun 'cause once whatever you and hubby decide build you will live with it :)
 

imported_ecosoft

Junior Member
Dec 23, 2004
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Epox ranks with Asus, DFI, MSI, Gigabyte, Abit, etc. As for the AMD vs Intel choice, one MUST take actual intended use into consideration! More specifically, do not be razzle-dazzled by clock speed alone (Intel). Unless, really really unless, you are operating a for-profit sound-video editing biz ya' don't need, nor will EVER make use of Intel's superior data streaming capabilities. On da' other hand, "normal" apps like MS Office, Photoshop, gaming, etc., the AMD $ for $ "kills" the Intel CPU. I vote for economic efficiency ... meaning the absolute biggest bang for the absolute minimum bucks :)
 

o1die

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2001
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Someone else posted on their abit ax8 with via kt890 chipset. It uses pci-e and is priced right. Another favorable post was with a foxconn nforce4 board. Foxconn is a huge supplier of oem parts for dell.
 

ts3433

Platinum Member
Jun 29, 2004
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Originally posted by: ecosoft
Ooops! I neglected to address all of your questions with my original post. First, I'd strongly recommend the NVIDIA 6600GT-AGP video GPU as it's the best relative value for the money.
PCIe ones are a tad cheaper, last I checked, though arguably a $300 X800XL would be an even better deal because its performance is so close to the 6800GT.

Second, unless you want to spend a ton more $$$, stay with an AGP motherboard, else you will have to buy a 939 PCIe mobo needing DDR-2 memory.

BULLSHIT. It does not take DDR2--being 939, it can't anyway, because the memory controller's on the CPU, and that's regular DDR. There are also quite a few PCIe mobos around $100, and other good choices around $130.


OP: Your Sonata is good, and onboard sound will be fine if your speakers aren't really high-end. If you find you need somewhat better quality but don't need Creative's EAX in games, get a $25 Chaintech AV710.
 

Appledrop

Platinum Member
Aug 25, 2004
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hmm, assuming by PCI you mean PCI Express, i'd go for a MSI K8N Neo4-F with a a64 3000+ with a 6600GT video card, for overall performance with price taken into account.
 

11427

Senior member
May 9, 2003
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Originally posted by: ecosoft

Third, the onboard AC-97 sound is decent ... if you have amplified speakers and subwoofer. I'm also a audiophile and I have a $20K reference system and attend the

Just curious, while I'm not an "audiophile" I do have a pretty nice system (was even hooked up to my computer for a while) was wondering what you have?
BTW I dunno how anyone can stand to listen to an MP3.
 

SMOKE20

Senior member
Apr 6, 2004
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How about an Asus A8n-E? Looks like it has everything I want. I'll need to get a video card though I guess 6800 or X800XL.....it has 8 channel Realtek sound, is that any good? I mean mine is only 6 channel on this board. Also, do you think a 3500 or what chip?

Oh, and will my Corsair PC3200 XMS Low Latency ram work oK?
 

ts3433

Platinum Member
Jun 29, 2004
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Do you have 6.1 or 7.1 speakers? Then you need an 8-channel sound solution; if not, 6-channel is OK (5.1 or below). That's all that refers to.

Your RAM should work great.

A 3200+ or 3500+ should do fine.
 

SMOKE20

Senior member
Apr 6, 2004
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LOL! I guess I'm really lost on sound, we have 5.1 speakers, Logitech of some kind, they sound really good though.

Ram is good.....that's good, don't have to buy that.

How much difference would we see between say a 3200, 3500, or 3800?

Also, I guess I'll go with another 6800GT unless people are really seeing good things out of the ATI cards.............I'm a little upset with nVidia right now, NASCAR Sim racing will not run on our current system and I can't seem to figure out why.
 

Appledrop

Platinum Member
Aug 25, 2004
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hardly a noticeable difference - not worth the price difference, at any rate IMO. I would (and erm, did, but then i overclock, so :l) get the 3200.
 

SMOKE20

Senior member
Apr 6, 2004
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Done...............just a bout ready to order it.......just have to decide Video card!
 

509th

Member
Mar 20, 2005
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You'll love that Asus Motherboard! Easy setup and rock solid stable out of the box at default.