Motherboard selection

[greenant]

Hi,

I know this has been discussed and answered a thousand times. But that didn't help me at all.
I've been trying to find a motherboard to buy and have been reading about them for the last few days.
I didn't know it is so hard to pick a motherboard. After spending couple of days of reading about Motherboards,
I found out that Chipset plays an important role. So .. there are so many manufactures with so many motherboards
with different chipserts. How does one make a decision ?

I'm thinking of buying a XP 1800+ CPU ( thank God, that is decided). Now the biggie is, how to decide upon a motherboard ?
I am looking for an onboard raid, LAN and audio are not a must. i am considering from a bargain mobo ( Abit kg7-raid ) to
Gigabyte GA 7VRXP. Other considerations are Epox 8Kea+, Soyo KT333 Dragon and abit kr7a.

Please help me decide

Thanks

 

[o1die]

Newegg has the shuttle ak35gtr (refurbished with 30 day warranty) for only $60 shipped. I last used the ak31a for my 1700 xp, and it ran well at 138 fsb, but the shuttle boards don't run as high of an overclock as some other boards. I would not get the kg7-raid with the amd 761 chipset to save a few dollars. It is 5-10% slower than the via kt266a.

 

[Vette73]

The AK35GTR board is Great. It has the highpoint Raid (better than Promise), AND a 5.1 C-Media sound card.

If you want a NEW board go to newegg and look at the Shuttle AK35GT2R. It cost less than $99 and is the KT333 chipset.

 

[greenant]

Is Shuttle AK35GT2R overclockable ?

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: greenant
Is Shuttle AK35GT2R overclockable ?

Oh god yes.

It will allow you to chnage the voltage on just about everthing, the FSB , and the Multi. is adjustable.
I had mine overcloked for a while but had some small errors when I tried tp play games and it was also hooked up to my Ethernet card and on Road Runner at the same time. If I pulled the ethernetr cable out no problem. So I just left it alone. If it starts to get slow I will play with it. A lot of people have been able to get over 160Fsb with this board, just have to play with it like all others.

The AK35GT2R should overclock better as the KT333 chipset runs cooler than the KT266a

 

[novice]

Nothing wrong with the Shuttle, but another board to consider (my favorite at the moment) is the MSI Kt3 Ultra non raid version for only $81 shipped from newegg. The Shuttle AK35GT2 is the exact same price shipped, and similarly featured. I just have had very good luck with my existing MSI boards and would go for the KT3 Ultra. I have no need for the raid, so prefer to save a few bucks for the ram.
Chuck

 

[greenant]

Is Newegg the only "good" place for mobo ?
what are the other sites to get decent prices on mobos ?

 

[Vette73]

The other Place that is real good is Mwave.com

They offer combos if you want to get the board, Ram, and CPU.

 

[greenant]

do you have linky for that ?
i couldn't find it.

Thanks

 

[greenant]

nevermind. got it.
The site was down earlier .. i think.

thanks

 

[BarMan]

I'd never get a refurbished board if you plan to overclock, never know the full stability.

I have tried many boards lately and I can say this...
it's up to the ram you get also!

I'm sure you're going DDR (SDRAM is played out lol and with the 1800+ you need to bump it up).

so if you want the latest features get the latest board for your cpu
some great KT333 chipset boards are:
Epox 8k3a+ (one I run now)
Soyo Dragon Ultra (had before epox, great stability not much for ocing)
Shuttle AK35GT2R (sweet board just not as ocable as my epox)

they all have pretty much the same features, just the epox doesn't have USB 2.0 it has USB 1.1

 

[nemo160]

i have an epox 8k3a+....great board for me
highpoint 372 raid onboard
7 segment diagnostic leds
very tweakable, very fast, nice and stable