My Epox 8kha+ finally bought the Farm (bad caps)

[ty1er]

My secondard machine:

AMD 2600+xp (fsb266)
Epox 8KHA+
Nothing is/was runing OCed

it has had the bulging caps for around two years now. I havent had any problems with it until few days ago.
I have notice that if try to stress the system it will lock up, or just reboot automaticlly with in a few second from running such programs as Prime95, Super PI, encoding audio, encoding video, etc. So im guessing that the caps finally gave out on the mobo.

I have search though the forums for "best socket a mobo" and came up with alot of hits. It seems that the Abit NF7-S (i think thats the right model number) was recommended alot. are there any newer better version?

What is the recomended AMDXP Socket A mobo in this period in time?

Do any of the AMD Socket A mobo have PCI/AGP Locks? or is that just a feature of the newer 64 mobos?

Also i see that some mobo have onboard Geforce 4MX video. Is there any drawbacks to these type of mobos? If not which one is the best?
I know that the Geforce 4MX is a very poor proformace videocard. But currently i have an 8mb diamond pro that chokes when the start menu fades in when clicking on it. So anything would be better than that.

I just looking for a Stable Cheap Replacement AMD socket A mobo.

 

[desy]

ecs, soyo, shuttle, chaintech all make stuff in the price range your looking for.
Just pop over to newegg and see what you like

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Originally posted by: ty1er
... for "best socket a mobo" and came up with a lot of hits. It seems that the Abit NF7-S ({I} think thats the right model number) was recommended a lot. {A}re {Is} there any newer better version{s}?

There is a revision 2 -- but Abit isn't a low-price brand. And there is a difference between an NF7-S2 and and NF7-S (2).

Do any of the AMD Socket A mobo have PCI/AGP Locks? or is that just a feature of the newer 64 mobos?

It's offered on most nVidia chipset MB's.

I just looking for a Stable Cheap Replacement AMD socket A mobo.

Similar to anyone asking for an answer to one "best" of anything, there is no such animal. By definition, more or less, "cheap" is just that. Nevertheless, the Shuttle MB's seem to be inexpensive without being cheap. They tend toward Plain Vanilla without much in the way of bells, whistles.

 

[Mem]

My Epox 8KHA+ had 11 leaking caps,however I replaced the board before it went to the big board in the sky.

My recommendation and the board I`m using as the replacement is the DFI NF2 Infinity Ultra,the board is awesome on stability.There are cheaper boards but the DFI has quality capacitors.


DFI NF2 Infinity Ultra specs.

 

[GundamF91]

My Epox has been bulging too, and started leak slightly recently. I don't know why, but EPOX seems suceptible to bulging caps, I'll never buy them again.

Check out the ASROCk KT880 Upgarade from NEWEGG.COM, I just got it due to my Epox leading to system instability. It cost only $47 shipped. Awesome Socket A board, with IDE and SATA options, and also the latest KT880 Northbridge that enables dual DDR channel. It's the best low cost Socket A option right now and investing in anything expensive for Socket A is a waste of money since AMD has moved on to 939.