Need a s754 replacement board

[konakona]

maybe its too early to tell, but there is a good chance that the mobo is dead.
I have had good experience with newegg refurbs, so I am taking another gamble this time.

5 possible candidates are :

REFURBISHED: MSI K8T Neo-V Socket 754 VIA K8T800 ATX AMD Motherboard - OEM ($38.5 shipped)
REFURBISHED: MSI K8N Neo-V Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce3 250 ATX AMD Motherboard ($40.2 shipped)
REFURBISHED: ASRock K8Upgrade-760GX Socket 754 SiS 760 GX Micro ATX AMD ($43.15 shipped)
MSI K8N NEO3-F Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce4 4X ATX AMD Motherboard - OEM ($43 shipped)
ASUS K8N Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce3 250 ATX AMD Motherboard - OEM ($47 shipped)

all of them listed above are competitive to FS listings price wise, and with these at you can RMA in the event of failure. (btw, feel free to PM me if you think you can beat newegg )

I am looking for something that would overclock well, and extra features dont really matter much; been using 2 soundcards on the old computer, no need for SATA. My previous cpu was running at 2.5 (313*8) and it wasnt the heat that held it back, probably more like crappy ram.

 

[Zap]

Looks like you need AGP... how about looking for a Chaintech VNF3-250 board? Those are overclockable (some have hit 320MHz+ bus speed) and can be had NEW for around $55. The PCB is in sexy black (instantly adds 2% performance) and if you use onboard audio, it comes with a nice looking daughtercard for SPDIF, game port and the "other" 4 channels so you can have 5.1 and still have input and microphone.

The K8T800 and 760GX are not going to be very overclockable. The NEO3-F has a "fake" AGP slot that basically converts your AGP card to PCI (not PCIe). Most of the Asus refurbs that I've gotten from Newegg (10+) have been motherboard only, nothing else included (not even rear ATX I/O plate), just in a plain white box. No comment on the MSI Nforce3.

 

[konakona]

I will definitely look into VNF-250, gotten some recommendation on that board when I bought that dead epox. $55 isnt the shipped price I assume tho, where can it be found for that much? Does "fake" AGP mean it wont accept regular AGP cards? I have no future plans of upgrading to PCI-e. Bare mobos dont bother me, dont really need the backpanel (or whatever those are called) or any other extra... are the Asus boards fine by themselves? Thanks.

 

[ElFenix]

fake agp means that it accepts regular agp cards, but that it only runs them off of the pci bus, which is ridiculously slow (my radeon 9000 in my notebook halves it's 3dmark score when running with a pci driver rather than an agp driver)

 

[konakona]

Thanks for the clarification ElFenix. I guess I have a choice between keep monitoring the FS/FT forum to spot a used Epox or Chaintech, or go with the MSI K8N Neo-V from newegg.

 

[homestarmy]

Why not the ASUS K8N? It is quite overclockable, no? Any downsides to it? I just ordered it, but one version up...

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: VanillaH
I will definitely look into VNF-250, gotten some recommendation on that board when I bought that dead epox. $55 isnt the shipped price I assume tho, where can it be found for that much?

Zipzoomfly $54.99 with free 2nd day FedEx

^^^
That's where I got mine, tax free I may add for non-CA residents like myself. My particular board doesn't clock as well as my Epox board, but it isn't too shabby either. Some people have gotten much better luck with theirs than with mine, but then again some people did not get as good luck with their Epox board than mine (not talking about ones that died like yours, BTW you should RMA). Overclocks are like lap dances, YMMV.

Only known drawback of the Chaintech at this time is that the newest BIOS does not allow vcore for Palermo cores (Semprons). There is also a possibility that it doesn't allow vcore for the newest socket 754 Venice cores, but that's conjecture at this point. Strangely older BIOS versions allow vcore for Semprons (but may not recognize them "properly" on the POST screen).

 

[konakona]

thanks for suggestions everyone, but the problem was related to Scythe Ninja's metal backplate coming in contact with the DIMM slots, and I sorted it out by adding an insulating layer of paper in between.

My Epox seems to have no trouble setting the vcore with Palermo, probably due to the fact the BIOS is not up to date. The bios still sees it as 2800+, but its clocked at 2512Mhz. Well if thats the case, I have no reason to update the bios, for now at least thanks for the heads up!

 

[Zap]

I have a fairly recent BIOS for my Epox 8KDA3I and it does allow for Palermo vcore.

Good job on figuring out the problem. :thumbsup:

 

[loafbred]

I just installed a new MSI Neo3 in my second machine, as I moved my S754 3400+ to it, from my main machine (was in a K8V-SE Deluxe). I wanted to upgrade to PCI_E, and the Neo3 had everything I needed. I sold my 6800 Ultra and got an XFX 6800 GS (the XXX version). Everything works and no instability at all, so far. The only problem I've seen, so far, is cpu voltage fluctuation, ~.1v constantly. I've checked it from BIOS and with CPU-Z, and the readings are identical. I'm using an Antec True Control 550, 20 pin power supply. I've tried it with and without a 24 pin adapter, and it made no difference. The power supply could be causing it.

I've thrashed it thoroughly and it hasn't flinched, though I haven't overclocked the board at all. The video card is stable at 500/1150. I got one video crash in Counter Strike at 533/1200, and haven't tried anything in-between. I'm using two 512MB dimms of Patriot XBL, set at 2-2-2-10-1T, one 80BGB IDE HDD, one DVD-R, a floppy, and an Audigy2 Value.