Need help choosing a motherboard

[Chu]

I haven't shopped for motherboards in a LONG time, and while I know exactly what I need, I don't know what motherboard matches me best. Can anyone out there help me? I need . . .

-1Mhz FSB Increments
-Will keep my PCI bus in spec at any fsb speed. Allowing the AGP to run out of spec and PCI bus in spec is also a BIG bonus.
-Is 100% rock solid. Stability is KEY.
-Is cheap

Those are the minimun requirements, however, since I am completly out of PCI slots and *REALLY* need one more, onboard ethernet or 4 full IDE channels (i.e. don't have to use them as RAID if I don't want to) are big plusses. Note that I am assuming using either of these options will not effect the PCI bus in any way. I know some really crappy onboard sound chips essentially ate a PCI slot. Not kosher

Note I didn't specify an AthlonXP or P4 Northwood board. The reason is that I don't know yet The Northwoods are looking just amazing when you overclock them, and in a week the price might be giving an AthlonXP a run for it's money.

Also, for P4 boards, I am assuming that you don't HAVE to have a 12V connector . . . I have a rock solid Antec 400W power supply, which should be enough juice w/o one.

-Chu

 

[o1die]

Most bang for the buck: for P4, the asus P4s333 with raid for pc2700 ddram ($129 atacom). For athlon the Iwill xp333-r ($115 pricewatch) with ata 133, 6 channel sound and raid, or the shuttle ak35gtr with raid, ata 133, 5.1 6 channel sound ( $129 newegg Jan 20th).

 

[ku]

about the AK35... I've heard that this mobo uses an old and outdated and problematic south bridge. Does this rumor hold any truth?

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

It's not as bad as the 686B but I do believe it's got some problems, and the data transfer rates are gonna lag behind the competition.

I agree with the IWill XP333-R. Good overclocking board, allows you to manually set dividers so your buses are in spec. 4 IDE channels, RAID enabled.. board's roughly KT266A speed with 1-2% diffrences in most benchmarks, matters what ya look at and the config of the computer. Just don't let the ALi name scare you..

I'm not a big fan of Shuttle myself, but a lot of people are. I've had pretty crappy luck with em in the past. The AK35 is looking like a good board, but I haven't really looked into it much.

 

[optimistic]

I never had any problems with its older counterpart the AK31 3.1.

btw AK31 is about $80
- has 1mhz increments
- voltage controls for memory and cpu
- and is very stable IMO out of my 2 months i've been using it