Need help deciding on AMD based board.

1sk8er

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Dec 30, 2005
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I am putting together a decent system when I get my taxes this year and am needing some help here. I will name some of the things I have or plan on getting and am hoping some of you all can give me some advice on what board to go with. I would like to go with Asus as I used to work there for tech support BUT most of their boards would have to have the BIOS sent in to be flashed to go with the AMD Athlon 64 San Diego 3700+ I am wanting to go with. Here is a list of what I already have or plan on getting:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 San Diego 3700+ socket 939
CASE: Asys Z-50 RobotYLW Link to Newegg - I haven't bought the case yet but just liked the looks of that one plus the LED that tells the temp.
VIDEO CARD: Leadtek PX6600LE 256 MB PCI-Express X16 - Liked this card as it looked like a decent card for under a $100 (I am not a gamer so an awesome video card setup is not really of that importance to me)
MEMORY: OCZ Premier Dual Channel 1 GB (2x512) PC3200 184 pin DDR (2 sets for 2 gig total)
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 160 gig SATA II drive 7200 RPM (2 of these running in RAID 0)
DVD+-RW: Asus 16x dual layer DRW-1608P2S (already have and love it)
DVD-ROM: Asus E616A (already have)
Here are some of the things the board must have:

[*]PCI Express not AGP
[*]4 SATA II ports that support RAID 0
[*]4 DDR slots that of course have dual channel capability
[*]Preferably would take the 3700+ with 1 meg L2 without having to have a BIOS update

If there is anything else you all think I should look another route or anything I am open to suggestions. Thanks for your time in advance!!

 

OdiN

Banned
Mar 1, 2000
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I would also recommend an Asus board. I am loving their current offerings. Really good S939 stuff right now.
 

1sk8er

Member
Dec 30, 2005
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I agree. I love Asus products but I'm not wanting to have to wait the week turnaround to get the BIOS flashed just after I receive the mobo. Hmmmmm I could call one of the guys I worked with and meet them for lunch one day and get it flashed. Now to just decide what NOT SLI board I would want to go with.
 

Jorakal

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Jan 21, 2006
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I am using the A8N-E and it is working great. I am curious what you mean about waiting a week to get the BIOS flashed? Download it and unzip to a diskette. Then press ALT-F2 when booting and load it. My revision 2 board came with 1005, so I immediately upgraded to 1010 using the ALT-F2 method at boot.
 

1sk8er

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Dec 30, 2005
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That board will not boot with the 3700+ according to Asus. Thus having to send the BIOS out to be flashed.
 

cdjr

Member
Jan 11, 2005
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Originally posted by: 1sk8er
That board will not boot with the 3700+ according to Asus. Thus having to send the BIOS out to be flashed.


Here is the Asus site FAQ response:

Can ASUS A8N-SLI/A8N-E Series motherboard support newest Venice and SanDiego Core Athlon64 Processor?

Answer
Yes. Rev E Athlon64 Processors are supported by A8N-SLI/A8N-E Series motherboard. Please update your BIOS to latest version.

A8N-E 1003 or later
A8N-SLI 1005 or later
A8N-SLI Deluxe 1007 or later

For more detail, please visit
http://www.asus.com/support/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx
 

mb103051

Senior member
Oct 27, 2005
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the asus a8n-e,without a doubt the best ultra board out.after going through 3 other ultra boards this asus is by a wide margin the best,o/clocks well,near perfect layout,quality components,jap caps,mature bios,reasonabley priced,good bios options....good grief what more could you ask for in a board.even the a8n5x looks like a great deal if your watching your pennies.like 85 bucks at newegg,105 for the a8n-e.
forget about the abit flakey boards,the gigabyte ram slots too close together and you can fry eggs on the chipset heatsink.the chaitech ultra board= no o/clocks and a small board cramped components and alot of failures.
the asus a8n series of boards are a proven,mature platform and you cannot go wrong with any model in the series.......................
 

1sk8er

Member
Dec 30, 2005
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The BIOS revision 1003 for the 3700+ is for the Rev E4 CPU. According to Asus:

Athlon 64 3700+ (rev.E4) (Socket939) Bios 1003
Athlon 64 3700+ (rev.E6) (Socket939) Bios 1010

I called Newegg and they said it would more than likely be the new E6 revision. Upon calling Asus again I was informed that the 1010 would more than likely not be on the board that I would get from Newegg as the 1010 BIOS only came out twoardsw the end of December. I think I might end up going with the 3500+ anyways as it is $32 cheaper.