Need help finding the perfect board.

[fealos]

I know there must be a whole lot of thread that are very similar to this one, so I'll try to keep it as specific as I can.

I have a lot in mind about what I want, and I'm not just asking for a general suggestion.

Here's what I know I want:

A motherboard for ~ <= $130 USD
* Firewire (at least one onboard for a port on the front of the case, and at least one in back.)
* Socket 939 (I'm getting the Athlon 64 3500+)
* Nvidia nForce4 ultra, not SLI (I don't have the money to buy an SLI card)
* I will be overclocking
* Active northbridge cooling preferred (I don't mind noise, but I can't stand heat)
* I'd like to run 2 IDE drives for ease of install, trying to get around sata problems. Sata setups scare me because of all the problems I see people having with them. Plus, I'll be dual-booting linux, and there are even more problems with sata drives there.

Here's where my questions get more specific, and warrant a thread all their own (I hope)

I'm concerned about the driver situation with any board as I do not have a computer with a floppy drive, or running Windows at home. I just moved to a new state, so I don't know anyone near me who has one either. Is it essential that I have proper/up-to-date drivers before building the box, or can I build it and then install drivers after I've installed Windows?

The only reason I'm going with IDE drives is to eliminate seemingly unavoidable newbie problems with SATA drives. Is this a valid fear? Can I gain that much by using SATA drives rather than IDE drives? Or, would it be worth it to try using two non-raid SATA drives with no means to make a floppy with the latest drivers?


Very tentatively considered boards so far:

SOLTEK SL-K8TPro (I've never heard of this brand before, but it has good reviews on newegg.)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813180064

ASUS A8V DELUXE
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131510

ABIT AN8
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813127197


I'm sure there're more than these here, but it takes me a while to survey each one and weigh it's features, and read it's reviews.

Thanks for any input you can give!

PS, I'll probably think of more things that I've forrgotten here, so I'll post more questions as they come to me.

 

[fealos]

Went with the Abit KN8 Ultra. I'm very excited. All the parts for my build are ordered! yay!

 

[ChiPCGuy]

Originally posted by: fealos
Went with the Abit KN8 Ultra. I'm very excited. All the parts for my build are ordered! yay!

Ok, someone is actually going to use this thing. I have a build that is about two weeks away for a friend and this is one of the candidate boards. Would you please post a FULL review of your findings post-build? Thanks.