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New Motherboard - Economical

A

Angracey

Member
Hey guys.
I'm looking for a new motherboard for our business here.
We're had great success with ECS Motherobards (we used the K7SEM, K7S5A, K7VTA3, L7VMM, L7VMM2, L7VTA).
Right now we need a solution for the new FSB Standard (333) that has onboard USB, Video, Sound, and Network. Any other options would be a bonus, but those three items are critical.

The board doesn't have to be microATX, but it would probably bring down the cost.

Any suggestions would be great

Thanks in advance
 
If these are going to be 'business' machines, there's no sense in going with the latest standards. 333mhz FSB is a performance boost, nothing more.

If these are going to be 'performance' machines, they'll benefit from the 333mhz FSB architecture, but you better use premium motherboards for best performance.
 
My main concern here is that the motherboards support the new CPU standards for the AMD line.
And cost is a large consideration too.

Thanks again.
 
Biostar M7VIG PRO

So far I have build about 10 systems with that board, and had no complains aside the fact that the biostar should stop putting their logo on the bootup screen..
Anyway for $57.00 you are getting a deacent 6 channel audio, SDRAM and DDR support, LAN, USB 2.0, and ok build-in video.
If you are a value oriented consumer, this is the best buy right now.
Also it supports virtually all of the socket based Athlon processors on the market, including Barton....

Edit: Ok there is one annoying feature, the CPU temp indicator/probe is very inaccurate and it shows the temp of 60 C no matter what processor do you have, and no matter which heatsink do you use...That is clearly a bug, hopefully they will correct it in the upcoming bios release...

Edit: 333Mhz is not a must. You dont really need that for a "business machine"
 
The onlt thing that will do ALL you want right NOW is a nForce2 board with Video.

Look at the....

Soltek SL-75MRN-L It has support for 400Mhz Athlons, but does not have Firewire. It cost $89 shipped

If you need firewire then look at the ...

LEADTEK K7NCR18G-PRO It is $112 and has firewire, and S-video out

Both of these will support the 400Mhz Bartons and has video, sound, and ethernet. Slap in 2 slabs of 256mg and a Athlon 1700+ and you got a fast cheap sysetm.

Now VIA just came out with the KM400 chipset. It will be about a 3-5 weeks before the boards come out. But it will support 333Mhz FSB and might be a little cheaper.
 
That ECS board is just too new ( I am cynnical and expect revisions ) and there is no AGP slot so you are out of luck if you don't care for the video . I would suggest selecting other brands who have an end user direct RMA policy for warranty returns ( such as Biostar ) just in case problems show up after most reseller's typical 30 day return period .
 
I'm fed up with biostar, i bought like 7 so far, going from celeron processor to duron processor, and I can say it sucks. You can't change core voltage, its alway at default so little luck with overclocking if at all. I say go for asus or abit, those board are the most tweakable and reliable, thought it is best to get it reburbish for a considerable less then buying new. The thing with duron/athlon processor is that the voltage is set too high like 1.75watts from 900mhz-1300mhz, this is one reason it run too hot shooting above 60C. All I did is change it to 1.525v and everything ran much cooler 44c idle, 49.50c at full load.

 
well, he did state that the board was for business, so overclocking prowess probably isnt the highest priority. Most of the responses about the latest of the biostar boards speak favorably of their stability, so i assume that for most office tasks the m7viw should suffice.
 
RedRonin hit it. IMO, the Shuttle one looks sweet (I mean fatures--it's business, so blue PCB doesn't matter). None of them, however, will do the 200MHz FSB coming up. For that, right now, a nice overclocker board would be good to have, like the 8RDA/8RDA+, and password the BIOS 🙂. IIRC, the ones from newegg are coming with the new stepping (they will officially support the 400MHz chips once they come out and a BIOS update is released for them, but will hit the 200MHz now unofficially).
Predicting the future is tough. Luckily, finding somehting to support up to the 2800+ and 3000+ isn't hard, and will probably do for a good while.
 
The SL-75MRN-L suggested is a great value@89$ shipped and meets all your specs, and it's won an editor's choice award and rated very highly elsewhere. I don't think you'll find more bang for the buck but do as you will 😉
 
That is an excellent motherboard. Unfortunately, I can only get it for about $180 Canadian, which is out of out pricerange. The other downfault is that it does not come with an onboard RAID function, which is also a selling point for us.

This is a major pain in the ass!
 
Originally posted by: Angracey
Hey guys.
I'm looking for a new motherboard for our business here.
We're had great success with ECS Motherobards (we used the K7SEM, K7S5A, K7VTA3, L7VMM, L7VMM2, L7VTA).
Right now we need a solution for the new FSB Standard (333) that has onboard USB, Video, Sound, and Network. Any other options would be a bonus, but those three items are critical.

The board doesn't have to be microATX, but it would probably bring down the cost.

Any suggestions would be great

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

I just purchased a Asrock K7S8X SiS 746FX motherboard, it comes with everything you need, onboard sound, lan, 8x agp, 333mhz fsb and ddr266/333/400 support. It's not a board for overclockers but so far it's proven itself to be very stable, offers great performance and it's cheap too. BTW Asrock=Asus so they can be trusted to be reliable.

Oops I missed your onboard video requirement, the K7S8X doesn't have onboard video unfortunately.
 
I don't think your list of desires is going to fit in your price range.

with the excetpion of overclocking you are asking for a premium board... not gonna get that for a pauper's price

-Sid
 
ECS K7S7AG SiS 746 Chipset

best one out for what you want. The ECS 746 (not 746 FX even) have been hitting 200fsb quite reliably. AMDMB forums have more info on that. The onboard video is an Xabre 200. This is nearly all the board an nforce2 with onboard video is for a lot less. The only thing you'll be missing is an agp slot, but for a business machine that shouldnt matter. The 746 chipset outperforms the kt400 in everything and is right on the tail of the nforce2.

sorry i forgot this board doesnt have onboard lan... but really, you can pick up 10/100 lan cards for next to nothing, so that should be a nonissue. it'll take 1 pci slot and otherwise this board meets all your requirements for $84.00 at newegg.com - shop around and you could probbably find it cheaper.
 
I vote for the Soltek SL 75MRN-L way over the ECS board . It is priced right ( $ 89.00 ) and you are getting good performance, support and warranty from Soltek and an AGP slot . I just talked myself into ordering one .
 
The ECS Board would be perfect.. except it has no AGP slot... which is an absolute must.

Gah.. it looks like i'm sh*t up a creek without a paddle.

Might be making a switch to P4 systems soon.
 
Originally posted by: Angracey
The ECS Board would be perfect.. except it has no AGP slot... which is an absolute must.

Gah.. it looks like i'm sh*t up a creek without a paddle.

Might be making a switch to P4 systems soon.
Click to expand...


Ahhh... How is P4 going to be any cheaper? The Chips cost more and they use the same RAM type as AMD.

The best bang for your buck like you are looking for is a nFoirce2 with the MCP-T southbridge.

If you can wait another couple of weeks look for the KM400 by VIA.

 
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