Please help me decide which AMD 64 mobo to replace my existing one...

[JackRipper]

I stumbled here looking for info about a64 mobos and have quite a few questions hoping some1 could help me out... if am in the wrong forum I appologize...

Around Oct 04 I purchased an AMD64 Athlon 2800+ (newcastle) + Aopen AK86-L mobo because I wanted to try out 64 bit processors w/ room for overclocking. At the time the AK86-L mobo was pretty decently rated being the biggest bang for the buck + being one of the top 3 mobo's suggested.

My first nightmare was that whenever I used mIRC's DCC protocol I kept getting my network connection dropped. Whenever I maxed my dload bw the computer goes into a frequent on/off freeze mode (it would freeze for 30-45 secs unfreeze for 10-15 secs)... in addition windows would report that my network connection is fine yet I am disconnected from everything (i thought it was my ISP at first).. When I quit using mIRC the issue stopped.... but every 20-30 minutes of usage the PC would go into this on/off freeze mode. Scoping Aopen's forums I found out that I wasn't alone... there were about a handfull of other ppl with similar problems (but not the network disconnect problem).... The only solution I found was to update to the latest bios (which i did and found out my ram no longer runs @ 400 but at 333... they stated in the bios release that they had to do that because of AMD's + the chipset's recommendations... well that didnt work so I exchanged for a different AK86-L... same problems... I now get really frusterated and start suspecting my PSU (raidmax 420w.. big wootie i know) so I isolated power from that PSU to goto just the mobo + cpu... all my drives + fans ran on a separate PSU i had going (totally ghetto rigged the second psu in)... same problems... what sorda solved the problem was a combination of : reinstalling the OS...updating to Windows XP SP2... downgrading the bios to a stable one with 400 mhz dual channel rams... and avoiding mIRC like the plague...
now my system is somewhat stable... occasionally i have the urge to use mIRC and the network problem appears... so I am really wanting to replace the mobo with something newer...

I've read tons of reviews and have come to a conclusion that the "VIA K8T800 + VT8237" chipset is inferior to the "NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb" or am I wrong?

That being said I narrowed my choice of mobo's down to:

EPoX EP-8KDA3+PRO
Gigabyte GA-K8NS-PRO
MSI K8N Neo Platinum
DFI Lanparty UT NF3

I am hoping to get suggestions to see which board is the biggest bang for the buck + overclocking...

Thanks
JR

 

[AristoV300]

I would go with the DFI.

 

[JackRipper]

Originally posted by: AristoV300
I would go with the DFI.

because....?

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: JackRipper

Originally posted by: AristoV300
I would go with the DFI.

because....?

If you're going to overclock use the DFI,if you're going to be running stock then just get the cheapest one you can find.

Chaintech VNF3-250 is an other good choice.

 

[globalcitizen]

I have the chaintech vnf3-250 and the HTT can be pushed right up to 295 mhz before windows stops loading. A great cheap, o/cing mobo.

 

[JackRipper]

how stable are these mobo's? i just dont wanna run into the same probs as my ak86-L...

 

[globalcitizen]

I am currently running it completly stable at 250 HTT. CPU and memory is holding it back.

 

[JackRipper]

Still a rough choice... lotta ppl pointing fingers at DFI... i think i will narrow it down to which has firewire etc... out of curiosity (aside from vid cards) what other cards use PCI-E?

 

[powerMarkymark]

I have the MSI K8N Neo Platinum and it has been running faityhfully (overclocked) for 2 months now.

It has been virtually problem free.

HTH

Marc

 

[JackRipper]

Thanks for the reply guys! I've narrowed it down to the Epox and the MSI.... kinda leaning towards the Epox because i've had bad experiences with MSI mobos in the past... what do u guys think?

 

[CALIKUSH]

Why not get a newer pci-e socket 754 board and then a cheap geforce 6600 pci-e card?

 

[robisc]

IMO stay away from Epox, they are great when they work, but I personally have had nothing but bad luck with them though.

 

[ChicagoPCGuy]

Originally posted by: robisc
IMO stay away from Epox, they are great when they work, but I personally have had nothing but bad luck with them though.

Sorry you have had bad luck, but many of my budget builds are using the EPoX 8KDA3I S754 board, and I have never had trouble. I just rebuilt my own machine using the 9NPA+ Ultra, and it is so rock stable it ran Prime95 and 3Mark2005 for an entire week without a single issue. Sooooo.....

That said, if you are looking for the two most stable S754 boards in existence, there are only two really good choices. First would be the Soltek nForce3 250Gb board, and second (and I have no hard data to backup this one) is the eVGA nForce3 250Gb board using polymer capacitors. The eVGA board is $74 on NewEgg right now, and the Soltek is $84. I have personally used the Solteks and they are totally rock stable, with no bad habits. That said, I will switch over to the eVGA board for it's focus on total stability and reliability as wel as low price for budget builds.

 

[NightCrawler]

There is a new Epox MB out that uses the Nforce 4 for socket 754. It cost $88, don't know if that is budget enough for you. It's on newegg.com

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

I've had the K8N since early September running a 3200 with no overclock. Very stable and no complaints except there seems to be a known problem with connecting up the front USB/FW/audio connectors. Not a big deal really as I'd never use them.

 

[frx218]

Motherboards change over time, recently MSI mobos have been a lot faster and stable, and come with a ton of good features.

 

[WT]

Another vote for the Soltek (AT rated it the best S754 board at stock speeds), altho my next board will be the Asrock K8 Combo .. S754 AND S939.. YUMM !