Recommend AMD Mobo? Comments/suggestions please...

[nmcglennon]

I am planning on building a new computer here in the next week or so, and I already have 2 DIMMS of 128Mb (ea) PC2100 DDR SDRAM (from a previous comp), an Athlon XP 2100+, and a GeForce 4 Ti 4200 128 Mb DDR Graphics Card. I am looking for a good, stable board with some high quility integrated audio and probably onboard 10/100 LAN. I don't need any sort of integrated video since I have a GF4. I don't overclock much, so I don't need something that is just for overclocking. Price isn't too much of an issue, but I would like to stay under $200. I don't need RAID either... I just use 2 IDE HDs. What boards do you guys suggest? I am open to any comments/suggestions you have. Thanks in advance!

Email me at nmcglennon@mail.utexas.edu... thanks in advance.

 

[Boonesmi]

if you want "high" quality onboard sound, and onboard LAN i would suggest the Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra

it has 6 channel cmedia sound (with SPDIF audio connectors)
a breakout box that you can mount in a 3.5" or 5.25" bay that has (4) usb 2.0 ports
onboard RAID controller (even though you dont need it, at least you can add more drives if you ever want )
LAN

its sure not the cheapest board, but its probably the most feature rich, high quality board you can find
cost is near $150

 

[nmcglennon]

Sounds good... $150 isn't too bad. Especially for the 'free' sound and 'free' LAN. Can I use the PC2100 DDR SDRAM with it, or would I have to buy new (and expensive) PC2700 DDR SDRAM? Ive sorta been outta the loop on the hardware stuff for the past year and haven't been able to figure that out yet...

 

[nmcglennon]

What is the difference in the Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra and the Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra Platinum? I know they have different PCB colors, but is that it?

 

[Boonesmi]

i could be wrong, but i belive the only difference is the color

and yup it supports both pc2100 and pc2700 ram

using your current ram will be fine since your not overclocking.. about the only time you need pc2700 is if you plan on overclocking the fsb to 166mhz

there is very little performance gain to using pc2700 with a 166mhz memory and 133mhz fsb

 

[Boonesmi]

ohh i think the Platinum also comes with a "smart card" reader

 

[CelticDemolition]

i would go with abit at7 series based on the via kt333 chipset. like the soyo board, its got raid (4 channels if you want it), integrated lan, integrated c-media 6-channel surround sound, and a sp/dif connector. but whats cool about this board is it has NO LEGACY DEVICES! its got no ps2, no parallel, no serial ports, nothing but usb2.0 and firewire (and plenty of both)! if you have all usb stuff then this board is magic. i used the intel version to build a system for my dad a few weeks back, but i have no reason to believe that the amd version is any less stellar. heres a review for you...

edit: oh, and no integrated video either.

 

[yodayoda]

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?description=13-135-102

the refurb is $31 with free shipping. just dropped a XP 1800+ in this board for my brother and it is kicking ass.

 

[daclayman]

I like the ECS K7S6A better because it flat out flys. It has VCore/FSB adjusts, so you can OC too. $45/shipped refurb at Newegg.com

 

[fa28]

I've been looking for a new MB also. Check out here and Anandtech's MB roundup for comparison of features of some of these boards. I also went to PriceGrabber (pricegrabber.com) to look up some prices and read comments of people who bought these boards. Seems some people have problems with even the highly rated boards and some no problems at all. Things to look for : USB 2.0, thermal protection,and raid is a nice extra. Have fun.