Reliable A64 SKT939 Board

[bob4432]

may possibly build some machines for a business i am associated with (so i will be called all the time if there is a compute problem anyway) and i don't want the owner to get raped on the pricing by some local store.

was thinking this:
A64 3000Venice (this is overkill but they are good, cool running cpus)
1GB 2x512MB OCZ Value or Performance
Motherboard - ????? Needs to be Reliable over anything else, would like for it to be NF4, passive cooling
video - cheap pci-e, probably x300
Floppy
80-160GB HDD (whatever i can find a good deal on)
Black Antec Case w/ 350W PSU

 

[GlobalHPSJoe]

Originally posted by: bob4432
may possibly build some machines for a business i am associated with (so i will be called all the time if there is a compute problem anyway) and i don't want the owner to get raped on the pricing by some local store.

was thinking this:
A64 3000Venice (this is overkill but they are good, cool running cpus)
1GB 2x512MB OCZ Value or Performance
Motherboard - ????? Needs to be Reliable over anything else, would like for it to be NF4
Floppy
80-160GB HDD (whatever i can find a good deal on)
Black Antec Case w/ 350W PSU

We've had really good luck with the Abit socket 939 pin motherboards, I would recommend one of those personally.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: MonarchJoe

Originally posted by: bob4432
may possibly build some machines for a business i am associated with (so i will be called all the time if there is a compute problem anyway) and i don't want the owner to get raped on the pricing by some local store.

was thinking this:
A64 3000Venice (this is overkill but they are good, cool running cpus)
1GB 2x512MB OCZ Value or Performance
Motherboard - ????? Needs to be Reliable over anything else, would like for it to be NF4
Floppy
80-160GB HDD (whatever i can find a good deal on)
Black Antec Case w/ 350W PSU

We've had really good luck with the Abit socket 939 pin motherboards, I would recommend one of those personally.

anyone in particular? passive cooling?

 

[n7]

Abit AN8 Ultra, or maybe one of the non-Ultras if they still use the passive cooling heatpipe.

 

[pibb]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813127212 ABIT AN8-ULTRA Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131540 ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI

Both have passive cooling, I think i'd go with the Abit because of the cheaper price...

 

[bob4432]

anything a bit cheaper, if i go through with it i will probably be building 7-10 of these, and they are office machines doing simple office stuff that a 1GHz P3 or Athlon could handle, but i don't want to go sempron because the owners are a bit on the "brand, name drop" thing so that is why a 3000venice.....

anybody have any luck with that ati board w/ onbard gpu?

 

[evilharp]

Originally posted by: bob4432
anything a bit cheaper, if i go through with it i will probably be building 7-10 of these, and they are office machines doing simple office stuff that a 1GHz P3 or Athlon could handle, but i don't want to go sempron because the owners are a bit on the "brand, name drop" thing so that is why a 3000venice.....

anybody have any luck with that ati board w/ onbard gpu?

[edit] most highend [/edit]nForce 4 boards are all actively cooled except for the boards listed. The downside of a single chip solution (combined north/south bridge) is heat. Since most NF4 chips are located behind the PCI-E slots, they need low-profile coolers which usually means active cooling. [edit] Note: there are some value nForce4 Ultra and nForce4 4X boards that are passivley cooled [/edit]

The Via, Ati and Uli boards are dual chip (north and south bridge) and most are passively cooled.

The ATI boards with integrated video are fine. The only limitation is they aren't great for overclockers and enthusiasts (most are micro-atx). But that isn't your requirement.

Edited: I found some passive "value" nForce4 boards. So I corrected this post. See my next post (look down)

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: evilharp

Originally posted by: bob4432
anything a bit cheaper, if i go through with it i will probably be building 7-10 of these, and they are office machines doing simple office stuff that a 1GHz P3 or Athlon could handle, but i don't want to go sempron because the owners are a bit on the "brand, name drop" thing so that is why a 3000venice.....

anybody have any luck with that ati board w/ onbard gpu?

nForce 4 boards are all actively cooled except for the boards listed. The downside of a single chip solution (combined north/south bridge) is heat. Since most NF4 chips are located behind the PCI-E slots, they need low-profile coolers which usually means active cooling.

The Via, Ati and Uli boards are dual chip (north and south bridge) and most are passively cooled.

The ATI boards with integrated video are fine. The only limitation is they aren't great for overclockers and enthusiasts (most are micro-atx). But that isn't your requirement.

thanks, mabye that uli1695 asrock board.......

 

[ribbon13]

reliability above all else? passive cooling? integrated video?

Tyan S2865AG2NRF

 

[thescreensavers]

msi k8n neo4.vey reliable also it has something called digi cell its built in to the mobo and regukates voltages and stuff so it runs quiter longer and cooler

 

[evilharp]

Originally posted by: evilharp

Originally posted by: bob4432
anything a bit cheaper, if i go through with it i will probably be building 7-10 of these, and they are office machines doing simple office stuff that a 1GHz P3 or Athlon could handle, but i don't want to go sempron because the owners are a bit on the "brand, name drop" thing so that is why a 3000venice.....

anybody have any luck with that ati board w/ onbard gpu?

nForce 4 boards are all actively cooled except for the boards listed. The downside of a single chip solution (combined north/south bridge) is heat. Since most NF4 chips are located behind the PCI-E slots, they need low-profile coolers which usually means active cooling.

The Via, Ati and Uli boards are dual chip (north and south bridge) and most are passively cooled.

The ATI boards with integrated video are fine. The only limitation is they aren't great for overclockers and enthusiasts (most are micro-atx). But that isn't your requirement.

Oops, I made a mistake...

Most high-end nForce4 boards are actively cooled. Some of the entry level/value boards are passive:

nForce4-Sli boards are actively cooled (except for the Abit and Asus)
nForce4-Ultra boards are mixed,some active and some passive ie:

GA-K8N Ultra-9
GA-K8NF9 Ultra

nForce4-4X boards are almost always passive.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
reliability above all else? passive cooling? integrated video?

Tyan S2865AG2NRF

reliable but reasonably priced, i should have stated that in the beginning.

 

[Googer]

AMD Athlon venice core is a great CPU, but for a guy who is brand conscious a 1.8-2.0GHz Pentium M would settle his nerve and is the ideal processor for an office enviroment becsuse of the low power usage that translates in to a cheaper and quiter operating enviroment that would pay for it's self in less than a year. They (dothan) will not need the Noisy cooling solutions that an Athlon 64 will need. An Intel dothan core Mobile CPU will have more than enough power to get the job done. Pair this up with a DFI motherbord (DFI Builds motherboards for industrial uses so they are very stable like an Intel board). Also PCI-x would help him when he needs an upgrade (network, fibre, or raid controler for redundancy).


Pair that DFI motherboard with this Antec case and you my friend have the perfect office PC.




I think he and his employees would appriciate the silence offerd by a Pentium M, they can talk on the phone and the person on the other end wont be botherd by the sound of a vacuume cleaner running. My other suggestion would be a small form factor pc and beceause more often than not space is at a high premeim in a confined work enviroment. A shuttle style motherboard case combo(video built in) would be my other suggestion.


I would also like to add that two small cheap hdd's set up in RAID 1 would be the perfect way of giving him the relibilty he so desires. A simple hdd crash would cost him thousands, an extra $40-60 second hdd in each pc would save him some headache.

 

[GOREGRINDER]

nforce4 with passive cooling and is proven to be fast and is cheaper than the rest,.....easy answer for ya!

CHAINTECH - VNF4 @ 74bux


onboard?,..umm,..ok how bout this?

BIOSTAR w/Geforce 6100 integrated s939 @69.99

 

[dfloyd]

I second the Chaintech and I was going to suggest it myself but like the other person stated above about Ultras its not passive cooling but it is a great board at a great price. I have been running one for quite a few months now and its been running rock solid.

But considering you are looking to save money your best bet would be to go with one of the integrated solutions. Either Ati or Nvidia based as both are very good and very stable now. I hear the latest Nvidias have caught up with Ati in the graphics dept (On integrated solutions that is, up until now Ati had dominated it) so either will do there. Also check out the Micro Atx boards, lots of integrated choices and very good prices. The integrated solution is definatly the best for anyone wanting to save some cash.

Good luck on your search.

 

[bob4432]

thanks for the recommendations. so far the chaintech is winning out just because although the p-m and sff are very viable options, it keeps the $$$ pretty high. the office does have enough space for a regular mid-atx case plus me being the person to work on them, i don't have the smallest hands and would appreciate some room in the case. having not built an amd machine in a long time(2yrs) although i read constantly to keep up-to-date, the chaintech says it has a fsb of 800MHz, where others claim 1000, what does the difference mean besides the obvious 200MHz?

also, googer your recommendation for running in raid 1 is a great idea. my idea was to have all the "staff" pcs and then a "server" pc although it would just be running with some shared folders and not a real server, then use something like true image to backup up the staff pcs every week or so. i would still do this but the added raid1 security is a great idea, so i would have triple redundancy, and of course everything including the network would be on battery backup.

 

[DaveSimmons]

You could save $100 a system by getting a socket 754 Sempron 2800+ and Biostar Tforce motherboard with onboard nvidia 6100 graphics. (Cheaper CPU, no X300 card.)

It's micro-ATX so you could also use a smaller tower or desktop case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138268

the main drawbacks I see is the built-in network card is 100mbit not gigabit and memory is single-channel since s754 (shouldn't matter for office apps).

You could get the 939 version instead but then you can't use a cheap but fast Sempron CPU.

If you dislike Biostar there are other 6100 and 6150 motherboards at newegg.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
You could save $100 a system by getting a socket 754 Sempron 2800+ and Biostar Tforce motherboard with onboard nvidia 6100 graphics. (Cheaper CPU, no X300 card.)

It's micro-ATX so you could also use a smaller tower or desktop case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138268

the main drawbacks I see is the built-in network card is 100mbit not gigabit and memory is single-channel since s754 (shouldn't matter for office apps).

You could get the 939 version instead but then you can't use a cheap but fast Sempron CPU.

If you dislike Biostar there are other 6100 and 6150 motherboards at newegg.

thanks, no i have nothing with biostar as that is what my "server" is running on and has been for over 2yrs, mostly only 24/7 and only reboot when a windows update requires it. i looked and even a skt754 2800 is only $114, mated with a ~$70 board, a stick of 512MB, a optical drive and 2xhdds in a raid 1 arrangement and this looks like a winner.

are the retail hsf combos loud? approx what size is the fan and what rpm?

what i would probably do is before i built these setups, i would first build 1 of the systems myself and beat it up for a weak with prime95, i figure if i get 96hrs of prime95 stable on torture test, the memory, cpu and m/b are pretty solid. hdds fail as we all know so i would probably go with the a brand that has a 3yr warranty. 100Mb/s is fine for lan.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: bob4432
thanks for the recommendations. so far the chaintech is winning out just because although the p-m and sff are very viable options, it keeps the $$$ pretty high. the office does have enough space for a regular mid-atx case plus me being the person to work on them, i don't have the smallest hands and would appreciate some room in the case. having not built an amd machine in a long time(2yrs) although i read constantly to keep up-to-date, the chaintech says it has a fsb of 800MHz, where others claim 1000, what does the difference mean besides the obvious 200MHz?

also, googer your recommendation for running in raid 1 is a great idea. my idea was to have all the "staff" pcs and then a "server" pc although it would just be running with some shared folders and not a real server, then use something like true image to backup up the staff pcs every week or so. i would still do this but the added raid1 security is a great idea, so i would have triple redundancy, and of course everything including the network would be on battery backup.

Thanks for the complement!

Go with a mobile CPU, it is so appropriate for an office enviroment: Quite, Cool, Cheap to run (cost differance pays for it's self), and smaller cases will take up less space. They are about as powerfull these days as their desktop cousins.

If you plan on using raid 1 find a motherboard with one PCI-X slot, even if it is intergrated on the motherboard.


The differance with 200MHz is the CPU that it will support. 1000Mhz boards will support 1000MHz and 800Mhz Hypertransport links. 800MHz will not work with 1000Mhz. So I guess (sub par quality)chaintech is out of the question.

 

[Googer]

Nvidia 6150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131570

Nvidia 6100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131571

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Googer
Nvidia 6150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131570

Nvidia 6100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131571

thanks, these look like viable options. i understand what you are saying about the mobile cpus as i have a laptop with a p-m 1.6GHz and it is quite fast, cool and has very good battery life. the problem is the price as they seem to be ~$200+, which for what i am doing i feel is overkill.

if i build these they will need to be approx the same price as a dell business machine, so about $700 for the box alone, but this will need to include a copy of xp pro oem. less than $700 for a box will be kind of close including xp pro for ~$150.

 

[Googer]

Most opterons are 800 MHz, except for the newest revisions 152/252/852 and higher almost all use 1000 MHz.

Most Socket 754 Athlon 64's and All Semprons use 800 MHz

All Socket 939 Athlon 64 CPUs use 1000MHz

Mobile Turion 64 30watt (Pentium M Competitior) use 800Mhz.

 

[bob4432]

thanks

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: Googer
Nvidia 6150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131570

Nvidia 6100
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131571

thanks, these look like viable options. i understand what you are saying about the mobile cpus as i have a laptop with a p-m 1.6GHz and it is quite fast, cool and has very good battery life. the problem is the price as they seem to be ~$200+, which for what i am doing i feel is overkill.

if i build these they will need to be approx the same price as a dell business machine, so about $700 for the box alone, but this will need to include a copy of xp pro oem. less than $700 for a box will be kind of close including xp pro for ~$150.

All of these Mobile Processors are under $290. The Sweet Spot: $216 MT34- 1.8Ghz

The faster hypertransport link helps, but 200Mhz is not a real performance killer.

Some SFF Kit- 100-$250 and less-
#1 Pick

SFF
$61- ASROCK Motherboard with nVIDIA 61...oduct/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157084[/l]
Antech Aria SFF Case- $95
Total Cost for a better SFF system han the other listed above- $156

Cost With ASROCK Motherboard ($61, Aria Case($95 wtih PSU), and ($183) MT32 Turion 64 CPU -$339
Add Two $50 8mb cache 7,200 RPM HDD's for RAID 1 $439
Add 1 stick of a Gigabyte of RAM $542
XP PRO- ($129)
Optical DVD Drive- Appox-$30-50
Total System Cost About $721

Add $33 if you want to upgrade to the MT34.

All buisness are looking for a good ROI (return on investment) a mobile platform like this will probably be his best bet for a good ROI. He will get the extra $50-70 he is spending on iit back a year later after all the power bills have been paid. His emploiees willl be happier, they wont have to listen to the computer whinning and humming, and it will take up less space saving him from having to move.

 

[Googer]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822145082