Still no verdict on AM2 motherboards

[River Side]

If I were in the AMD marketing department, i'd be paying money or adding incentives to retailers to come up with AM2 mobos that overclocked well.. AND making sure testing samples arrived at the popular review websites..

but looks like Intel has outplayed AMD.. the Conroe buying guide was before the processor was even generally available and we still don't know which AM2 mobo's to go with for overclocking!???

AMD is going to lose this round really bad...

 

[River Side]

*crickets*

 

[Zap]

My take is to go by socket 754/939 results. My Biostar Tforce6100 AM2 seems good to the low 300's HTT. Had it at 330MHz HTT but failed CPU Burn-in and haven't tried it any lower yet. Still, that's consistent with what I've seen from the "same" board in other socket flavors.

 

[River Side]

well there is no Lan Party AM2 out .. at least not yet..

 

[Zap]

Overclocking doesn't start and end with DFI.

 

[River Side]

ok.. what are the good candidates in AM2 currently available? I have no brand allegiance so I'm ok to any solid board..

 

[Zap]

The usual suspects. DFI Infinity, Asus, Abit, Biostar Tforce is an up-and-comer. Gigabyte, MSI are probably okay too.

 

[opmike]

I upgraded from my M2N-E (thing gave me nothing but headaches) to the Foxconn C51XEM2AA. It's not as picky with memory as some of the Asus models can be; but I'm still waiting for my AS5 so that I can start overclocking. It's seems to be one of the better premium boards at the moment.

 

[OBCT]

Originally posted by: River Side
If I were in the AMD marketing department, i'd be paying money or adding incentives to retailers to come up with AM2 mobos that overclocked well.. AND making sure testing samples arrived at the popular review websites..

How much of the market overclocks? AMD makes their money with basic hardware, not the stuff we (the enthusiasts) really want.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Zap
Overclocking doesn't start and end with DFI.

Yes it does blasphemer!

 

[River Side]

Originally posted by: OBCT
How much of the market overclocks? AMD makes their money with basic hardware, not the stuff we (the enthusiasts) really want.

that's like saying how much of the market uses X1900XTX in a crossfire config, yet the graphics market is dedicated to gamers ONLY...

ordinary people buy PC's from Best Buy or Dell.. and they get the Semprons. When it comes to performance CPU's and with Conroes challenges, AMD should be scrambling to ensure AM2 boards are out and reviews done... as long as Conroe supplies are low and prices high, prospective builders might just give up and go AM2 IF there are no doubts and fears plaguing AM2 boards like the Conroe boards..

 

[Captante]

Originally posted by: opmike
I upgraded from my M2N-E (thing gave me nothing but headaches) to the Foxconn C51XEM2AA. It's not as picky with memory as some of the Asus models can be; but I'm still waiting for my AS5 so that I can start overclocking. It's seems to be one of the better premium boards at the moment.

After initial good results with this board in a system I built for a friend (who happily is out of town till 9/1!) I have to say I agree & suggest that this board be avoided... my problems began when I decided to upgrade the on-board sound with a Audigy 2 ZS I had sitting around. The card installed fine, machine booted right up & drivers went in without a hiccup too... problems began when I shut the PC down. A few hours later when I tried to power up, it simply refused to POST... power light blinked on & then it immediatly shut down... no beeps, no chance to enter BIOS.. nothing. I changed every setting in the BIOS with the card removed, tried all 3 available PCI slots, tried the X-Fi in my computer but had the same problems.

At this point I'm RMA'ing the M2N-E to Newegg in a couple days when its MSI replacement arrives... I suggest that unless & until Asus makes MAJOR improvements you go with another model!

 

[Skott]

The ASUS M2N32-Deluxe is probably the best OCer currently for AM2 chips. There are some others but the ASUS is the more popular one from what I'm seeing. I hear its picky about what RAM modules it likes so make sure the mobo supports your choice before buying it.

 

[River Side]

well the M2N32-Deluxe is like over $200.. .see with that kinda money Conroe seems like the best choice .. and this is the whole problem.. if we had an AM2 buying guide or information about cheaper AM2 boards providing adequate FSB's i'd look seriously into an AM2 solution..

for now.. all roads are leading to Conroe..

 

[Skott]

I'm just answering this part of your post, "we still don't know which AM2 mobo's to go with for overclocking!???" Yes, we do. Right now its the ASUS M2N32-Deluxe until something comes out that is better. Yes, its expensive as all top end mobos are. Not gonna get around that wether you go Intel or AMD. The top end Intel mobos that are currently out are over $200 too. Newer and better top end mobos will also go over $200. This is the way things are in the mobo industry now. If you want the best of the best wether Intel or AMD expect to pay $200 or more for the mobo.

 

[River Side]

Not quite..

just take socket 939.. DFI LP is legendary and is around $110.. the Epox that tested right below it was in the same price range.. the Abits weren't bad either.

As for intel's offerings.. the Gigabyte DS3 is making waves.. the MSI 975x is yet another bad boy and they're all under $150.. If all we have on AM2 are the flagships (the M2N32 and the Foxconn) than there is hardly any reason left to adopt AM2.. at least for me.

 

[996GT2]

MSI isn't known to make the BEST overclocking mobos, but my k9N Platinum AM2 board overclocks beyond the limits of my CPU, so I'd say it's pretty good. And the best part? It costs just a tad over $100. The newer V1.2 BIOS fixes many of the issues people had with the earlier BIOS, and also defaults RAM voltage at 1.9V for high performance DDR2 modules.

BTW, it can POST at 288HTT*11 with 1.58V. That's 3.2 GHz on an AM2 3500+. I have yet to go higher on the vCore, but I don't really see a point...

 

[River Side]

Thanks.. that was enouraging.. I will definitely give it a long hard look.. the devil of Conroe is so enticing though..

 

[Skott]

As far as Conroe goes I prefer to wait for better mobos. The ones out now have too many problems and limitations for my liking. I'm glad to hear the MSI K9N Platinum BIOS update fixed some of its problems. In one review I read about it was that in raw performance it and the M2N32-deluxe were about tied but they each had their own set of unique problems. The K9N for example had a better slot layout for wide cards but then they had problems with some other components too close to the slots and DIMMs. Not a problem for those not adding extra cooling or overclocking but for those that were the review said it caused problems with things being too close. Thats a physical problem though that cant be solved by a BIOS upgrade unfortunately.