Still Unclear on S754 Motherboards

[eVaoVe]

I'm building a rig soon, but I'm still unclear on which S754 board to buy. I want the ASUS K8N-E because I've heard that ASUS is known for their excellent boards and such, but It seems like it has a problems. People are saying they can't get past 220 on the HTT no matter what. My next choice is the MSI Neo Platinum but I hear that theres little problems here and there.

So what board do you guys recommend? Or any clear ups on the ASUS / MSI boards mentioned above? I'll be overclocking (I need a 250HTT).

 

[Bar81]

Please read a thread all the way through. There's no problem with overclocking on the Asus K8N-E Flash the BIOS to 1.04 or 1.05 and you'll be fine.

 

[Imyourzero]

I have been going through the same thing. I had also considered the MSI and Asus boards, but like you I kept reading about various problems with each.

To be honest with you, it seems like ALL of the A64 boards have issues. Some more serious than others. Initially I was just reading reviews of the boards on various sites, and I didn't see very many problems. However, when I started scanning user reviews and forum posts, the problems and complaints started to appear in vast numbers. The boards that appear to have the least amount of problems right now (from what I've read) are the Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR, the ASRock K8S8X, and the DFI LANParty UT board, although the DFI hasn't really been out long enough to hear of many problems but it appears to be a pretty solid bet (as well as hands-down the best overclocking A64 board you can get).

It's weird because some people will claim to have no issues with a particular board or setup, while for others a similar setup will prove to be a nightmare. I think part of the problem is that A64 boards seem to be picky about memory, but I'm starting to read about people having SATA/IDE issues as well. The good news is that some of this is fixed in BIOS releases as time goes on, but it's best to do some research before you buy instead of blindly picking a product because you read posts from a couple of people that liked it.

 

[McArra]

See it yourself, DFI owns.... (if you're overclocking, if not buy K8N-E deluxe)

 

[WT]

From the above link on Anand -

If you do not plan to overclock your motherboard, then any of these three boards will provide excellent performance. For these users, we would lean toward the Soltek for a non-overclocked system simply because it is so fast at stock speed and it also is an excellent value at less than $100.

Not sure why you link that article but then recommend a K8N-E.

 

[McArra]

Because I like Asus, they usually are great boards and if you look at the benchies, the Asus a lot of times scores a lot higher than the others and when falling behind is just by a very little margin.

 

[WT]

Thx McArra .... I didn't intend to flame, just hoped to give the OP a choice with some good opinions and reviews so that whichever board was bought was a good buy. You really can't go wrong with any of the boards in the Anand article and should buy based on your particular criteria and/or needs (ie: your existing RAM is known to work well with the board, extra SATA on the board to power your RAID drives).

 

[McArra]

Originally posted by: WT
Thx McArra .... I didn't intend to flame, just hoped to give the OP a choice with some good opinions and reviews so that whichever board was bought was a good buy. You really can't go wrong with any of the boards in the Anand article and should buy based on your particular criteria and/or needs (ie: your existing RAM is known to work well with the board, extra SATA on the board to power your RAID drives).

Sorry, didn't mean to sound rude

 

[WT]

You didn't come across as rude at all ... I was just being courteous so you knew my intentions were good.
:beer:

Anyhoo, there's plenty of threads to give you more info .. so I'll link them here.

754 board thread

and another ...

and yet another ...

Have fun reading, that should keep you busy until you get frustrated and decide to just toss names in a hat and pull one out.

 

[inline6]

my asus k8vse deluxe didnt recognize amd64 (3200+) w/o a bios upgrade. not that if you go for asus 754s, a BIOS upgrade is almost unavoidable. asus will ship the new BIOS chip for free though (unless you have another working rig to Xfer the chip)

 

[RaymondY]

Get the Chaintech VNF-250 mobo. I love mine!!! Have my A64 2800+ (1.8ghz) o/c to 2.3ghz right now with 100% stability. It was so stable that I reinstalled WinXP Pro at 2.3ghz.

 

[HumblePie]

Do like me and wait until the DFI board becomes a bit more available. I have no computer right now due to my asus a7n8x-e taking a crap out, and had to RMA it back. This past week and the next 2 weeks are going to suck for me until I get something in I can use but I don't want to settle for something temporary right now.

Chances are, I'm going to get the DFI board and a DTR amd64 proc. Then just give my parts my older xp proc and mobo when it comes in or something. Not sure yet on what I'm going to do with my old stuff.

 

[LocutusX]

Since I was able to come very close to hitting the limit of my Newcastle 3000+ on an Asus K8N-E, I have no problems recommending it. Sure I'd likely get a better overclock from the DFI, but probably only about +50mhz or so.

I hear the Soltek is also a very solid board, worth choosing if you don't need 1394. Me, I'm glad I got a board with 1394 because I was able to borrow a friend's expensive Canon DVCam last weekend and mess around with it, create some funky "home DVDs"... I think I'm going to buy a DVCam now.

 

[User5]

If your not overclocking, go with like an Asus K8V SE or MSI K8T FIS2R. Seems to me like there are a lot less problems with the older VIA chipset boards than the new nvidia chipset boards, just that the VIA boards arent big overclockers.

But since you are ocing, go with the new DFI board coming out.. Im sure it will still have its fair share of problems though, so dont expect it to be trouble free.