What motherboard for my 4400 x2?

[Markbnj]

Well I guess I have to make the leap. A perfect storm of factors is driving me toward a motherboard replacement. First there is (Oblivion + 6800GT-AGP) @ (1680 x 1050) == groveling GPU begs for mercy. Then there was the power outage that porked something and killed the nForce 100 mbit ethernet controller. On top of that the Marvell Yukon NIC that I am using now keeps dropping my connection every few hours.

So I am thinking it is an appropriate time to upgrade to a PCIe motherboard. I want something nf4, that will be happy with my Corsair 3-3-3-8 1 gig sticks, with all the usual ports and goodies. I don't care about onboard GPU or sound. I do want to be able to overclock the CPU, as I currently do. Would be nice if I could get 10 x 250 which is what I am running now, or better. Lots of slots is nice, and it has to fit in a Wavemaster. Price isn't the primary concern, but since I need a 7900 GTX512 too, it shouldn't be too expensive .

Thanks for any recommendations.

 

[MDE]

I've had very good luck with the Epox 9NPA+ Ultra and the Abit KN8 SLI. Both ran my X2 3800+ @ 2.55GHz flawlessly.

 

[Markbnj]

Thanks. That ePox board looks nice. So does the Abit, but I don't think I would go SLI, as it appears to cost a PCI slot. How is the BIOS support on these boards? Do they supply a flash tool like giga?

 

[keeleysam]

I have the Epox board, and love it.

As for the BIOS, it is very nice, and can be updated from within Windows.

 

[Markbnj]

Cool, I like the Epox better of the two at the moment, because it has the additional PCI slot, and I don't think I am ever going SLI. Are the PCIe x1 slots backward compatible with PCI?

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: Markbnj
Cool, I like the Epox better of the two at the moment, because it has the additional PCI slot, and I don't think I am ever going SLI. Are the PCIe x1 slots backward compatible with PCI?

No they're not.

 

[Markbnj]

Ah, thanks. I think I want more PCI slots. What uses PCe x1 at this time? I've heard people talk about PCIe sound cards and whatnot. I'm guessing not much goes in those slots?

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: Markbnj
Ah, thanks. I think I want more PCI slots. What uses PCe x1 at this time? I've heard people talk about PCIe sound cards and whatnot. I'm guessing not much goes in those slots?

Not much at all. There's some SATA cards and TV cards. There will be more down the road.

 

[keeleysam]

Originally posted by: MDE

Originally posted by: Markbnj
Ah, thanks. I think I want more PCI slots. What uses PCe x1 at this time? I've heard people talk about PCIe sound cards and whatnot. I'm guessing not much goes in those slots?

Not much at all. There's some SATA cards and TV cards. There will be more down the road.

There are also a couple video cards, fibre channel cards, and scsi.