What to buy for a new mobo

[nboy22]

I'm wondering what is a safe buy with a time frame away from the faulty capacitors incident. I bought my Epox 8k3a+ 2 years ago and just my luck it has faulty capacitors. My dad said we would try to solder new capacitors on it if they ever went out so I'm wondering what is a safe buy just incase that doesn't work out. Just like 1 year old mobos are fine?

 

[Insane3D]

For Socket A, I would suggest the Abit NF7-S.

 

[nboy22]

I'm looking at a AMD Athlon XP 3200+ but I'm not sure, I want a mobo that comes with the 400 Mhz FSB for sure. I was looking at Asus boards. Never seen an Abit in action. I'd also like something that is surely not to fail at hotter temps, and maybe comes with a 3 year warranty, but I guess one year is fine just as long as it's not faulty like the board I have now. And lastly, definately something with Temperature monitors built in, I'm sure most Asus's do.

 

[Insane3D]

The Abit is considered the top Socket A board right now IMO. The Asus is ok, but the Abit is a much nicer board IMO. The NF7-S handles 400mhz FSB, and is certified to do so, and Abit has much better tech support than Asus.

All the socket A boards have temperture monitoring included. One more thing, Asus is the most well known motherboard maker, but in recent years, there have been much better boards for the AMD side than the Asus offerings. They sort of count on people like you who think Asus is the standard.

I'm not saying the Asus is a bad board, but the NF7-S is a much better board IMO. Post a thread in the motherboard forum about what is a good board for the 3200+ and I bet you will see the NF7-S come up a lot.

 

[nboy22]

Ok thanks, I'll take that into consideration. Also, is the heatsink fan on the chipset loud?

 

[Insane3D]

Not really. Some people just replace it with a passive unit. Also, the Abit's all carry a full 3 year warranty.

If you happen to go with that board, feel free to send me a private message (you need to enable them), and I would be glad to help you out setting it up. The board can be had for $85 shipped 2 day, and includes Soundstorm 5.1 sound, SATA/RAID, onboard LAN, onboard Firewire, and 6 USB 2.0 ports.

 

[nboy22]

I'm thinking about going all out and buying the Athlon XP 3000+ also. So I'll also be getting the zalman 6 channel fan controller and some arctic silver 5, so I'll definately have a nice upgrade. Total (Before tax): $ 258.98.. I'll have to see if my dad can order it for me and I can pay him back, I've got about a little over half of that money right now, and I'll have the rest in probably less than a month.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Originally posted by: nboy22
I'm thinking about going all out and buying the Athlon XP 3000+ also. So I'll also be getting the zalman 6 channel fan controller and some arctic silver 5, so I'll definately have a nice upgrade. Total (Before tax): $ 258.98.. I'll have to see if my dad can order it for me and I can pay him back, I've got about a little over half of that money right now, and I'll have the rest in probably less than a month.

Are you into overclocking?

 

[nboy22]

No, not really yet.

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: nboy22
Ok thanks, I'll take that into consideration. Also, is the heatsink fan on the chipset loud?

Yes, that fan is annoyingly loud IMO. I'm thinking about replacing it with passive heatsink like the one in my 8RDA+.

 

[moonsite]

I can get the same setup for almost $100 less.

Athlon XP 2500+ overclocked to 3200+ $75
Thermal Take TT2T? heatsink and fan $13
Abit NF7-S motherboard $85.

Ofcourse if you don't care about SATA, WireFire, and Soundstorm Audio, you can save another $30 by getting the Shuttle A35N mainboard.

 

[Zepper]

The Abit KV7 should also be good at a few $$s less.
.bh.

 

[nboy22]

I'm looking for something that is going to be quiet, yet gonna give me some of those fast features.