What's a cheap PCI-E mobo w/many PCI slots?

[pieman7]

I just checked out the "The ULTIMATE Motherboard Selection Guide For New Users". Very informative with a lot of good posts.

My current mobo supports only AGP but I got a heck of a deal on a Radeon X800 128MB PCI-E (thanks to Anandtech's HOT DEALS forum!), and now it needs a home. The Chaintech VNF4 Ultra seemed the way to go, but I've got too many PCI cards I want to reuse, and VNF4 only has 3 regular PCI slots:
1 - TV tuner card
1 - Firewire card (unless mobo supports firewire, and VNF4 Ultra does not)
1 - IDE ctrl card - got all my optical and HDD drives on separate ctrls for perf
1 - discrete sound card
Also, I've been unable to find adequate pics of the X800 so I don't know if it's so big that it covers up one of the regular PCI slots.

Mobo preferences:
- AMD64 939 with PCI-E
- no overclocking required
- no SLI required
- 8+ USB 2.0 ports
- onboard 10/100 LAN
- SATA (I or II) support
- Firewire support a plus, especially on-board pin connectors because my case has a front port I'd like to make useful. However, I've not seen many mobos that have this.

Any comments/recommendations welcome.

 

[imported_OrSin]

1. Most boards have firewire.
2. IDE card will not give you any better perform then using th onboard controller. Also thye don't have the limitation you thye used to have back in the day. A DVD drive will not slow down the bus or the hard drive anymore. SO that card is not needed either.
3. Some systems no have HD audio, so your sound card might not be needed.

I went thought he same thing when I upgrade. I want to keep all my old stuff, becuase some of it I paid good money money for. But in realty the stuff on board is better than most discrete parts that over 3 years old. I said most so don't in uproar AT readers.

With all that most full size boards have 3 PCI slots. Some less if you get SLI MB.
Just choice the 3 you like most then look up thier specs at Newegg or someother spot.

 

[pieman7]

The extra IDE ctrl is there is solve a conflict with the DVD-ROM and the HD. Maybe this won't be a problem with an updated mobo?

You're right about the onboard audio - probably be as good or better than my discrete audio card anyway. It's tough to part with some hardware 🙂

After doing a quick search at newegg for 1394 (no hits with "firewire") there are plenty of 939 mobos with 1394 onboard connectors. Guess it helps to choose the right key search words.

Thanks OrSin.

 

[Pyrokinetic]

I run an ASUS A8V-E Deluxe board (VIA K8T890 chipset) and is a great board. The only real drawback is that it will not support the X2 dual-core processors. This board has firewire included and will support 8 usb 2.0 ports. You also will not need the IDE control card either with this board. I has 3 PCI slots which will work with your TV tuner and discrete sound card. The X800 128MB is a single-slot card (unless it has an aftermarket cooler) and should not block any other slots. The board also comes with integrated Wi-Fi. It is usually available for $120.

Another good choice would be the Epox EP-9NPA3ULTRA, but you would have to use the firewire card. It runs about $85.

 

[pieman7]

I found the following mobo which sports 4 regular PCI slots, and seems to have everything else I want:

Foxconn NF4UK8AA-8EKRS Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

Thanks to all who posted comments!