What's a good non via chipset AMD mobo?

[hkssupra69]

I've been having problems with my ati vid card in CS and I think it might have to do with the fact that the mobo uses a VIA chipset so I was thinking of upgrading the mobo and trying to stay away from those chipsets. What is a good mobo for a decent price? thanks

 

[bgeh]

i would recommend the nforce or nforce 2 by nvidia
the Epox 8RDA+ is based on the nforce 2 chipset and is currently selling from $105-$125(rough estimates)

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: bgeh
i would recommend the nforce or nforce 2 by nvidia
the Epox 8RDA+ is based on the nforce 2 chipset and is currently selling from $105-$125(rough estimates)

Good advice..

The 8RDA+ can be had for under $100 @ Mwave.

 

[Confused]

Running the 8RDA+ here, VERY happy with it!

This system (8RDA+, TbredB 1700+ @ 2GHz, 2x256 PC2100 DDR) seems faster than my P4 2.4B @ 2.93GHz, 512 PC2700 DDR, Asus P4PE, with the same GFX card (GF4 Ti4200) and same HDD (WD SE 80GB)



Confused

 

[hkssupra69]

I wish I could get the nforce2 but I don't think I can fit that in my budget just yet. Didn't the nforce 1's have some problems initially? Any other cheaper chipsets maybe?

 

[Confused]

Last time round I skimped some money on the motherboard, and went for the ECS K7S5A, over a KT266A motherboard. I wish I had waited a little while to get the extra little money, and have got a better board.

My advice is wait a week or two and get an nForce2 board



Confused

 

[nick1985]

nforce 2, asus and epox are the brands to be had

 

[hkssupra69]

how is the 8k3a+?

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: hkssupra69
how is the 8k3a+?

That is a good board, but it a Via KT333 chipset...you said you wanted to avoid Via.

 

[Acts837]

I left AMD chips because of VIA. I now have a ECS K7S5A and an EPoX 8RDA+. The EPoX wins hands down.

 

[hkssupra69]

Originally posted by: Insane3D

Originally posted by: hkssupra69
how is the 8k3a+?

That is a good board, but it a Via KT333 chipset...you said you wanted to avoid Via.

ah didn't know, I just saw people saying it was a good stable board, thanks insane

 

[rbV5]

My IWill board is a good overclocker, very stable and uses ALI Magik , but they're getting harder to find. $75 w/RAID with a good reseller rating.

 

[k1114]

8RDA+

 

[hkssupra69]

nothing under 100 dollars?

 

[yodayoda]

here are my recommendations:

nForce2 chipset -> Epox 8RDA http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?description=13-123-192 $88 at newegg
nForce1 220 (not dual channel DDR mind you) chipset -> Asus A7N266-VN http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?description=13-131-433 $72 at newegg
SiS 745 chipset -> AOpen AK75 http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?description=13-137-008 $58 at newegg
SiS 735 chipset -> ECS K7S5A Pro (with USB 2.0) http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?description=13-135-126 $60 at newegg

if you are smart, you will stay the hell away from ATi and ALi chipsets. AMD chipset is good but slow and Via is seriously crippled.

 

[hkssupra69]

thanks for all the links yoda, hey I saw that you have the nf7-s, does that have optical out? I'm really interested in getting it cuz I have an md unit, how's the board, lmk thanks.

 

[Insidious]

I've been eyeballing the NF7-S also, Looks nice (waiting for NewEgg to tell me if they are shipping V1.0 (no HSF mounting holes) or V1.1 (with HSF mounting holes)

If you find this one for < $100, please let me know (PM). I'm pretty sure it will be over that just about everywhere for a while.

NF7-S Linkage

(I didn't see optical out.)

-Sid

 

[Skitzer]

Insidious, I picked up a NF7-S last week from Newegg, (they are shipping out the rev 1.1 boards). The new rev 1.2 boards will be out in a couple weeks but I understand the only difference is higher voltage settings in the bios. So far this board ROCKS! I am awaiting new memory to get my fsb up to 200 (Hopefully).

 

[Insidious]

Originally posted by: Skitzer
Insidious, I picked up a NF7-S last week from Newegg, (they are shipping out the rev 1.1 boards). The new rev 1.2 boards will be out in a couple weeks but I understand the only difference is higher voltage settings in the bios. So far this board ROCKS! I am awaiting new memory to get my fsb up to 200 (Hopefully).

music to my ears!

Thx Skitzer

 

[gtd2000]

Originally posted by: hkssupra69
I've been having problems with my ati vid card in CS and I think it might have to do with the fact that the mobo uses a VIA chipset so I was thinking of upgrading the mobo and trying to stay away from those chipsets. What is a good mobo for a decent price? thanks

well I'd say if you don't want to overclock then the

ECS K7S5A PRO would be a decent choice for $60 shipped.

 

[Peter]

I'm tempted to suggest you fix your problem, hkssupra69. Which most certainly are not mainboard related. Question your power supply, check the RAM (www.memtest86.com), verify proper cooling of everything.

If you want an affordable mainboard to reuse SDRAM on, K7S5A pro is the choice of the day. If it's DDR, you might want to get something with a more recent chipset, like L7S7A or L7S7A2.

 

[hkssupra69]

thing is i'm not the only person that has this problem, there is a whole forum on this thing over at rage3d.com, mainly with ati/amd/via/xp combos. its not a big problem, its just a drop in framerates in open spaces. dunno its annoying because I upgraded to not have problems like this.

 

[rbV5]

if you are smart, you will stay the hell away from ATi and ALi chipsets

Why? Nothing wrong with ALi on my rig, I highly recommend the XP 333-R.

 

[Peter]

ALi chipsets still connect the southbridge through the same PCI bus the slots are on. Old architecture, huge bandwidth bottleneck there. That's the complaint. And then the RAM controller isn't exactly the fastest either.
There's nothing "wrong" with them, it's just that all the others have done better meanwhile.

 

[rbV5]

ALi chipsets still connect the southbridge through the same PCI bus the slots are on. Old architecture, huge bandwidth bottleneck there

What huge bandwidth bottleneck are we talking?