Which AM2 board do I get?!%#%#!%

[soon81]

Hello all.,
I am looking to purchase a cheap AM2 motherboard with Geforce 6100 integrated

I have the following options:
Asus M2NPV-VM Socket AM2 nForce 570
ECS C51GM-M Skt AM2 Nvidia GeForce 6100 AM2 Motherboard, Video Audio LAN SATA
ECS RS485M-M (V1.0) ATI RADEON X300 SATA AM2 Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-M51GM-S2G Skt AM2 Audio Lan SATA2 PCI-E
GIGABYTE GA-M55plus-S3G Skt AM2 Audio Lan SATA2 PCI-E
Currently my favorite choice is Asus or Gigabyte motherboard..
Which one is better? they are all @ ~ price range..
Thx for the help.

 

[grooge]

I just ordered the ECS RS485M-M for a customer build. I should have it assembled next week end. It has a nice deal on it, that's mainly why I got it. But I don't think that you'll go wrong with any of them, as long as they have the feature you need and the price is good. Just get a nice PSU with them.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: soon81
Hello all.,
I am looking to purchase a cheap AM2 motherboard with Geforce 6100 integrated

I have the following options:
Asus M2NPV-VM Socket AM2 nForce 570
ECS C51GM-M Skt AM2 Nvidia GeForce 6100 AM2 Motherboard, Video Audio LAN SATA
ECS RS485M-M (V1.0) ATI RADEON X300 SATA AM2 Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-M51GM-S2G Skt AM2 Audio Lan SATA2 PCI-E
GIGABYTE GA-M55plus-S3G Skt AM2 Audio Lan SATA2 PCI-E
Currently my favorite choice is Asus or Gigabyte motherboard..
Which one is better? they are all @ ~ price range..
Thx for the help.

The M2NPV-VM uses Nforce 6150 +430 (not 570). I have built ~30 of them now, and they all work quite well.

 

[Zappo]

I Like the ASUS and Gigabyte too, here is the spec according to my supplier main differences in bold

Gigabyte
Form Factor: uATX
CPU Socket: AM2

FSB Speed: 1000 MHz
Chipset: NF430

Memory Type: DDR2
Memory Type (ECC): Non-ECC
Memory Type (R/U): Unbuffered

Memory Speed (Mhz):
400
533
667
800


Memory Capacity: 16Gb
On Board VGA:
Graphics Interface: PCI-E (x16)


Expansion Slots: 2 x PCI (32 bit)
1 x PCI-Express (x1)
1 x PCI-Express (x16 Graphics)


SATA: SATA II
RAID: SATA RAID


Back Panel: 1 x 10/100/1000 (LAN)
1 x 7.1 Audio I/O
1 x D-Sub
1 x Firewire
1 x Line In
1 x Line Out
1 x Mic In
1 x Parallel (LPT)
1 x PS/2 Keyboard
1 x PS/2 Mouse
1 x Serial (COM)
4 x USB 2.0/1.1


Internal I/O: 1 x 24pin (V)
1 x 4pin (V)
1 x CD-In
2 x Fan Header (V)
1 x Floppy
1 x FP Audio Header
2 x IDE
2 x IEEE1394
4 x SATA II
1 x Serial (COM)
1 x SPDIF-In
1 x SPDIF-Out
2 x USB2.0/1.1



ASUS

Form Factor: uATX
CPU Socket: AM2
FSB Speed: 2000 MHz
Chipset: NF430
Memory Type: DDR2
Memory Type (ECC): ECC/Non-ECC
Memory Type (R/U): Unbuffered
Memory Speed (Mhz):
533
667
800
Memory Capacity: 8Gb
On Board VGA:
Graphics Interface: PCI-E (x16)
Expansion Slots: 2 x PCI (32 bit)
1 x PCI-Express (x1)
1 x PCI-Express (x16 Graphics)

SATA: SATA II
RAID: SATA RAID

Back Panel: 1 x 10/100/1000 (LAN)
1 x 5.1 Audio I/O
1 x Component Out
1 x Composite (Analog TV-Out)
1 x D-Sub
1 x DVI
1 x Firewire
1 x Parallel (LPT)
1 x PS/2 Keyboard
1 x PS/2 Mouse
1 x S-Video Out (Digi TV-Out)
4 x USB 2.0/1.1


Internal I/O: 1 x 24pin (V)
1 x 4pin (V)
1 x CD-In
3 x Fan Header (V)
1 x Floppy
1 x FP Audio Header
2 x IDE
1 x IEEE1394
4 x Memory Slots
1 x Midi/Game
4 x SATA
2 x Serial (COM)
1 x SPDIF-Out
1 x TV Out
2 x USB2.0/1.1


So the ASUS has a faster FSB and supports both ECC and normal DDR2

While the Gigabyte supports 16gb of ram over the Asus 68gb and it supports slower 400Mhz memory which is useful if you want to make use of some existing memory.

The Asus has the 6150 on-board graphics while the Gigabyte has the 6100, both are would be disabled if you had a games card.

The Asus has 3 fan headers over 2 for the gigabyte.

The Asus has a composite out which might be useful if you wanted were building a media player for connection to a TV.

The Gigabyte has 7.1 audio and the Asus 5.1.

According this this supplier the the Asus has a Game port port and the Gigabyte does not, they also say that the Asus has DVI and the Gigabyte D-Sub.

You should check all of the above on the manufacturer sites.

I think the Asus wins over the Gigabyte but it depends on your needs.

 

[imported_kenyee]

nice summary. The Asus is also the only mATX AM2 (and it's previous CSM 939 brother) that supports ECC memory (the AMD chips have built-in support, but you need BIOS support).

 

[Trey22]

Asus pro's: DVI, 6150/430 chipset.
Cons: Very poor overclocker, no HD audio.

Gigabyte pro's: Decent overclocker (according to Zap's testing so far), HD audio.
Cons: No DVI, 6100/400 chipset.

 

[Hupo]

I just ordered this:http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=249025

 

[bob661]

Originally posted by: Viditor
The M2NPV-VM uses Nforce 6150 +430 (not 570). I have built ~30 of them now, and they all work quite well.

Got a couple of these myself in at work.

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: Trey22
Asus pro's: DVI, 6150/430 chipset.
Cons: Very poor overclocker, no HD audio.

Gigabyte pro's: Decent overclocker (according to Zap's testing so far), HD audio.
Cons: No DVI, 6100/400 chipset.

It actually has HD audio, on the HDTV output module...

 

[Kuroyama]

The ASUS is notorious for memory trouble with higher speed RAM, see Newegg's reviews. I just got it and a set of 1GB Corsair XMS2 Twin2x memory rated at 1.9V and DDR2 800, which has excellent reviews. I can run either stick in any slot at the rated speeds, but when I try for dual channel then it crashes when WinXP is loading (manually raised to 1.9V). Runs fine dual channel at 667MHz, and good timings, but these are high quality sticks and the Asus board won't support them at the rated speed.

 

[996GT2]

I haven't used the boards you listed, but I got an MSI K9N Platinum and I'm more than happy with it in terms of overclocking ability, features, and overall stability.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Trey22
Gigabyte pro's: Decent overclocker (according to Zap's testing so far), HD audio.
Cons: No DVI, 6100/400 chipset.

I haven't owned a Gigabyte board since a socket 478 deal with the 845D chipset BITD of the original Northwoods.

What Trey22 meant to say was that I tested a Biostar Tforce 6100 AM2. I found that though it had quirks with memory, it is capable of around 330MHz HTT. Besides overclocking it is cheap but has no frills - no DVI, no HD audio, no Firewire, no SPDIF (only headers I think).