Which of these motherboards is the best?

[bluedeviltron]

OK, I'm going to be running an Athlon 64 3200+, 1 gb ram, and a GeForce 6600 GT OC on this board, and I need something very reliable and stable. I'm not sure if I'm going to be overclocking (since I don't quite understand what that is or how to do it yet), but I might be in the future. I've narrowed it down to some final choices:
___________________________________________________________________________
GIGABYTE GA-K8N Ultra-9 Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
-$133

DFI nF4-DAGF Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
-$103

ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
-$125

ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
-$175

MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
-$142

ABIT AN8 Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
-$136
__________________________________________________________________________

I just want something good and reliable that I will not have to replace within a couple of years.

 

[vailr]

I'd suggest adding to your list, the Abit AN8 board; there's an updated version 2.0 with a silent heatpipe chipset cooler.
Or, if you look at the Anandtech recommended socket 939 boards, they suggest the
Chaintech board, costing <$100.

 

[bluedeviltron]

Can you link me to their recommended motherboards? I really just want to get the best of the best in my price range (under $150).

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

If you're overclocking, get the DFI Lanparty Ultra-D because of the voltages. If you're not overclocking, get the MSI Neo-4 Platinum (It's $130 if you shop around) because it has LOTS of great features (4xSATA II, 4xSATA, RAID 0/1/1+0/5 support, firewire, and much more).

 

I have the neo4 plat and its great. 🙂

 

[The Pentium Guy]

ABit AN8 or wait for the ASUS A8N-E Premium to come out

 

[vailr]

Originally posted by: bluedeviltron
Can you link me to their recommended motherboards? I really just want to get the best of the best in my price range (under $150).

Text

 

[SVT Cobra]

I'd go with the gigabyte, but thats becuase thats what i use and have always had good experience with them, especially since you are not going to OC

 

[ElFenix]

note that nf4 and nf4 ultra boards aren't the same. so watch out.

 

[Valkerie]

Asus, MSI, Gigabyte offer good customer relations for America.
Not sure about DFI.
Abit offers fairly high quality products (except for the board that died on me at 5 months, couldn't get a hold of them to get it repaired, so it past the 6 month warranty and had to end up getting a new MB which sucked), but their relations for customers in America are not as great as the first 3 mentioned above (you could tell because of proof reading their manuals, their website, and how they treat you when you call 'em at their 1-800 number.

Aside from that, usually the more expensive boards give you more features, but I'd suggest that if you're really serious about this, just write down all the motherboard features onto Excel, and compare them. If you like it, buy it, because why would you buy something out of the blue if you just thought it supported a specific socket? (unless you had money you could breath in and out like air that comes outa no where, then buy all of them - *laughs*)

Anyway, I'd go with NF4 motherboards because when it comes down to it, you got the heat that your chipset is supported by kick-*ss technology by nVidia.

 

[w00t]

all i am gonna say it dont get a SLI board you have a 6600gt if you get another one and SLI them its still gonna be worse than 1 6800gt.

 

[imported_g33k]

Originally posted by: t3h l337 n3wb
If you're overclocking, get the DFI Lanparty Ultra-D because of the voltages. If you're not overclocking, get the MSI Neo-4 Platinum (It's $130 if you shop around) because it has LOTS of great features (4xSATA II, 4xSATA, RAID 0/1/1+0/5 support, firewire, and much more).

Agreed.