Help Please - I need a mobo! - Please read inside
 

Hi Guys and Gals - firstly, I do appreciate that this is most likely not
the correct place to post this but I have not been able to find somewhere
more relevant.

If this is truly not a good place to post my questions, I offer my
apologies and ask you to please point me in the direction of a good e-group
and/or relevant URL.

Many thanks and here goes.

Having decided to stick with AMD processors as they provide the best bang
for the buck, my challenges really started. Hence this post.

What I am looking for is a first class, very reliable mobo to take a
2600+ (decided that this was the best value around at the moment - please
let me know if I am wrong).

I anticipate paying around the same price for the mobo as the proc but am
happy to be convinced to pay more of less.

I suspect that I will upgrade the board before I have a proc using FSB400.

Must have support for more than 4 eide drives.

SATA might be a worthwhile addition.

LAN on-board might be useful.

Audio and video onboard, not too useful, as far as I am aware(?)

I am not a gamer with high 3D needs.

A slew of ports for all of the options like firewire etc is needed.

Soft tweaking of mobo parameters is preferred to links and switches.

Well that's all folks....

Any suggestions/comments/recommendations welcomed.

Many thanks for any help that you care to offer.

Pete

Hi Pete,
"Pete" wrote in message
s.com...
[snip]
Having decided to stick with AMD processors as they provide the best bang
for the buck, my challenges really started. Hence this post.

What I am looking for is a first class, very reliable mobo to take a
2600+ (decided that this was the best value around at the moment - please
let me know if I am wrong).
Asus Nforce2 mobo might suit:-)
I anticipate paying around the same price for the mobo as the proc but am
happy to be convinced to pay more of less.

Asus A7N8X dlx mobo about 90 quid or so in the UK

I suspect that I will upgrade the board before I have a proc using FSB400.

NForce 2 chipsets support FSB400

Must have support for more than 4 eide drives.

Above mobo has 4xEide133 support as well as SATA Raid
and Firewire, USB1 & 2 with 2 lan nics built in and sound
onboard equiv to 5.1 or better.

SATA might be a worthwhile addition.
LAN on-board might be useful.

see above:-)

Audio and video onboard, not too useful, as far as I am aware(?)
There are a few NF2 chipset mobos with onboard video
I am not a gamer with high 3D needs.
A slew of ports for all of the options like firewire etc is needed.
Soft tweaking of mobo parameters is preferred to links and switches.

Above mobo has all that you want incl the ability to o/c if you ever need
too. You will need a decent AGP4x or 8x Gfx card tho.. Be warned it will
NOT take an AGP 1 or 2x card..

In addition it has dual chan ddr support as well as single. 3 mem slots for
up to 1.5 gig:-)

Have a look at the Asus web site and also www.anandtech.com and/or
www.tomshardware.com for reviews on current mobo's etc..
Please also be aware that sometime at the end of this year or into
next year Amd64 cpu's should be out and there will no doubt be
a plethora of mobo's to suit... Nforce3 pro chipsets are already
shipping etc.. Add M$ Windows support and its probably
gonna be the way to go in the near future.. so if you can hang
on until Q1 or 2 cof next year for a new rig it would make
sense to do so:-)

Cheers,
RD

"RD" wrote in
:

Subject: Help Please - I need a mobo! - Please read inside
From: "RD"
Newsgroups: alt.comp.hardware.overclocking.amd

Hi Pete,
"Pete" wrote in message
s.com...
[snip]
Having decided to stick with AMD processors as they provide the best
bang for the buck, my challenges really started. Hence this post.

What I am looking for is a first class, very reliable mobo to take a
2600+ (decided that this was the best value around at the moment -
please let me know if I am wrong).
Asus Nforce2 mobo might suit:-)
I anticipate paying around the same price for the mobo as the proc
but am happy to be convinced to pay more of less.

Asus A7N8X dlx mobo about 90 quid or so in the UK


Thanks for the rapid response and detailed suggetions. They have certainly
given me food for thought.

The board itself does look like it would cover virtually all my needs. The
only fly in the pie is that it will only allow 4 coventional eide drives.
At the moment, I have a CD-RW drive, a DVD drive and two hard drives on my
machine and I also have two mobile racks for additonal drives. I also plan
a DVD writer and this combination is why I need a mobo with EIDE RAID
onboard as I can then hang all of these without installing another
controller.

Do Asus produce anything to match this please? I looked around the site
without success.

Thanks again for the input and any further thoughts you care to offer.

All the best

Pete

Hi Pete,
"Pete" wrote in message
s.com...
"RD" wrote in
:
"Pete" wrote in message
s.com...
[snip]
What I am looking for is a first class, very reliable mobo to take a
2600+ (decided that this was the best value around at the moment -
please let me know if I am wrong).
Asus Nforce2 mobo might suit:-)

The board itself does look like it would cover virtually all my needs. The
only fly in the pie is that it will only allow 4 coventional eide drives.
At the moment, I have a CD-RW drive, a DVD drive and two hard drives on my
machine and I also have two mobile racks for additonal drives. I also plan
a DVD writer and this combination is why I need a mobo with EIDE RAID
onboard as I can then hang all of these without installing another
controller.

Do Asus produce anything to match this please? I looked around the site
without success.
Thanks again for the input and any further thoughts you care to offer.


Sorry Pete but I simply dont know..I didnt see one with eide raid either:-/

However you can AFAIK use eide drives on sata controlers using an
adaptor... I think that its possible these days with SATA being seen
as 'the' drive interface to go for that many mobo manufs are probably
going to use sata for raid rather than eide.. I dont use sata myself,
I just got an eide raid card (ata100) for 28 quid or so and use that
for additional drives. I find its easier to sort out problems if you
can take a component out and check it on another rig if there's a
problem.. with onboard kit you dont have that option..

At one time I had 2 scsi hard drives, 2 eide hard drives on raid
and a cdrw a cd and one eide HDD on the onboard controller:-)

I took the scsi card and drives out when my psu started to play
up under the load:-)

The psu problem is also a pointer to one you may run into with a lot
of kit hanging off the internal supply, mine is a 350 watt enermax,
usually pretty good, but if you hammer a psu with max load over
a long period of time, its going to feel it. And the really hefty
psu's cost a bomb, 200 quid or so for a psu on top of everything
else can ruin a tight budget:-/

Cheers,
RD

GigaByte GA-7VAXP Ultra should do what you want. Not a great overclocker,
but really stable.
http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard...P-A%20Ultra.ht
m


"Pete" wrote in message
s.com...
: Hi Guys and Gals - firstly, I do appreciate that this is most likely not
: the correct place to post this but I have not been able to find somewhere
: more relevant.
:
: If this is truly not a good place to post my questions, I offer my
: apologies and ask you to please point me in the direction of a good
e-group
: and/or relevant URL.
:
: Many thanks and here goes.
:
: Having decided to stick with AMD processors as they provide the best bang
: for the buck, my challenges really started. Hence this post.
:
: What I am looking for is a first class, very reliable mobo to take a
: 2600+ (decided that this was the best value around at the moment - please
: let me know if I am wrong).
:
: I anticipate paying around the same price for the mobo as the proc but am
: happy to be convinced to pay more of less.
:
: I suspect that I will upgrade the board before I have a proc using FSB400.
:
: Must have support for more than 4 eide drives.
:
: SATA might be a worthwhile addition.
:
: LAN on-board might be useful.
:
: Audio and video onboard, not too useful, as far as I am aware(?)
:
: I am not a gamer with high 3D needs.
:
: A slew of ports for all of the options like firewire etc is needed.
:
: Soft tweaking of mobo parameters is preferred to links and switches.
:
: Well that's all folks....
:
: Any suggestions/comments/recommendations welcomed.
:
: Many thanks for any help that you care to offer.
:
: Pete

Sorry about that. Try This one.
http://tw.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/...-A%20Ultra.htm


"Amir Facade" wrote in message
...
: GigaByte GA-7VAXP Ultra should do what you want. Not a great overclocker,
: but really stable.
:
http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard...P-A%20Ultra.ht
: m
:
:
: "Pete" wrote in message
: s.com...
: : Hi Guys and Gals - firstly, I do appreciate that this is most likely not
: : the correct place to post this but I have not been able to find
somewhere
: : more relevant.
: :
: : If this is truly not a good place to post my questions, I offer my
: : apologies and ask you to please point me in the direction of a good
: e-group
: : and/or relevant URL.
: :
: : Many thanks and here goes.
: :
: : Having decided to stick with AMD processors as they provide the best
bang
: : for the buck, my challenges really started. Hence this post.
: :
: : What I am looking for is a first class, very reliable mobo to take a
: : 2600+ (decided that this was the best value around at the moment -
please
: : let me know if I am wrong).
: :
: : I anticipate paying around the same price for the mobo as the proc but
am
: : happy to be convinced to pay more of less.
: :
: : I suspect that I will upgrade the board before I have a proc using
FSB400.
: :
: : Must have support for more than 4 eide drives.
: :
: : SATA might be a worthwhile addition.
: :
: : LAN on-board might be useful.
: :
: : Audio and video onboard, not too useful, as far as I am aware(?)
: :
: : I am not a gamer with high 3D needs.
: :
: : A slew of ports for all of the options like firewire etc is needed.
: :
: : Soft tweaking of mobo parameters is preferred to links and switches.
: :
: : Well that's all folks....
: :
: : Any suggestions/comments/recommendations welcomed.
: :
: : Many thanks for any help that you care to offer.
: :
: : Pete
:
:

Great stuff Folks - thank you for all the great input and please keep
feeding me with any more thoughts that anyone has.

What about my choice of processor = 2600 - should I be looking at something
different and if so, please tell me why? Also, what about the onboard video
and audio options? Are they good, bad or what?

Thanks again.

Pete.

What I am looking for is a first class, very reliable mobo to take a
2600+ (decided that this was the best value around at the moment - please
let me know if I am wrong).

I anticipate paying around the same price for the mobo as the proc but am
happy to be convinced to pay more of less.

I suspect that I will upgrade the board before I have a proc using FSB400.

ABit Nf7-s v2 - great board

Must have support for more than 4 eide drives.

SATA might be a worthwhile addition.

Has 2 ATA ports & 2 SATA
come with 1 ATA to SATA conecter

LAN on-board might be useful.

Yes

Audio and video onboard, not too useful, as far as I am aware(?)

Great 5.1 sound & AGP 4x8x Port

I am not a gamer with high 3D needs.

A slew of ports for all of the options like firewire etc is needed.

Yes
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Athlon XP 2800+ Barton @ 2.3gigs [11.5x200] on a Abit NF7-s [v2 MB]
Daytona Geforce4 4200 128megs [4345 drivers], ADSL Modem on Nforce nic
2x512megs Kingston PC3200 DDR, Panasonic DV Camera on Firewire
2x80gig Seagate Ide drives on SATA Port (using Abit ATA converters) (C: &
D:)
Liteon 16x48 DVD & 1x80gig Seagate Ide drive on ATA port1
Liteon CDRW 52x24x52 & Pioneer 106 DVD+-RW Writer on ATA port2
Xerox Laser & Canon printer & scanner on USB ports
running Windows XP Pro great, all my games & programs work great
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& the Pioneer 106 DVD+-RW work great with DVD copys ;(