Help me find a new motherboard

[Ristamar]

$110 should nab you an AMD XP 2200. The 2100 is under $80 right now through certain dealers on pricewatch.com.

That's not a bad price on the Chaintech card. However, to go along with what Gariig said, I'd go for the 9500 Pro if at all possible. It's a much better investment.

EDIT: Just noticed the 2100 is now $97 at newegg...

 

[Eye Tyrant]

Thanx Garig and Ristamar-

To answer a few questions, I am not a big Unreal/Quake fan though I do own Quake Arena and Soldier of Fortune, and my game preferences opt toward stuff like Delta Force (1,2 and Landwarrior... all old now). I would like to jam out on some Wolfenstein and perhaps some Warcraft 3...

My biggest worry right now is that I don't want to make the same mistake as I did on my last upgrade. Got the Abit board, had problems with my Geforce 2 card and the VIA chipset and haven't been able to play any games of note since.... I'm looking at getting some kind of bundle perhaps that can be assembled and tested prior to shipping so that I know the stuff is gonna work when it gets here. kinda why I was looking at the Asus with the integrated video... But I really want to get the best deal I can for my cash (duh!) as it will likely be a while before I can afford another upgrade. I would like room on the board to upgrade, but I am not one who runs out to get teh latest and greatest stuff as soon as it hits the store...

This Board appears to offer better performance than This One but the second board has the onboard video, however my card is just as good if not better...

The bundle for the first board will put me at about $330 whereas the bundle for the second board will put at about $235...

#1 = ASUS A7N8X DLX BUNDLE W/ COOLING FAN & (AMD ATHLON XP 1700+; KINGSTON 512MB NON-ECC PC2700; ASSEMBLE/TEST BUNDLE)

#2 = ASUS A7N266-VM BUNDLE W/ COOLING FAN & (AMD ATHLON XP 1700+; KINGSTON 512MB NON-ECC PC2100; ASSEMBLE/TEST BUNDLE)

#2 would allow me to spend more on a new processor and still stay below budget... But it's a MicroATX and I think I'd need a new case... not sure if my ATX case will work for it (my present case is like 4 years old).

 

[Eye Tyrant]

For the record (and/or if anyone cares) I went with the ASUS A7N8X BUNDLE W/ COOLING FAN & (AMD ATHLON XP 1700+; KINGSTON 512MB NON-ECC PC2700)... Should be here tommorrow, so we'll see pretty soon how things fly when it get's here.

New Board

 

[Ristamar]

I like that board. I only wish ASUS (and everyone else) would pack in the sweet round IDE cables like Chaintech does with their nForce2 board.

EDIT: It seems Tom's Hardware didn't like me 'stealing' their pic. I didn't think they'd notice since this section of the forums doesn't see much traffic. Ah well.

 

[Eye Tyrant]

Well, I have made the transition finally. It has taken some time to get things together, but I have upgraded my system (board, CPU, and RAM) and gotten things back on track.

Final System Specs:

AMD Athlon 1700 XP (running at 1466 MGHZ)
Asus A7N8X Deluxe mobo (Nvidia chipset)
512 MB Kingston PC2700 DDR
WD 20GB HD ATA 100
Hercules Prophet II MX 64MB (GeForce II, Nvidia also)
Windows XP Pro

The board is pretty sweet, it has integrated APU Soundstorm/Dolby Digital encoder, 2 LAN ports, 6 USB, 2 1394 Firewire, an additional game and COM port, and supports 333 MGHZ FSB.

All in all, I am happy with my purchase (though I exceeded my budget by more then $70).

Just wanted to thank all that helped in making my purchasing decisions...

 

[gariig]

damn you, I'm going to go buy my computer parts now!!

Your welcome

Gariig

 

[Psionicist]

Well, I have made the transition finally. It has taken some time to get things together, but I have upgraded my system (board, CPU, and RAM) and gotten things back on track.

Final System Specs:

AMD Athlon 1700 XP (running at 1466 MGHZ)
Asus A7N8X Deluxe mobo (Nvidia chipset)
512 MB Kingston PC2700 DDR
WD 20GB HD ATA 100
Hercules Prophet II MX 64MB (GeForce II, Nvidia also)
Windows XP Pro

The board is pretty sweet, it has integrated APU Soundstorm/Dolby Digital encoder, 2 LAN ports, 6 USB, 2 1394 Firewire, an additional game and COM port, and supports 333 MGHZ FSB.

All in all, I am happy with my purchase (though I exceeded my budget by more then $70).

Just wanted to thank all that helped in making my purchasing decisions...

That XP1700 of yours... take a look at the core/die (the metallic looking part in the middle) on the processor and write everything down. If you are lucky, it might be one helluva overclocker (most good XP1700 does 2000 MHz or better on basic air cooling).

I can translate this info for you, if you post it here.

 

[Eye Tyrant]

That XP1700 of yours... take a look at the core/die (the metallic looking part in the middle) on the processor and write everything down. If you are lucky, it might be one helluva overclocker (most good XP1700 does 2000 MHz or better on basic air cooling).

I can translate this info for you, if you post it here.

Yeah, I have a large front cooling fan and a small rear exhaust fan, as well as the monster fan that came in the bundle for the CPU. It is well ventilated for sure... However, I am not too concerned with overclocking the processor yet... The BIOS allows for quite a bit of "tweaking and geeking", and the board also has a bunch of monitoring software I have installed. Right now I am happy with it pushing 1.5GHZ. I know that there are two different models of the 1700 chip, which does what and why, I am not sure.

 

[Eye Tyrant]

The Nforce2 boards have all of that and more! They have Firewirei and USB2.0 onboard support. They also have 5.1 support and onboard LAN. The big difference is the Nforce were subpar when they came out and were terrible performers. The Nforce2 boards are one of the top chipsets right now. Also, the Nforce2 has room for advancement with the newer 333 Athlons and DDR400(3200) bus speeds. If you buy an Nforce1 you are still going to have to upgrade the board again anyway. Also, your GF4MX runs better then the GF2(as they were also MX quality). My suggestion is the Nforce2 all the way.

Link to Nforce2 reviews
Gariig

I can defintiely recomend this board now

 

[Leopold]

For all you hardcore folk out there i am waiting for the Granite bay chipset to come back from intel at 800mhz FSB so i can then buy my CPU and mobo. Sure it'll cost around $200 for the board alone but for the stability, performance, and upgradability i can't beat it.


I went the AMD route and it has brought me nothing but trouble and lockups. I am going back to Intel for my workstation rig as i don't have ANY problems with intel & Nvidia like i do with my AMD rig...

oh that and i bought a 76gb U160 drive for $150....i love computers...