AMD Budget Mobo's, Which One?

[ethlax18]

Hey all, I'm building a semi-budget system for a friend of mine. They don't really do any gaming or anything intensive like that, just the web and word processing. I've settled to go with an Athlon XP, either the 1800+ or 2000+. I've been looking at some mobo's and have narrowed down a list, and was wondering if anybody has had any experience with any of these boards or if they know if any of these are crap or which ones whould give me the most bang for the buck (prices from newegg). I'm not sure if I want to go integrated video or not yet, so I picked 5 with and 5 without. Here they are:
w/o integrated video
Biostar M7VIP (kt333) $65
Aopen AK77-333 (kt333) $70
Albatron KX400+Pro (kt333) $71
Biostar M7VIT (kt400) $73
Albatron KX400-8x (kt400) $79

with integrated video:
Biostar M7VIG-Pro (kt266) $60
Aopen MK77M-V (kt266) $68
Gigabyte GA-7VKML (kt266) $68
Epox 8KMM+ (kt266) $69
Asus A7N266-VM (nvidia 220) $72

Thanks for the help.


RIAA: "Where do you want to hack today?"

 

[jihiggs]

i went with the last one, the asus.

my computer is so fast, it completes an endless loop in less than 4 seconds!

 

[Smokey]

You really couldn't go wrong with any of those boards, but my personal preference would be the Asus A7N266 in your situation. Good onboard video, solid foundation for a system, great price.

<font color=purple><i>Smokey McPot - Your Baby's Daddy</i></font color=purple>

 

[lwj81]

Another vote for the Asus.If you decide not to go with intergrated video,i would recommend the Aopen AK75 (Sis 745).$63.00 Newegg.

 

[Spitfire_x86]

ASUS A7N266-VM is the best buy here

<b> "You can put lipstick on a pig, but hey, it's still a pig!" - RobD </b>

 

[ethlax18]

That's what I was leaning towards, I was just a little worried that it was a little too old, ie no usb 2.0, old chipset

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[fiask0]

I just built the asus system for my friend and had no problems whatsoever. Integrated video is good. If your friend really needs usb 2.0 , he can just go buy an addon pci card. You can get a 4 port USB 2.0 pci card for about 30-40 dollars. Check <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com</A> and look for this board. Then check out the reader reviews there. Almost everyone has had no problems with this board.

 

[jlanka]

just step it up a bit and go nForce2. newegg has the <A HREF="http://www.leadtek.com/motherboards/nforce2/k7ncr18d/k7ncr18d.htm" target="_new">Leadtek K7NCR18D</A> for $92 free shipping. It's got everything on board except video. If you want to go onboard video then get the G-Pro version of the same board for $125 at newegg. I know these prices are a slight bit higher than you posted, but They've got USB 2.0 which another poster suggested you spend $30 - $40 on, and it's the latest and best Athlon chipset. Pennywise and pound foolish, as they say.

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[tombance]

I would go for the MSI 745 Ultra. Its very stable, and performs about the same as the KT266A, so would be perfect for a non-crashing system with DDR. It has upto 6 USB ports, but unfortunately doesnt have onboard video or network.

<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=5467618 " target="_new">Almost Breaking 12k!!</A>

 

[paulj]

Have you used the Leadtek w/ IGP?

<font color=red>The solution may be obvious, but I can't see it for the smoke coming off my processor.</font color=red>

 

[Spitfire_x86]

MSI 745 Ultra is a slow ass. AMD 760 is enough to beat this chipset. nForce (1) is a much better option than MSI 745 Ultra

<b> "You can put lipstick on a pig, but hey, it's still a pig!" - RobD </b>

 

[tombance]

Not according to Sandra 2003:

My MSI 745 Ultra 133FSB is <b>1904/1775</b>

AMD 760 133FSB is <b>1838/1694</b>

nForce1 420 133FSB is <b>1804/1727</b>

All of these on CL2.

I know these are only theoretical benchmarks and could be wrong but even if they were for a budget board someone is usually looking for stability not for absolute speed which is why I would reccomend SiS 745 Chipset.

<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k1=5467618 " target="_new">Almost Breaking 12k!!</A>

 

[smitbret]

Have you looked into a Shuttle AK35GT2? Built several systems with 'em in the past year and a half and they have been a pleasure. $85 on New Egg with free shipping.

 

[ad_rach]

I have had the asus a7n266-VM and an albatron kx400+ pro.Both are very good but very different boards.The asus has everything onboard and the video is very good but the albatron has ddr333 support and great overclocking options (although i see that oc'ing is not relevant here).For this kind of lower end use i would agree with the others and say that the Asus is the way to go.

no matter how hard you try, you can't polish a turd. :]

 

[ethlax18]

thanks all, i think i'm gonna give the asus a try.
thanks for all the input.

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