New mobo minus a/v

[ironhell]

I am looking for a new mobo (keeping cost in mind). Since I already have a v.card, audio card, and network card that I am satisfied with (and I am also looking to upgrade later on), I don't care for the mobos with all these built-in. With cost in mind, but also quality, any recommendations? (I want to avoid nforce2 because of upgradability issue). Thanks.

 

[Crashman]

(I want to avoid nforce2 because of upgradability issue)

Can I have some of what you're smoking? Why would you want to avoid the ability to upgrade?

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[ironhell]

Huh? I meant that aren't you STUCK with the attached v.card and a.card (nforce2 chip) if you buy nforce2 mobo? What happens if you want to upgrade later on?

 

[orbz]

You can always disable those and use your own.

<i><font color=blue>There is no failure when you believe in success.</font color=blue></i>

 

[Crashman]

No, most of the high end nForce2 boards don't include any onboard video (there are two versions of the northbridge, one with and one without).

Likewize there are two versions of the southbridge, one with and one without audio. Asus' board has the on-chip audio, MSI's doesn't.

Both boards have audio hardware however, as MSI includes a cheap codec audio solution. You can't get around buying a board with audio these days, because the codecs are so cheap it would cost the company more to warehouse two different versions of the board. I don't know of ANY modern board that doesn't have some kind of audio. But the MSI's audio isn't part of the nForce chipset.

You're stuck with an onboard audio chip on ANY board, but that doesn't mean you can't use a card. You can simply disable any onboard audio and use any card you choose.

Having said that, the nForce APU is one of the most powerfull audio processors in the industry. You could try it, and disable it if you still wanted a card. Since you're stuck with onboard audio BEING there, you might as well have the BEST onboard audio...even if you do plan to disable it.

So the point here is, NO onboard video for the high end motherboards, and onboard audio is something you'd have to live with anyway, if you hate it, disable it and use a card.

Now the reason I scoffed? The nForce2 is capable of being overclocked past 200MHz bus speed (DDR400 CPU bus). That just so happens to be AMD's next big thing for the Barton core processor. So if you want upgradability, you NEED the nForce2.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[Crashman]

Oh, I fogot to mention in my last post, if they weren't upgradable, why would they come with an AGP and PCI slots?

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>

 

[Twitch]

So you can install one of those neat new AGP RAID controllers?

And of course ya gotta have two PCI modems in shotgun. And what if one or two PCI slots burn out? You might need to move your modems to the other slots! C'mon, Crashman, I thought you were up on this stuff.


<-----Insert witty sig line here.

 

[AfroGeek1]

So , Are you saying that the Audio on the MSI boards is not NForce? If not, who's is it? Is it better or worse than the Nforce APU?

 

[LumberJack]

What? You are confusing yourself dude. Read up on your boards a bit then come back with a question that makes sence.

To err is human... to really screw things up you need a computer!