Micro-ATX LAN Party box

[ImpPatience]

My desktop is slowly becoming a beast of a computer and a pain to haul around. So I was thinking about building something based off of a micro-ATX board for going to LAN parties. Something light and relatively fast and most of all cheap. Plus I would like to build another computer for fun.

I'm thinking -

Athlon - 2000+ or so - Not a Celeron I can tell the difference when I play on a Celeron
Something other than a Sis or Via chipset
AGP - 8x would be nice but 4x would work just fine
Overclocking isn't out of the question
On-board sound and USB - I've got enough LAN cards I don't need any on-board LAN

I'm looking at an ASUS A7N266-VM that might fit the bill, but I thought you guys would have some input

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[endyen]

The A7N-VM board is $40 more, but it has USB 2 and the 8X AGP slot, as well as the newer chipset. I'm sure the mx video will impress you also. NOT!! but it is better than on the other board, and if you actually needed it?

 

[ImpPatience]

Do you mean the Asus A7N8X-VM? I'm looking on Asus's webpage and I don't see a A7N-VM board. But maybe I'm just blind. The A7N8X-VM does look like a better motherboard and looks like it would upgrade better. As for the onboard video, I'm sure I would be impressed. :lol: I was going to use my old Radeon 64mb, or maybe splurge and get a Radeon 9000.

Thanks endyen

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[jimbo99]

Refer to my thread a few threads down on the a7n8x-vm.

Try the Shuttle mn31n instead.

 

[ImpPatience]

I read your thread soon after I posted that, and I don't think that I will go with that Asus board. That shuttle board looks nice - what wort of overclocking can you do with it?

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[jimbo99]

Those boards are not known for overclocking. If you are interested in that you may want to look at other boards. The bios on those boards has very little for overclocking. I am however, able to overclock a 2100+ to 2600+ without special cooling and it runs stably--has for the past 2 months.

BTW, that shuttle board has dual vga out.
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Jimbo99 on 09/16/03 05:42 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[ImpPatience]

That doesn't sound too bad, I'm not really much into overclocking but this board sounds like a good place to start. I'm not finding anything else that is cheaper either. Thanks a bundle

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[Crashman]

The 9000 isn't that much faster than your ancient card! A used 8500 would be much faster if you can find one.

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[ImpPatience]

True, but I was using it this summer on Warcraft III, and it worked fine then. But then again I don't mind graphics on the lowest settings as long as the game runs fast. I dunno, maybe I'm sick or something? Plus I'm thinking 'bout trying to stay under three-hundred bucks or so.

8500 is better then a 9000? hmmm

<font color=blue><b>Purchase object A, install object A, curse object A, repeat...</b></font color=blue><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by ImpPatience on 09/17/03 04:17 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Crashman]

8500 is MUCH better than 9000. IIRC 9000 was a cut down 64-bit RAM version of the 8500.

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[ImpPatience]

Thanks - I will have to look into that - why does ATI put a higher number on a worse card? Mabye it is one of those questions like "if a tree falls in the woods, and no one is around, does it make a sound?"

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[Crashman]

The numbers are based on two things: When the card was released, and it's position in the lineup compared to other current cards. When the 9000 was released, the 8500 was no longer current. The 8500LE was still somewhat current, so they renamed it the 9100 to make up for the fact that it was faster than the 9000, BUT since the 9500 was faster than the 8500LE, it falls out of today's number scheme.

Given these facts, and the 9800 Pro being "updated" to the 9800XT, perhaps the 9800SE should have been called the 9500XT? But that would imply it's faster than a 9500 Pro, which it isn't.

That's right, the 9800SE is slower than a 9500 Pro.

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[ImpPatience]

I have enough trouble figuring out my homework and now ATI has further comlicated my life! Oh the humanity!

Anyways, thanks Crashman, you have been a lot of help. I think I might just stay with my old card though for the time being. It worked fine and I can wait until I can rationalize getting a better card for what would be a second computer

Thanks again

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[Crashman]

Look at nVidia too, an FX5200 is much slower than a Ti4200.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
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