Motherboard .. what to choose

[optimist]

well my first plan was to get an opteron 24#, but after furtur study ive figured out that, if i wait 1.5 - 2 years there whoulb way more programs, hardware etc out to justify a buy.

that leeds me to my current system, it needs a new motherboard, cos the one i have now is acting up, dont know why think its busted. anyway its a 1900+ palomino (first version i think ) and a Asus K7V333, and it needs a tweek.
ive tryed to overclock it, but didnt get much out of it, even though im running watercooling. ( and yes i have unlocked it).

So now im planning to get a new mobo and a new processor to go with it, ive already bought 2 equal mem blocks at 333MHz, so i whould be able to run dual mem.

the two boards ive been looking at is :
SL-75FRN2-RL from soltec ( it has CPU unlock build into the bios and onthe fly overclocking software, sounds promiseing )

GA-7N400 Pro2 (Rev 2.0 ) from Gigabyte ( has alot of good things to it and is requmented by AMD ).

now im going for a 2600+ PIB 333MHz to use. ( dont know if there is a special version of it i should get, as far as i can s there is 3 diffrent versions out, the on ive choosen is the on at 2.13Ghz MODELNR: ADUAXDA2600BBOX ).

Now the question. what board should i choose, i cant finde any awards ect. on there preformance,
allthough the board most people ,at overclocking sits ive been on, are talking about is the soltec. but ive been a ASUS guy for 8 years now.

And is there a better choise in either processor or motherboard.

hope you'll read this. thx

( sorry for my english )

 

[pat]

If you plan to use RAID (from what I can see with your choice from soltek -RL), go with the soltek. The RAID is way faster than the other board using Sil/ITE RAID. I have that Soltek, perform very well, rock stable and overclock very well too!

The Gigabyte board should perform well too, but I dont have any experience with it other than what I can see here. But you definitively cannot go wrong with the Soltek.

Oh..And by the way, I dont trust ASUS anymore. IMHO, they WERE good...now, only average!

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by pat on 02/18/04 08:38 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Prof133]

- Lot of overclockers seem to be going for Abit NF7(-S) and DFI NFII ultra infinity. May want to have a look at those.

- For processor, <A HREF="http://www.warp2search.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=16543&53939" target="_new">Mobile Athlon XP-M</A> would be a good choice.

 

[optimist]

Ok thx i'll look at thoes motherboards too, but it sounds like i should go for the soltec, as for raid, im already running raid, i have a FARSTRAK 4000 SX controler and is running 2xRAID 0 ( 2x IBM GXP120 80 GB and 2x MAXTOR 80GB FLUID ).

but what bout the processor, the reson i cant overclock my currnt pc is cos its a model ( A ) and that one cant overclock sa well as the ( B ) model. ( a friend told me this ). so i want to be sure that the processor im getting is the one that can be overclock. or said in another way, i want to be sure that i can get the most out of the CPU i get.

thx for ur reply's.

 

[pat]

Well, on my Soltek, I put a 2500+ (barton core), that was unlocked when I bought it. Now, all new 2500+ are locked, so it is not as easy to overclock. I put the FSB at 200 and let the multiplier at 11, which give me a 3200+. With a .05 bump in voltage, stock cooler, it was a bit hot..so I lowered the mult at 10.5, and showed up as a 3000+. I'm happy with that. I know that the 2500+ can be unlocked, by closing some bridges on the cpu. I dont know about other Barton cpu. If you want to get the most out of this board, get a Barton cpu to bump the fsb at 200 and get some cooling. Or the 3200+, which is already at 200 fsb and try to play with. But dont expect it to be a good overclocker. If it is for pure overclock, then ...I dont know. Maybe you should ask in the oveclocker forum.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[optimist]

Hmm .. the processor ive chosen should not ba a baton, and thats what ive planned, since ive red that u wont get much out of a baton. second the soltek motherboard im bying should have build in CPU unlocker in the BIOS.

the processor ive chosen is allsom much cheaper than the baton .. allmost half price.

( Addition)

Im allso trying to figure out if the soltek motherboard (SI-75FRN2-RL) supports Hypertransport and/or if the chip does

i cant quit put the link between the HT and the motherboards, i know the motherboard from Gigabyt does, cos it says so. but i dont know if its something the CPU should support or if its something build into the CHIPset.

 

[Johanthegnarler]

I have a locked barton and i run it at 200fsb @ 1.675 voltage with no problems. It is a tad hot i want to know how hot your's was running at?
Mines running at 49c after hours of SWG. And by hours i mean 12.

<A HREF="http://arc.aquamark3.com/arc/arc_view.php?run=610166081" target="_new">http://arc.aquamark3.com/arc/arc_view.php?run=610166081</A>
Figured i'd do it too..reality my ass.

 

[pat]

I dont remember how hot mine was, but 49 is not hot.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[pat]

Hypertransport is used by the northbridge to communicate with the southbridge. In my soltek manual, it said than yes, it is there.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[optimist]

wird .. well i just got mail from soltek tell'ing me that the board ive chosen dosnt support Hyper transport, and i cant finde any board on thier site, that does except the Athlon64 boards.
another thing is, i cant finde any Athlon Xp processors that supports it either.
and ive even been on AMD's site to loacate it but thats an impossible task.

so if anyone know of any pls, post a link to it here.

 

[pat]

Hypertransport is not something you will find onboard. It is the communication link between the northbridge and the southbridge. That is not something you can use, like USB or firewire,so no support for HT connector. This is the protocol used by nvidia to links their chips. I guess that all nforce board has HT link. VIA, use what they call V-link, IIRC. Intel use something else. Athlon64 has the memory controller (read northbridge) in the CPU. This is why the A64 are so good at memory performance. The CPU use Hypertransport to link to other sub-system. That why you hear more about HT in A64 system. Athlon XP connect to northbridge via the FSB, the NB connect to the SB via HT, and so on. Were you expecting to connect some printers, joystick,..., with Hypertransport?

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[Johanthegnarler]

i know it's not technically hot, but i want mine to run at 43c tops on full load.

<A HREF="http://arc.aquamark3.com/arc/arc_view.php?run=610166081" target="_new">http://arc.aquamark3.com/arc/arc_view.php?run=610166081</A>
Figured i'd do it too..reality my ass.

 

[optimist]

Thx, it was the answer i was looking for.
as far as i knew is that HT helps boost preformance for the PCI bus, and im useing a PCI raid controler, so i was aming for a motherboard with HT to get the speed up, simple as that. i was only confuse over that, the A64 said it had the HT tech under the CPU description and the Athlon xp didnt.

and allso, that the description of the Gigabyte motherboard said it was there, and the description of the soltek board didnt say anything.

super .. thx for all ya help.