What a shocker, another post requesting help in choosing the motherboard for my upgrade

I am upgrading from my Athlon XP 1800+ to an AMD 64 3000+, 512 MB RAM. I am keeping my sound card (SB Live 5.1) and vid card for now (Geforce FX 5700 Ultra. I realize this will need an upgrade too. But can't afford it now).

I am torn between a few different models. All of which are nForce 3 250: Gigabyte K8NS, Biostar K8NHA Grand, and Chaintech VNF3250. I like they all have integrated firewire ports as that will save me the price of the add on card later. But I lean more toward the Biostar since it is the nForce 3 250 Gb chipset so there is the 1000MB LAN and the firewall built in. The latter is very attractive to me because Zonealarm at times causes problems and now I won't have to buy a hardware firewall on top of the Mobo.

My question is what would some of you recommend of these three or are there other choices I'm missing. These are all great prices as I am on a very limited budget. I am looking for easy installation and good quality. The Biostar manual is the best of the 3 from what I have downloaded. This is important as I need clear direction. Gigabyte's installation guide was good, but it didn't include anything about the BIOS options. Chaintech's was probably the weakest. What experiences have you all had with these companies?

Also, I have a 300 W PSU, will that be enough? I hate to fork out another $40-$60 if I don't have to.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Brandt

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by BrandtP on 10/21/04 04:32 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

Subject: Re: Help with my big Mobo upgrade

It depends... If you have a PSU from Chieftec/Antec/Enermax/Tagan then it should be sufficient (but with NO OC!). But i would recommend an upgrade to a Tagan 380W (or 480W) PSU... Whisper-qiuet, stable as a rock and with a 3 year warranty.

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Lots of people here have said the chaintec is good as well. Also the MSI K8N Neo2 (think that's the nforce3 one - if not, the nforce3 version of the k8n neo) gets recommendations. Also, the DFI Lanparty (forget the sub-number) is rated highly. But, IMO, any of the above, and buy the one with your features... nForce3-250 is best, who makes it is immaterial among the quality mfgs.

One question - what will gigabit ethernet get you? On a LAN with other gb pc's and a gb switch, you'll be able to transfer those multi-gigabyte files faster... but for smaller files, especially under megabyte sized, a half-second or 0.6 sec's is immaterial...

Mike.

MSI K8N Neo Platinum is a good choice

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K8N Neo fits the socket 754, K8N Neo2 fits Socket 939, both use nForce3

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I should probably have said I don't intend to overclock. I have read alot about the MSI Neo board. The problem is it's a little too pricey for my limited budget. Perhaps I should reconsider.

I believe the current PSU is from Enlight, which is mentioned among the good value PSUs so hopefully it will still work alright. In regard to the LAN, I will be the single PC, there is no network. However, I'm not surprised there won't be much of an increase in performance. I guess what's good to know is I really can't go wrong with any of them. Since I still like the firewall, I think I will probably go with the Biostar unless the MSI comes down a bit in price.

heya BrandtP;

A-Open lists a NForce3-250 chipset board on their website although im not sure if its available in the retail channel yet, i dont know if you have heard of A-Open or not but rest assured they use high quality parts and their motherboards are top quality and cost conscience, although sometimes lacking features. Look into this mobo as it seems to be the exception and isnt lacking any features that i could see.

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The on-board sound with the VNF3-250 is comparable to your sound-blaster 5.1. Get the Chaintech if money is an issue.

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There's been a change in plan. Just when I thought I'd decided on the Biostar, I did some looking on Tom's at reviews of Biostar products. Tragically they are all not so great. When I looked at those as well as the low price in light of other nForce 3 250 Gb boards, I've decided against the Biostar. I want to stay with the 250 Gb line since the firewall is a real selling point to me as well as the onboard LAN. I'm not sure what kind of sound quality the Realtek will bring compared to the SB live 5.1. The latter brings a clarity to higher pitched sounds unmatched by any other card I've heard.

Anyway, with this new change comes extra money. My choices are now:
Soltek K8AN2EGR, Asus K8NE Deluxe, MSI Neo Platinum, DFI LANParty UT nF3 250 Gb. Many have already recommended the MSI, so that helps. However, I recognize the Asus name as very reliable, the reviews on Anandtech reflect this. I would say more so than for the MSI. The DFI and Soltek also got good reviews, the problem with the latter is there is no Firewire. This of course can be bought.

Has anyone had any experience with the Soltek card? For the price amount the 4 and it's good performance per Anandtech, it seems like a good fit. I know you're all on the edges of your seats (like at a monster truck rally) about what I decide. I really do appreciate the input so far, though.