Looking for a S754 board

[JustysRule]

I wanted to use the Abit NF8 Nforce 3 250, but it seems like it is always out of stock on ebay. I'll be running a 3400+ A64, w/ 1gb of some cheap ram (mabye Geil or Kingston value, but want at least 2.5 latency), a Radeon 9800 PRO, a SATA RAID 0 configuration, and some other stuff.

I want one thats stable, reliable, and won't have proglems with, and I am not really concerned with overclocking, though I do wish to have good performance. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with the NFORCE 3 250 chipset though. Anybody have some suggestions? I was thinking mabye about the soltek, I hear they are good for performance, but I don't hear much else.

 

[Crashman]

First of all, NEVER buy expensive hardware on eBay, the chances of getting ripped off are very high (even long time sellers pull out sometimes without filling their last batch of orders), tech support might be non-existant, and the parts you receive may not be properly documented for warranty purposes. On top of that, POPULAR parts are usually MORE EXPENSIVE on eBay.

Check the RELIABLE venders first, like <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com" target="_new">http://www.newegg.com</A> and <A HREF="http://www.zipzoomfly.com" target="_new">http://www.zipzoomfly.com</A>. If they're out of stock, check for other venders using <A HREF="http://www.pricewatch.com" target="_new">http://www.pricewatch.com</A>

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[JustysRule]

Nevermind, I meant new egg. Anyways, any other suggestions?

 

[pat]

Soltek k8an2e-gr

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

 

[JustysRule]

Yeah, I was looking at that one. Do you think this would be better than the Abit? I hear Abit are really good boards, but the soltek is known for its good performance.

 

[pat]

I dont know about the Abit, but I run the Soltek right now and nothing to complain so far

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

 

[endyen]

If you want to OC, Abit is best, if you want solid, Asus K8N is the way to go. Third choice for me, is the gigabyte board.

 

[endyen]

If you want to OC, Abit is best, if you want solid, Asus K8N is the way to go. Third choice for me, is the gigabyte board.

 

[sobelizard]

MSI K8N Neo Platinum, 'nuff said.

<font color=green><b><i>Lizards</font color=green></b> do <b>not</b> taste like <b><font color=yellow>chicken</font color=yellow></b>,<b> <font color=yellow>chicken</font color=yellow></b> tastes like <font color=green><b>lizard.</b></font color=green></i>

 

[JustysRule]

Thats all well and good, but I sorta wanted some reasoning for going with each board. You say the Asus is reliable? Then thats where I may want to go. Is the soltek reliable? Why would I go with the MSI? Thanks for the info guys. But on a further note, I'm trying to stay below 100 bucks on the motherboard, unless it is really worth it to go higher.

 

[pat]

I speak with experience...I have the Soltek...rock stable, fast and, since all the other Soltek I've own/used has been reliable, so I expect that one to be too! And this board is very affordable. I'm planning a new build for a friendand I will use this board.

Running with a 3000+ and 1 gigs of Corsair twinx dual channel PC3200( from my Soltek nforce2 dual channel rig I had before...I keep it cause they were $$$$ when I bought them even if I dont run them in dual channel)

I currently has a RAID0 array with 2 seagate 160 gigs SATA on the nvidia controller,one 40 Gigs hdd and 2 burners, one cd and the other DVD, on the IDE channel with a 200gigs SATA on the onboard Promise controller.

ATI All in Wonder 9600XT and a sound blaster audigy2 sound card.

All running great and install without any conflict.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by pat on 01/01/05 01:50 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[georgebeee]

you mention that board as if you are fond of it pat, how well does it OC? I understand Soltek has awesome customer service

 

[JustysRule]

Hmm, soltek sounds awfully good. I have a soltek right now, on a socket A system with a 1.2ghz thunderbird and DDR266, and am quite satisfied. I think I may go with the soltek now, you've talked me into it.

But I noticed you have a Raid 0 w/ 80gb Seagate hard drives, are those Barracudas, the ones with SATA II? I was looking at the same configuration. Hows that working out?

 

[pat]

No, that is not the 80 gigs...that is two 160 gigs SATA for 320 gigs storage...
I did 5 partitions.

I have one 60 gigs for system and programs install
One 100 gigs for video capture and edit
another 100 gigs for storage
then another about 40 gigs for temporary storage and other OS install
And a last one about 5 gigs for downloaded stuff.

The System partition is the fastest one at about 105 to 110 MB/s. the second one run at about 100 MB/s. the next ones are a bit slower, 88, 70 and 58 for the last one. But still fast enough. Speeds are from HDSpeed. The 40 Gigs WD on the standard IDE run at about 54 MB/s and the Maxtor on the 200 Gigs run at 57 MB/s.

Yes, I do have 560 Gigs of HDD space in my machine... I know that I should get a life...

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

 

[pat]

Well, I did not push that much on overclocking as my system is plenty fast like it is at 210X10 for a CPU speed of 2100 MHZ for my 2.0GHz A64 3000+, 100MHz overclock. Enough to put to shame my friend's 2.8 GHz P4 system with an Asus board....even at stock speed ...So I really dont know if they are good at overclocking or not. I need stability and reliability first.

As for support, at <A HREF="http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=29&threadid=1436723&enterthread=y" target="_new">Anandtech</A> forum and <A HREF="http://forums.pcper.com/forumdisplay.php?f=30" target="_new">pcperspective</A> forum, in the motherboard forum, Lydya, from Soltek is there to answer question. I emailed them for a BIOS glitch and got a new BIOS in my e-mail the next morning, so no complain .

Yes, I really like the Soltek. They are reliable, fast, stable and inexpensive, so it allow me to built better system for a lower price. I once tried MSI, but it took me 4 boards to finally find one that will last more than 4 days. As for Asus, well, they are not as reliable as they once were... maybe that is changing now.

Used/owned so far, some sl-75frn2-l and rl and the k8an2e-gr

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

 

[okietex]

Hey Pat-

as of right now, I'm on the Soltek train... and it's in my wish list of items to be bought for my new build.

one question for you -- you mentioned you went with an Audigy2 sound card -- is the onboard audio not good enough or is it and you just wanted pci based/maybe better?

 

[pat]

The onboard sound is good for basic sound, but with my new 5.1 speakers and my AIW, I faced one problems...not enough connectors for sound out and in...mic and line-in has to be used as exit to have 5.1 channel, but I need line in and mic for my AIW and my microphone. The audigy2 was cheap, around 50$ can so I got one to drive the sound and the in from my AIW and the onboard sound drive the mic and the earphone out for internet communication.

So, if you dont need line in and mic and have 5.1 speakers, you should be fine. If you need mic and line in and have a 2.1 speakers system, you'll be fine too. And the audigy sound better too ... but havent got 5.1 speakers system, I wouldnt have bought the Audigy.

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

 

[okietex]

yeah, speakers are just 2 or a 2.1 setup - not sure on that yet but basic. mic - probably not needed and can always add a card. will think about this -- audigy2 is usually not that costly so just wondering on the onboard. i have audigy2 in mine and it is fine for what i do.

THX