Stable Mobo's

[allgoodpeople]

I'm looking at DDR Socket A mobo's, and am debating about which one to get. Thus I have come seeking other's 2 cents. Which mobo do you think best suits my needs and priorites?

First: MUST be stable and dependable. I'm not a speed freak, and am willing to trade some performance for peace of mind.

Second: Would like it to have RAID and SCSI, but these aren't an absolute, as they can be added with seperate cards if need be

Third: As stated above, needs to support DDR (256 MB) and 1+ GHZ Athlon

Fourth: Has good onboard sound. I'm not a sound freak, and as long as I can plug a good pair of speakers in and have it play sound dependably, I'm happy.


From what i've read, the IWILL board sounds like it fits the description. Any opinions.

allgoodpeople

"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing milkbone underwear."

 

[Guest]

I haven't actually used the IWill board, but I've been reading up on it lately. It seems great, dependable, stable, and at a good price. KA266-R is the one you're talking about I hope

It's better to be pissed off than pissed on

 

[JoeHead]

MSI - They jsut came out with a new board with the via chipset:

<A HREF="http://www.chip-online.com/products_tests/products_tests_1874.html " target="_new">http://www.chip-online.com/products_tests/products_tests_1874.html </A>

or check out

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/index.html" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/index.html</A>

for good reviews.

<b><A HREF="http://www.seti.tomshardware.com/" target="_new">How fast is your PC</A></b>

 

[allgoodpeople]

From what i've been reading VIA's major drawback is stability and compatibility, just the sort of thing I'm trying to avoid. Are these stability issues with the VIA based mobo's an issue with the mobo manufacturer, or is is a chipset issue that is endemic to all VIA based mobo's?


allgoodpeople

"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing milkbone underwear."

 

[IntelConvert]

If top performance was your ultimate goal, I could understand your desire to go with AMD (Socket-A DDR). But since stability and dependability seem to be your highest criteria, I highly recommend a Coppermine P3 and an Intel chipset mobo.

Don't get me wrong, this is not an AMD bashing. They make great CPU's (although a little "too hot" for my taste). The problem, as you summized, is the VIA chipset(s) which most every AMD mobo uses to some extent (it's rare to find any AMD mobo that doesn't have at least a VIA southbridge). VIA's history is fraught with stability and compatiblity problems. I just don't understand why AMD doesn't follow Intel's direction and manufacturer it's own chipsets.

Anyhow, I have a 1.0GHz P3(EB) on an ASUS CUSL-C mobo. This mobo uses Intel's 815 chipset with built-in sound (which I find good enough). From the day I built this system, it's been rock-solid and completely Win2K and device compatible (BTW, that was also my main priority)!

 

[Pettytheft]

I'll agree with the IntelConvert guy if your looking for stability I would stick with Intel for the moment. I am a owner of a Duron System and a 2 P3 coppermine systems. One of my Motherboards is the intel 815. I can run Windows, Linux or Solaris without a problem.

Now with my Two via chipsets (Intel and AMD) it takes much of my time tweaking settings, downloading special drivers, moving PCI slots, flashing BIOS's, playing with IRQ's and such.

I'm sure you could probably get your system stable for a time(After spending half a day getting everything set up). As soon as you begin to make changes your going to run into a whole new set of problems.

Now I love my little Duron gaming rig. The price I paid for it is worth the occasional headaches I get. But when you do go that route understand that DDR Motherboads are still very new and there are going to be some definate bugs.