Best Motherboard Money Can Buy

[Kaliman]

i have decided to build my new computer myself and i am having a very difficult time deciding on the motherboard. There is so much to choose from i don't even know where to start. There has to be just one board that most people would recommend, or is it all baed on opinion? I want a board with the best performance, compatabilitiy, and longevity, as well as the abilitiy to easily overclock in the future. I really don't care how much the motherboard is since it's the most important part of the computer. Can anyone give me some recommendations? thanks

 

[jlanka]

right now KG7-RAID

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[FatBurger]

And you're looking for P3, P4, Athlon...?

For P3, I can't say.
For P4, probably the Abit TH7.
For Athlon (DDR), probably the Abit KG7.
For Athlon (SDR), probably the Abit KT7a.
Can you tell I own an Abit board?

Though there are lots of good motherboards of each type.

-----------------
Whoever thinks up a good sig for me gets a prize

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

Get the new Iwill KK266 PLUS if your going for an AMD/SDRAM combo. It comes with a 'better than average' 5.1 surround sound on-board chip. Great for overclocking, stable, good performance, and cheap.

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[Stick_e_Mouse]

I'd have to disagree with you. It seems a lot of people are having problems with their Abit KT7a (RAID) boards. Either you were lucky to not have problems, or those other people are just morons. =)

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[Guest]

MS-6341

 

[upec]

I think KG7-RAID is the best motherboard for Athlon right now.

 

[Guest]

As for a specific board the choices are varied but I have built about 40 machines in the past year and I was swayed to go for some of the "top notch" boards from ASUS and ABIT etc.
Well i can say now that they are on the whole a complete waste of the extra money. They are always difficult to set-up and come with lots of problems. And as for their supposed quality and performance benefits, in the real world, you cannot really find any benefits apart from a few required by really intensive processes like video editing.
My fave boards are Jetway. They are cheap and I never have problems with the initial set-up. I have never had one returned because of faults or problems yet, which is more than i can say for the expensive ones.
I'm not saying don't buy the "best", but be wary before you do. Make sure you check out all the boards and see what others think first and never buy a new board until all the obligatory fixes have been released.
The only boards I would be particularly wary of in the cheaper end of the market is PC Chips. These can be particularly neasty to get right, although 2 customers that wanted them recently were very happy.
Hope this helps

 

[tdean]

the aopen ak73 proa (sdram/amd) was rated highest by tom and others a little while back.

...and i would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling kids...

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

The gigabyte GA-DX7R looks pretty sweet.. had RAID-dual BIOS, audio (which u can disable) and if your an overclocker you can add voltage to everything from the agp to ram and overcock your system to hell lol ...

The ABit KG7-RAID isn't even at your vendor so if u wanna wait i'd wait for that if not the Gigabyte GA-DX7R look sweet! i read many reviews and have heard great comments from people who own one. The Gigabyte is the board i'm considering buying however it seems to sell out very quickly! .. now thats assuming you want an amd board

P3 . u gotta be a fool to get a p3 ... a p4 .. wait until northwood (the next p4) otherwise you're wasting your money.

and if i was you i'd wait until nforce or SIS 735 based boards and the athlon 4 before u buy anything.... in my opinion... unless u need it right now ...

Do you actually believe what you think?

 

[forgettythatty]

You'll have to wait for the Nforce. Nvidia starts shipping the chipset to the various motherboard makers in mid august. The motherboards should be available about late august, september. In order to get full potential out of the motherboard, you'll have to install another Graphics card on it, or the IGP (Integrated Graphics Processor) will slow it down some (I read that somewhere). I am personally looking at the motherboards below. If you need a motherboard right away I'd look here:
System Recommendation Guide:
http://www.amdmb.com/reviews.php
and in the forums of www.amdmb.com to ask.

If you really want the fastest desktop in the world this is interesting:
http://sys.com/products/cold-fusion/desktops.cfm

Motherboards to look forward too:
Asus A7N-266
http://event.asus.com.tw/computex2001/product/mb_a7n266.asp
http://www.reactor.ru/news/june/a7n266_big.jpg

or

MSI MS-6373
http://www.msicomputer.com/Newsrelease/nForce.htm

 

[Guest]

Yes I agree, so many choices and features. Iam looking very hard at the EPOX 8K7A+ for myself.
It has the best manual overclockability for the AMD761 boards but that Gigabyte GA-DX7R looks good too..
Hard dicission right now,so many good boards coming out as well.

But thats my humble opinion..



Crank it up... way up!! I need that power.