Suggestion for Stable Socket A (AMD) motherboard

Have just finished setting up the following which is running very nicely. The board has 5 PCI Slot, 1 ISA, 3 Dimm and has intigrated Video and sound.

DFI AM75-TC
Duron 850 Mhz
128 MB SDRAM (Shared - 16 MB for Intigrated Vid)
20 GB Seagate HDD
56 Kps HCF Modem

The only slight problem I had was I put thr Ram in Dimm 1 and it wouldn"t boot, changed to Dimm 3 and away it went.
All the best

INTELigence is gained by obtaining aMD

Girish>
Thanks for your input, however, as I stated, I'm looking for stability as my first priority, not "cheapest possible solution"
Of those MoBo's you listed, which would be condidered the most stable, or highest quality. This computer will go 500+ miles away when I'm done with it, and I don't want any calls saying that the computer I put together had a catastrophic hardware failure...
Lets forget I even mentioned value, and I am looking for stability as my TOP priority. I care NOTHING about speed compared to other motherboards. This will be an office type PC. The only other thing would be integrated sound, and maybe video, modem, etc...

Thanks again for your help. I'm not trying to discount your advice, but I guess I need to clerify my priorities here...

Epox 8KHA. best fricken board I've ever known. More stable than um... Kevlar underwear? Seriously though. Fast enough, but it never crashes on me. No matter how hard I try to produce errors and blue screens of death they just don't happen. Also, the temp and voltage reporting is very accurate. Did I mention that I love this board?


<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Matthews on 08/08/01 11:36 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

Get the ECS k7s5a with the sis 735 chipset available for $61.00. Has both ddr and sdr support, stable as a rock, has a decent integrated nic and ac97 audio. The money you save will get you a decent video card and sound card if you don't want the ac'97 sound. Performs on par with the AMD chipset boards and has no via southbridge to contend with.

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!

$115 for a good Duron MB??

hmmm....a little on the high side there dude!

SiS 735 based MB's are selling in the $60's

So, subtract about $50 from the cost of your Duron setup and the Duron setup is now $40 less expensive.

But wait!

Upgrade it to an Athlon 1.0 ghz or faster with that $40 savings and guess what?
You have a system about 50% faster for the same price!

Mark-

When all else fails, throw your computer out the window!!!

Heck,

Pricewatch lists numerous Athlon based barebones systems (case, PS, MB and CPU for under $200. PLUS the SB Live Platinum is going for less than $100 So...

subtract $50 for cost of MB and $50 cost of SB Platinum....gets cost...according to your figures and my updated figures....$275

Hmmm....

Athlon 1 ghz @ $275 OR...
Piii 1ghz @ $325

We have a winner!

Athlon 1ghz @ $275!

Mark-

Mark-

When all else fails, throw your computer out the window!!!

HEY MORON! THIS IS APPLES TO APPLES, FIND ME A SOCKET A MOTHERBOARD WITH INTEGRATED LIVE PLATINUM 5.1 SOUND! IF YOU CAN'T DO THAT, THAN BUY THE FRIGGIN SOUNDCARD, $150!!!
YOUR LACK OF INTEREST IN THE LIVE PLATINUM DOES NOT JUSTIFY A PRICE COMPARISON TO A CHEAPO MOBO WITH INTERGRATED AC97 CODEC! I'M DOING APPLES TO APPLES, YOUR DOING APPLES TO CRAP! Go ahead and get the cheapest crap you can find, I thought stability was the number 1 priority, I guess you lied, don't ask me for any help when your piece of crap blows up in your face!

Video killed my Radio Card!

the iwill ka266 is a good stable board. just dont pay attention to the tomshardware review thats says its unstable. i can keep my computer on for ages under 100% cpu load.

I thought your priorities were stability uppermost?

As Crash says, the BX is the one.
After a few months of going through the which mobo stuff, I went for a Abit BX133 RAID. No problems. I repeat NO PROBLEMS!

Crashman (or Brashman on this post- sorry Crash LOL) and a few other guys were instrumental in the choosing stages.

Ask for advice. Take it well. Your decision mate.

<b>
If the best things in life are free, why do I keep upgrading my system?
</b>

Well, he ask for stable, the BX is the most stable. As far as sound goes, I think the SB Live is overrated, in fact, compared with other premium sound systems, it stinks. But I figured anyone who stated stability was the Number 1 issue and then ask about Socket A motherboards would probably know so little about computers as to think the Platinum was a worthwhile investment.
Sure, you can get good BX boards for $30.

Video killed my Radio Card!

735 is rock solid according to reviews...no crashes whatsoever beyond what might be expected of Windows systems.

735 based motherboard is definitely not a generic part. The two manufacturers currently having boards and reviews OF those boards are both under $70 at retail.

As for SB Live. I TOO was referring to SB Live! PLATINUM at under $100. Check out Pricewatch.

Yes, BX is stable, but BX isn't an AMD compatible motherbvoard. The request was for a stable Athlon motherboard. 735 is very stable...probably nearly as stable or as stable as a BX board.

Mark-


When all else fails, throw your computer out the window!!!

It's in the ECS listing still...at $65

You can also check out the other manufacturer that has released a board. I forget the one. No matter as there are several others working on boards as well.


When all else fails, throw your computer out the window!!!

Only way to find it is by typing in Sis735 with no spaces. Kind of odd. The category listing is gone though.

I can't believe I spent so much time searching for this, but I wanted to make sure I hadn't lost my mind...



<font color=red>Change the sig of the week!</font color=red>

Sure Crash here's ONE of about a dozen places selling it at under $100. This place is selling it for $86 to $87

http://www.shentech.com/creativelabs.html



When all else fails, throw your computer out the window!!!

Nope, the cheapest Platinum 5.1 they have is $99 without infrared I/O or remote. The full version cost $179 on that site! Keep guessing!

Video killed my Radio Card!

The bx is a good chipset, however it is a dead end. Stuck at AGP 2x, very limited memory bandwith And SDRAM. The user needs stability so for sure stay away from anything to do with VIA ( unfortunalty this makes all AMD chipsets null ass well as they all use VIA southbridge's). But yes the SIS 735 is amazingly stable and for $60 some odd bucks very hard to beat.

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!

I havn't had any problems with geforce with either of 2 AMD 761 boards. I've had geforce 3, and geforce 2 MX 400 inside of an asus A7M266, and a geforce 3 inside of my Epox 8K7A+. And my friend had a regular Geforce 2 GTS inside of his A7M266.

If your not going to play games, your not in need of super big sound capability, speed isn't the biggest issue, and upgrade path isn't to important than the BX chipset is the way to go.
At the moment the SiS 735 might look stable but right now it hasn't even been out for more than two weeks so its not tried and true yet. BX has been out for something like 2 years now.
If all you want is stability and decent speed 600-1000 MHz P3 will do the trick. The fact that its only AGP 2x doesn't mean anything because I doubt you need to play games in the office. I'm sure you can go to www.pricewatch.com and find a nice BX based board from one of the major mainboard manufacturers like Asus, Abit, gigabyte, Epox, and many others. I'd try to avoid ECS and PC Chips like the plague seeing as they are the cheapest of the cheap when it comes to parts, performance, and support. There is a chance this could change slightly with SiS 735 chipset, but its to early to tell the motherboards have only been out barely over a week, it be a very big gamble to get one.

If you insist on getting socket A almost any AMD761 chipset board will give you good stability. I have an Epox 8K7A+ with a 1.4 GHz Tbird overclocked to 1.56 GHz and I never get blue screens and my system is overclocked, so I'd say its safe to say a 1 GHz "C" tbird won't let you down on this board. It also comes with a decent sound chip built into it, I don't know the specifics even though I own it but its still nice enough even for games with only 2 speakers.

So to recap Sis 735 isn't tried and true stay away
BX intel chipset is rock stable, been out for ages
AMD761 is fast and stable (just make sure you buy all brand name parts like ram, video card, and network card or modem)
AMD761 paired with 3com networking, or US robotics modem, in addition to sblive value and nvidia mx will give you a very cheap high performance office PC, with Crucial DDR ram you'll spank a BX with almost the same stability. The key is name brand.

Oni it seems you missed the question.

The request was for suggestions for a stable Socket A motherboard. Last I heard that cuts BX boards out...they aren't Socket A.

Regardless of whether you like BX better or not due to percieved stability, it's NOT what the original poster requested. The original poster requested the better choices of stable Socket A boards.

Suggesting a BX board is just moving the board off the topic of the original post and is plain rude.

Suggest what you think is the most stable socket A board or don't.

Don't mean to signle you out of the crowd to criticize and this isn't meant as an attack, as others have done the same thing.

Mark-

When all else fails, throw your computer out the window!!!

On a suggestion from another source, I purchased a Intel D815EEA2 MoBo, and will put a Celeron ~800 in it. (I know, it's not a socket A MB, and it's not an AMD chip.. Oh well)

Thanks for all the help here. This thread has gone out of control, and I'm amazed at the posts in here! Sorry about the sound card thing. I have never had any problems with a sound card, and never heard of it sound card instability, so it wasn't an issue.
This thread has served it's purpose, and if it's possible to close it, let's do so.

Thanks again for the help, and sorry about pissing anybody off. not my intention.

tchamp,

if it were sugge4sted as one alternative along WITH a stable AMD board that would be one thing. But the posters promoting that were suggesting that AMD MB's are not stable and that's simply not so. Most people will see little problems with stability on an AMD OR an Intel system. It's generally overclockers and hardcore users that would notice instabilities in most cases.

For general use there are a number of perfectly fine AMD AND Intel motherboards available. I just find it inappropriate in a thread CLEARLY starting asking for an AMD (Or Intel for that matter) motherboard suggestion and respondents utterly ignoring that and suggesting the opposite platform.

I guess that's just my personal sensibilities though.

The most common things that can cause instability on AMD platforms is the power supply and memory. But memory can cause problems on Intel systems also. And AMD has a list of recommended/approved power supplies so that shouldn't be an issue.

Mark-


When all else fails, throw your computer out the window!!!

If stability is your #1 concern, then an Intel motherboard i815E motherboard and a Pentium III processor would be your best bet.

With AMD solutions, you get more for your money but you have to be willing to put up with a small increase in twiddling...

TL

There isn't an AMD user in here that hasn't dealt with VIA chipset problems, 4in1 driver problems, 686b problems, memory problems, etc...

The point of reference for the word "Stable" is completely different on the AMD and Intel PIII platform.

To call ANY Athlon/Duron system as stable a BX/PIII system is ludicrous. It just ain't so.

Don't get me wrong. I run an Athlon DDR 1.2Ghz system, and I also run a PIII/BX system. I know what both are capable of, and I know what I have to do to keep each one running.

Frankly, the BX/PIII needs nothing. The only reason I've touched it (it's my server) in the last 6 months is to upate NAV and PCAnyware. It just sits there and churns along happily, day after day.

As for the VIA/Athlon system, there is ALWAYS something to be done. 4in1 upate, driver update, 686b patch, and a dozen other things that I always have to keep on my mind.

This is reality. I choose VIA/Athlon because it's a better price/performance ratio. However, I do it and accept the concequences of that decision WILLINGLY.

I will never, ever tell anyone, anywhere, with a request like was posted here, that ANY AMD system is 100% as stable, trouble-free or worry-free as the BX/PIII platform is.

Because it just ain't so...

TL

Funny post...why is it you completely left out SIS and ALI chipsets? If I read your post right you say ANY AMD system, but yet only go on to rant about VIA chipsets in conjunction with AMD systems?

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!