Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt,alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (
More info?)
I don;t know much about Abit S939 boards, but I don't think that you can
go far wrong with Abit (unlike others, cough...Matsonic...cough). As for
Asus, there are 2 things to look at when getting a board:
-The future upgradability of the board.
-The cost of the board.
The A8V is the cheapest S939 board from Asus. Be sure to get the
E-revision, as the first one had a few problems with the SATA frequency
not being locked, making overclocking a risky proposition - data
corruption has been seen by people using the onboard SATA controller and
overclocking. The PCI SATA controller also present on the board (it's a
RAID controller, but it still works) does not have this problem. That
said, I have been using an original model A8V Deluxe since July and
can't fault it.
Future upgradability comes in the form of the A8N SLi. This is mainly
because it has PCI Express slots - the current PCI and AGP standards
will die off due to the march of progress (but not just yet). The board
itself does cost a bit more than the A8V and it hasn't been out so long,
so there may still be problems that they haven't picked up on yet. You
may not need SLi for uber-performance right now, but the capability is
there and that's what counts.
PCI Express graphics cards can be found for fairly cheap (if you want a
basic card) in the form of the GeForce 6200 (do not get the TurboCache
variants - they're slower and more expensive) and also for the very high
end (6800 Ultra), so you needn't worry about that.
I personally would go with the A8N SLi to ensure future upgradability.
Both boards have a decent amound of SATA, Firewire and USB ports, but
the A8N has lots more than the A8V. You might want to wait a bit if you
are aiming for this board, so that Asus can release a newer version that
corrects any problems with it (like the unstable SATA on the original A8V).
However, if you are shooting for the lowest price possible on fairly
modern and stable components, then the A8V-E is the board to go for.