Good MB for a mid-range PC?

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

Stephan Grossklass wrote:
> max schrieb:
>
>
>>I'm looking to upgrade a PC for a friend, and haven't built an AMD box
>>before. I'm looking for something midrange - no gaming, good quality
>>- and not too expensive, but it doesn't need to be ultra-cheap either.
>>He'll be running XP, and re-using lots of his old components,
>
>
> Hopefully not the hard drive, if it's older than 2 years or so.

Well, older HDs are likely to be slower than new HDs, but HDs do tend
to have a rather long lifetime if installed in PCs with decent cooling.

In my house, 9 of the 11 HDs are more than 2 years old, and 8 of
those 9 run 24x7. The 9 veteran HDs include one from '94, one from '95,
one from '96, one from '98, and one from '99.

Old HDs never die, they just get obsolete. ;-)
--
Cheers, Bob

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

A8N-E or
A8V
- Tim

"max" <maxicon13@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3b0je19v8utos0blv61pk6fm5oc5n85hoo@4ax.com...
> I'm looking to upgrade a PC for a friend, and haven't built an AMD box
> before. I'm looking for something midrange - no gaming, good quality
> - and not too expensive, but it doesn't need to be ultra-cheap either.
> He'll be running XP, and re-using lots of his old components, but
> we'll get a new case, CPU, and RAM.
>
> I want something not too expensive that will perform well for a few
> years.
>
> - CPU less than $150, maybe an A64 3000+?
> - MB less than $125
> - PCI Express would be good for the future too
> - 512 M max for now
> - Overclocking isn't important, and neither is 64 bit
> - Serial port and 2 ATA ports
> - Needs to be stable and solid
> - Onboard sound is preferred
> - Onboard video is OK, if it's better than his current GeForce 3
>
> What's a good-quality MB that won't require a lot of fiddling?
>
> Thanks!
>
> max
>

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

On Fri, 29 Jul 2005 09:13:36 +0200, Stephan Grossklass
<sgrokla-nospam04q2@yahoo.de> wrote:

>I'm not aware of any integrated graphics solution more powerful than a
>GF3. That'll have to be reused then, which in turn means you'll need an
>oldstyle AGP equipped board. And that usually means bye bye to PCIe and
>hello to lots of PCI32/33 slots.

Dang! I spaced that part completely.

I was really hoping to go for an Nforce 4 chipset, since they seem to
have the best reputation in AMD world right now.

I suppose going for a cheap PCIe board would be an option - looks like
X300 and GF6200 boards are both in the under $50 range.

I'm hoping this PC will have a 3 year-ish lifetime, so going for a
more modern MB with a lower-end video card would be more upgradeable.

Sounds like I'm likely to need serial on a PCI card as well on many
recent MBs.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

Have built two in the past month, both asus mbs - p4p800-e & a8n-e
deluxe. Both mbs retail $100 - $125+. Got them at $50each returned
items (bozo makes another mistake). Semi-flagship AGP mbs stuffed with
Asus's features. The Intel came retail (returned) complete but all I
got with the 754 was mb brownbagged. Potluck and grabbag deals when
buying brownbags. Chose a budget, though retail Celeron D 2.4
Prescott, which cost about $80 and nicely overclocks to 3.4Ghz (things
really do want to overclock). Same with a A64 3Ghz, returned and cost
$120 but does 2.35Ghz with a stable Prime95. Always decent value
memory and HSF. Getting a touch better video MPEG encoding speeds with
the AMD, and perhaps overall more stable pushed than any prior AMPD XP
experiences. Multitasking seems somewhat smoother as well. But I'll
sell just about anything as soon as it takes for whatever is available
to cover an update. Typical tech junkie. Couple days now on the A64
and I'm leaning more towards it. The Intel is rock solid, though - and
no qualms about anyone (newbie) coming back at me with anything but
unexpected good fortune if they pickup the Celeron D / p4p800-e deluxe.
Both a pleasure to assemble. Look for a couple ATI Radeon 9000 AGP at
$30ea and won't find non-onboard sound.

max wrote:
> - CPU less than $150, maybe an A64 3000+?
> - MB less than $125
> - PCI Express would be good for the future too
> - 512 M max for now
> - Overclocking isn't important, and neither is 64 bit
> - Serial port and 2 ATA ports
> - Needs to be stable and solid
> - Onboard sound is preferred
> - Onboard video is OK, if it's better than his current GeForce 3
>
> What's a good-quality MB that won't require a lot of fiddling?
>
> Thanks!
>
> max

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (More info?)

On 30 Jul 2005 22:45:49 -0700, "Flasherly" <gjerrell@ij.net> wrote:

>
>Have built two in the past month, both asus mbs - p4p800-e & a8n-e
>deluxe. Both mbs retail $100 - $125+. Got them at $50each returned
>items (bozo makes another mistake). Semi-flagship AGP mbs stuffed with
>Asus's features. The Intel came retail (returned) complete but all I
>got with the 754 was mb brownbagged. Potluck and grabbag deals when
>buying brownbags. Chose a budget, though retail Celeron D 2.4
>Prescott, which cost about $80 and nicely overclocks to 3.4Ghz (things
>really do want to overclock). Same with a A64 3Ghz, returned and cost
>$120 but does 2.35Ghz with a stable Prime95. Always decent value
>memory and HSF. Getting a touch better video MPEG encoding speeds with
>the AMD, and perhaps overall more stable pushed than any prior AMPD XP
>experiences. Multitasking seems somewhat smoother as well. But I'll
>sell just about anything as soon as it takes for whatever is available
>to cover an update. Typical tech junkie. Couple days now on the A64
>and I'm leaning more towards it. The Intel is rock solid, though - and
>no qualms about anyone (newbie) coming back at me with anything but
>unexpected good fortune if they pickup the Celeron D / p4p800-e deluxe.
> Both a pleasure to assemble. Look for a couple ATI Radeon 9000 AGP at
>$30ea and won't find non-onboard sound.

I've got a gaming system built on a P4P800-E, and it's been very solid
and is a possibility. I'll checkout refurb/return CPUs and see if
there's a good deal on a midrange Intel chip, but if not, the few
bucks saved on AMD will go towards a new PCIe video board.

Thanks!

max