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

I would like to put together a Barebones system with a Gigabyte motherboard.
Could the group recommend a basic board. I don't need raid on the m-board. I
would also like a recommendation on a video card. I don't do much gaming.
Will use the system for digital photos and playing music.

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

"Jack" <jack@somewhere.com> wrote in message news:<0fqdnSvc-fuEvFTdRVn2uQ@giganews.com>...
> I would like to put together a Barebones system with a Gigabyte motherboard.
> Could the group recommend a basic board. I don't need raid on the m-board. I
> would also like a recommendation on a video card. I don't do much gaming.
> Will use the system for digital photos and playing music.

For intel cpus take ga8ipe1000(-L has onboard lan) which has intel
chipset and supports dual ddr. For amd cpus take 7n400pro2-rev2.0 or
7n400L1(which is cheaper but doesnt have serial ata support) both of
which have dual ddr support.

The best entry level card is radeon 9600SE 128mb which has full
directx9 support and you will find it at about 80euro.

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

"Dimitris" <p92012@rainbow.cs.unipi.gr> wrote in message
news:af44b7e.0406110535.15fe3acd@posting.google.com...
> "Jack" <jack@somewhere.com> wrote in message
news:<0fqdnSvc-fuEvFTdRVn2uQ@giganews.com>...
> > I would like to put together a Barebones system with a Gigabyte
motherboard.
> > Could the group recommend a basic board. I don't need raid on the
m-board. I
> > would also like a recommendation on a video card. I don't do much
gaming.
> > Will use the system for digital photos and playing music.
>
> For intel cpus take ga8ipe1000(-L has onboard lan) which has intel
> chipset and supports dual ddr. For amd cpus take 7n400pro2-rev2.0 or
> 7n400L1(which is cheaper but doesnt have serial ata support) both of
> which have dual ddr support.
>
> The best entry level card is radeon 9600SE 128mb which has full
> directx9 support and you will find it at about 80euro.

Can I use a non-sata drive with this 7n400pro2? I just want to use an 80 or
120gb IDE hard drive. I've been reading about a lot of problems with the
initial install of SATA drives.

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

"Jack" <jack@somewhere.com> wrote in message news:<saWdnZc4c7TapFfdRVn2vA@giganews.com>...
> "Dimitris" <p92012@rainbow.cs.unipi.gr> wrote in message
> news:af44b7e.0406110535.15fe3acd@posting.google.com...
> > "Jack" <jack@somewhere.com> wrote in message
> news:<0fqdnSvc-fuEvFTdRVn2uQ@giganews.com>...
> > > I would like to put together a Barebones system with a Gigabyte
> motherboard.
> > > Could the group recommend a basic board. I don't need raid on the
> m-board. I
> > > would also like a recommendation on a video card. I don't do much
> gaming.
> > > Will use the system for digital photos and playing music.
> >
> > For intel cpus take ga8ipe1000(-L has onboard lan) which has intel
> > chipset and supports dual ddr. For amd cpus take 7n400pro2-rev2.0 or
> > 7n400L1(which is cheaper but doesnt have serial ata support) both of
> > which have dual ddr support.
> >
> > The best entry level card is radeon 9600SE 128mb which has full
> > directx9 support and you will find it at about 80euro.
>
> Can I use a non-sata drive with this 7n400pro2? I just want to use an 80 or
> 120gb IDE hard drive. I've been reading about a lot of problems with the
> initial install of SATA drives.


Yes you can use an IDE drive with 7n400pro2. It has IDE raid
controller also. It has a total of 4 IDE plugs, so you can put a total
of 8 IDE devices(hard drives or cd/dvd roms-recorders). It has also 2
SATA ports. It is a bit expensive though about 100-120eyro.

if you go for a 7n400L1(80euro)+9200SE(40-50) it would be a total of
about 120-130euro.(you will be able to play all directx9 games but not
with all eye candy on. second is that you wont have sata support but
it would not be such of a problem, you can buy later a IDE->Sata
adapter or a PCI sata controller)
if you go for a 7n400pro2(just make sure you get rev2.0) +9600se it
will go about 180-200euro.
You can save the money for a athlon XP 2200+cpu if you go for the
first choice.

There are also cheaper combinations, for example to get a motherboard
with onboard graphics. It will go around 70-80euro for the cheapest
motherboard with onboard graphics, but right now i cant recommend any
gigabyte motherboards for athlon cpus with onboard vga.
For intel cpus GIGABYTE 8IG1000MK or GA-8TRS300M but the price remains
a question.

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

Re: <snip>
Could the group recommend a basic board. I don't need raid on the
m-board. I would also like a recommendation on a video card. I don't do much
gaming. Will use the system for digital photos and playing music. <snip>

You want Gigabyte. You are happy with basic features.

You could do a lot worse than a Gigabyte GA7VA (VIA KT400 chipset). If you
are in Europe, look in the "Bargain basement" section at www.aria.co.uk,
where you will find some boards at well under half the original price. These
probably don't support Barton or 400 FSB, but a non-Barton 2600XP (333FSB)
is cheaper than the Barton kind in ARIA's cpu section.

There are pin-outs on this motherboard for 6.1 sound (your "playing music"
request). Whether or not you get the bracket (with the optical connector and
the extra sound sockets) bundled with the mainboard I can't say - especially
with the "Bargain Basement" ones.

Furthermore, the board has 2 rear USB ports, and motherboard header pin-outs
for 4 USB channels on the front of the computer (or wherever you want them).
This will allow you to connect 2 USB channels to sockets that your case
might have, and as well you can connect a multiformat card reader - most of
these connect to motherboard headers (i.e. to help in your "digital photos"
request). Note that Gigabyte's nForce2 range of boards put 4 USB channels on
those sockets mounted directly on the motherboard at the back, and only 2
channels on motherboard header pins. That makes wiring up front panel USB
AND a multiformat memory card reader a bit more involved. (Aria have as good
a selection of card readers as I've ever seen). If you get a card reader
with a USB port as well you can connect all 4 channels - the 4 card reader
slots take 1 USB connection. When installing WIn XP, don't connect the card
reader first, as it will take Drives C:, D:, E: and F:, leaving your hard
disk as G: and CD as H::! Connect the card reader AFTER installing XP (How
do I know this?).

Some of the recommendations you were given were for a GA7N400Pro2 board
(nVidia nForce chipset). This is far from basic, as it has IDE Raid and SATA
Raid, firewire and onboard network. If you have a choice, get the GA7N400Pro
mainboard, as it has better sound! (Your music). You can get the equivalent
( IDE Raid and SATA Raid, firewire and onboard network) in VIA KT400 form
called the GA7VAXP-Ultra (or GA7VAXP-A Ultra, which does support 400FSB AND
Barton). The nForce chipsets allow you to run your RAM in "dual channel"
mode, but they only work with good quality, low latency RAM when in this
mode, e.g. Corsair TwinX.

I have recently been comparing the following:

GA7VA (this one an Aria bargain basement purchase!)
GA7VAXP-A Ultra
GA7N400 Pro
GA7N400 Pro2

using the MEMTEST86.exe utility. It reports a few MHz higher in the speed of
a T'bird Athlon 2600 on the KT400 chipsets, but a much, much lower memory
throughput (644 v. 908) Mb/s - whatever that means - compared to the nVidia
chipsets, which no doubt accounts for the better games performance reported
on the latter. This is run using generic RAM and not using dual channel.

Of course, the KT400 is obsolete, and replaced with KT600 - allegedly faster
than nForce, and supporting all the high-spec, high-cost, options - but
still with the useful 4 channels of USB on mainboard headers. But you did
say "basic", and I took that to mean "Low cost" as well as "feature
poor"....

Frankly, I've used computers built around all of the 4 above boards, with
cpu's from XP2000+ to XP2800+ (Barton), and with PC2100 to PC3200 (low
latency) RAM, and as far as Windows and Office are concerned, the difference
is not detectable. I prefer the bargain basement GA7VA, but that is because
it is in the nicest case!

Video cards are very much a personal choice, but you will find that even
cards criticised as rubbish by gamers are perfectly satisfactory for
non-game applications.

Apologies for the length of this.

Eddie B.