best x2 motherboard

[mattdp]

Hi

Trying to pick a motherboard for a new system based on AMD Athlon64 X2 4200 processor. The system will mainly be used for multimedia work/programming and games. The motherboard needs to

1) Have a decent quality chipset/build

2) Offer good value in terms of performance for the money

3) Have on-board firewire so I can connect my external HDD and DV cam

4) Decent on-board sound would be helpful to save me the bother of a sound card

There's two likely looking choices from my supplier:
MSI Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra
** OR **
ABit AV8 Third Eye

Or should I be looking for something else/more expensive?
Cheers for any advice!
Matt

 

[Rugger]

Those boards use AGP graphics ports.....and have been discontinued. What GPU are you planning on putting in the rig? Are you buying a new one or reusing your previous?

 

[Hawkeye22]

Those boards use AGP graphics ports.....and have been discontinued. What GPU are you planning on putting in the rig? Are you buying a new one or reusing your previous?

The MSI is not an AGP board. I've never used the AV8 mobo, but the Neo4 Ultra has been very good to me. Others will tell you to stay away from MSI, but mine works great, the onboard sound is fine compared to other onboard audio solutions (except the creative x-fi on some boards). Add in sound cards are always better. The board has firewire as should any NF4 board. I haven't tried any heavy OC'ing with this board since I don't have sufficient cooling to go above 2.6ghz. I'm running a modest 10% OC right now, 220mhz x 11.

 

[Rugger]

You're absolutely right...i looked up the 3rd Eye since I hadn't looked it up before and it is AGP. I personally stay away from VIA, but I have heard some good things about the 3rd Eye. One of our good regulars, Endyen, has one and has nothing but good things to say about it.

I happen to be one of those people that will not recommend MSI. I've had too many bad personal experiences with their products. To each his own.

One board that I have great personal experience with is the Gigabyte K8NF-9. It meets all of Matt's requirements, is very stable and only costs $76 right now. I run it with a 15% OC 24/7 while Folding@Home for THGC.

 

[mattdp]

Thanks for the replies. I'd rather stupidly picked out boards that were low stock, presuming they were popular and thus a good buy - it never occured to me that they might be low stock because they're discontinued!

My supplier does do the Gigabyte K8NF-9 nForce4 boards, so that's a possibility, thanks for the pointer. Anyone else have an opinion on this, or any further suggestions?

 

[Rugger]

No problem - let me know if you ahve any more questions or want to hear some more about the K8NF-9.