Best S939 MoBo for the money

[Nosada]

I recently upgraded my little brother's pc from it's 80's build to a respectable budget gaming machine. I had pretty much all the parts lying around, all I was missing was a motherboard.

I had a S939 AMD XP 3700+ San Diego I wasn't using, as well as a Gig of Corsair XMS3200C2, so the decision to get a S939 board was an easy one. Being a loyal costumer of Asus, I ordered an A8R-MVP. Big mistake it seems, as this was over 2 months ago, I'm down to my third RMA (#1 No Post, #2 Dead LAN, #3 horrifyingly unstable even at stock settings) and the store has finally agreed to let me trade it in for another brand.

And this is where you guys come in:

I need a S939 motherboard that's stable as a rock, has few complaints, is mildly overclockable and has a respectable RMA service. SLI and Xfire are not needed. Basically, I'd like personal experiences from people who've handled large quantities of certain brands/types of motherboards.

Thanks for any and all replies.

PS: I was thinking of DFI LANparty UT nF4 Ultra-D myself. Yay or Nay?

 

[sirheck]

PS: I was thinking of DFI LANparty UT nF4 Ultra-D myself. Yay or Nay

yay

 

[ikjadoon]

Go with the DFI. Excellent overclocking, stable, lots of features, and a DFI-Centered support site: DFI Street.

~Ibrahim~

 

[Newf]

I agree that the UltraD would be a good choice.
So might this:
EpoX EP-9NPA3Ultra 939 nF4 Ultra $75+6 10/21/06
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123258

 

[advcomp2019]

Look at abit. I have very good luck with the AN8 series if you can find one.

Edit: I have the AN8 Ultra with the Athlon64 3700+ OC. I finally got it to OC to 2.8GHz with the Zalman 7700Cu

 

[BUFF]

DFI should be fine.
Abit KN8 series too.

 

[shadowed]

Hi Nosada:

I am in the same boat as you hunting for a for a decent 939 booard with some oc abilities but dont need dual vidcard.

I was initially looking at the Asus A8N-E as it was on sale for under $100 in Canada.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=14268&vpn=A8N-E&manufacture=ASUS&promoid=1030

After reading many reviews it seems to have a lot of lemons after a few months of use.

The DFI Lanparty Ultra-D has good ratings but some say there is some northbridge issues in terms of cooling as well as being directly in line with the first pci-e 16x slot.

This board is a little overkill for whats required here because it has 2 pci-e 16x slots and we dont plan on using more than one monitor with it. The board is not SLI and is still $146 here.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=13825&vpn=LP-UT-NF4-ULTRA-D&manufacture=DFI

There are a couple of other DFI boards that are less expensive. One is Infinity and the other is Ultra Infinity and they are almost the same price.
$106 and $107.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=15795&vpn=NF4-Infinity&manufacture=DFI

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=15720&vpn=NF4-ULTRA-INFINITY&manufacture=DFI

I am not sure how these compare to the lanparty in quality and oc-ing.

 

[Nosada]

After considering the Abit, DFI and Epox for a while, and checking costumer satisfaction of all these boards on newegg, I've decided to go with the DFI. Only question I have left is this: Is the active southbridge cooler to be trusted? And can it be replaced by a passive one if there is a X1900XT in the PCIe slot, or alternatively: can I use the second PCIe slot as primary, and mount a high passive cooler anyway?

Thanks for all the replies so far, you've all been very helpful ^^

 

[ikjadoon]

Cooling Solution!

I think you should be able to use the second PCI-e slot, but try the primary if the cooling allows.

~Ibrahim~