I'm running an old socket 939 computer, and beginning to get severely held back by it's limitation to DDR memory and paltry 2.0ghz dual core processor. It's getting time to upgrade, as the prices of the components I'm looking at are beginning to become quite reasonable. I intend to stay dual core, either running the 3.0ghz windsor AM2 6000+ or the 2.6ghz brisbane AM2 5000+. I've narrowed my selection down to three motherboards...
Just two days ago I helped a buddy assemble a fresh build with the 3.0ghz windsor, M3N78, and 4ghz DDR2. Came together like a charm. I was quite impressed with the asus board. Of course, I'm working with a modified HP setup with leaves me nil on bios options and system information. He picked the asus over the gigabyte as there were a few negative reviews on it, where the Asus had none. Personally, I'm still open to the gigabyte as it has the features I want and a slightly lower price.
I'm curious what you guys think should be the deciding factor here. It looks to me like the M3A is a slightly updated version of the M3N. It has six SATA's all stacked together, where the M3N has four together and two next to them. Mostly irrelevant, but I'm just noticing the differences. Mostly, I see the north and south bridges are different, but I have no idea which is superior.
Anyone have any info that could help me decide?
Message edited by nineball on 07-19-2008 at 01:48:25 AM
Why not ASUS? You had a good experience with it. On the other hand, I'm impressed with Gigabyte's RMA - they got back to me by email in 2 days. Usually same day.
Well it looks to me like the M3A78 has a newer north/south bridge than the gigabyte. Since they're both within budget, I think the M3A would be the choice between the two. The only other thing to consider is that the M3N78 has an Nvidia chipset, where the the M3A has an AMD chipset. Any problems with either of them? They both look like the same exact board, save for the chipsets...
For low-power cpu's, the 780 chipset is ok. It may burn out on high-power cpus like Phenom 9850. I would get the 8300 chipset. Especially if it's an Internet pc or htpc.
i've been reading that they're htpc-oriented mobo's, but it seems like anything that isn't SLI is that way. It's primarily an internet/gaming PC. I'll be running an X2, so the tri and quad cores will be off down the line, if at all. Both boards advertise they can handle the 140w CPU's. I can't seem to find much info on the differences between the Nvidia and AMD chipsets... Does it really matter? Should I be looking into a completely different selection of boards?
