New business related motherboard

[SByers]

I am rebuilding a pc for a friend who really isn't into gaming and more advanced, graphics-intensive needs. Basically, he wants me to use what I can salvage from his old P233 system he has now and rebuild it with several of his components and replace the motherboard that has shorted. I am used to using the Abit KT7A motherboard with Duron processors, which I and others have been very happy with. He doesn't want to purchase separate sound and video cards, so that limits me to an ATX board with sound and video. Anyone have any idea what is a great board at a bargain price?? This is not an area in which I have done a lot of work...mostly gaming pc's.

Thanks for your help!

SByers

 

[Xynok]

ECS K7S5A for $50. Supports both PC100/133 and DDR(266) RAM up to a Gig. Supports Duron 800 - XP2000, including TBird processors (100/133). Has ATA100 support. Built in NIC and Sound. No integrated Video, but you can get extremely cheap AGP cards (less than $20 for 16MB cards). BIOS so simple to use it is almost insulting. For the price, stability, and upgradability, you simply cannot beat this board. Uses the SiS735 chipset. Great board.

 

[jihiggs]

an nvidia nforce mother board will do nicely. they are $140 with onboard sound, nic and video. i dont trust ecs boards, probly never will.

i went to the tomshardware forums and all i got was this lousy signature.

 

[Xynok]

I didn't either for a very long time, but I refer to this MOBO as ECS's phoenix. I have built 5 machines using it and can tell you from experience that they are stable as hell.

You will not beat the price/performance of this board. You just won't. Hell, this board and a GF2 MX400 64MB AGP card can be had for under $100. Good luck beating that, but to each their own. Don't be scared off by ECS's past reputation. Although it is valid to be skeptical of them (I certainly was, but took the chance; very glad I did), I assure you the board is solid.

Make sure you use a solid PSU (Enermax,Antec,Sparkle) and RAM (Corsair,Crucial,Infineon). This goes regardless of what board you use.

 

[SByers]

Thanks for your replies. I am checking out both of these motherboards you have recommended. Any others out there that I should compare? What about going to somewhere like CompUSA or BestBuy to get a MOBO with sound and video? Are they available there?

 

[marabob]

I was just looking at pricewatch and found a biostar M7VKQ with onboard video, audio, and lan. Comes with a duron 800, heat sink and fan for $85 from Peach PC. Any thoughts about this board?

When it hits the fan, it make a mess.