best AM2 Mobo for £100?

[samjhudson]

hey guys
just wondering what the general concensus is on the best AM2 mobo. I'm looking to spend around £100

thanks in advance
Sam

 

[ARM]

Why are you looking to spend £100 on an AM2 mobo? Decent mobos can be had for ~£50, sckt 775 for ~£75.

Besides, we need details; what will you use it for? Why do you want one specifically for £100?

 

[Torment30]

I like the msi K9a its only for sale in about 3-4 places in the UK.

Its a 580x Crossfire MB with all the onboard stuff you need (Firewire, gigabit lan Raid, etc.), I also got a rounded IDE cable and two right angled SATA cables (+2 normal)

Some people will say its not an overclocking board but I got my 3800+ to 2.62 which I dont think is too bad

its around £70-£80 including VAT, which I think is very good

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/117019
http://www.hydro-powered.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=52&products_id=141

 

[samjhudson]

no reason really - just because I can afford it and figured that if I'm buying good quality components, I shouldnt skimp on the board.

May be interested in overclocking in the future, although I have no plans to now

Mainly looking for something user friendly, **stable** and easy to install

Thanks guys
Sam

 

[samjhudson]

Torment - that board sounds good, and I've read good reviews on it.

Bit of a noob question, but even though its Crossfire, its still compatible with Nvidia cards right? I dont plan on running SLI, but I AM going to buy an 8800. would there be any conflicts with this?

If not, looks like that will be my new board

cheers guys

 

[Torment30]

Yes it will work with a single nvidia card.

Crossfire just mean you can use two ATI crossfire cards.

 

[samjhudson]

cheers mate - although I have noticed that theres an Nvidia570 SLI chipset version, so I'll just go for that one. I think that everything else on them is pretty much identical, and most reviews agree they are mighty fine boards:

how did you find the manual? Installation easy? any potential probs to look out for?

Thanks for your help
Sam

 

[Torment30]

Nope I had no problems with my mb, the manual was good as far as motherboard manuls go.

One think about the SLI though is the second PCI-E x 16 will only run at x8 speed. If you are using 8800 this may not be ideal if you get two

 

[dspear]

For complete specs, including measured benchmarks on 23 AM2 mobos, goto
http://www.hardware.info/en-US/productdb/bGNk/viewgroup/
Click on CPU Socket, AM2, select all the mobos you're interested in, click the Compare Specs button. You'll get a spreadsheet comparing those mobos with 98 specs on each!