Motherboard Recommendations?

Whirlwind · **Motherboard Recommendations? -** 04-08-2006, 08:49 | posts: 55

Hello all, i'm planning on upgrading my system from the current barton 2500, as the newer games (Oblivion) are getting rather choppy, new HD resolution playback has some issues for me, and i've been wanting to upgrade for a long time to help speed up my 3d animation work (in both playback and rendering). So i've already picked out most of the components, x2 4200 processor, 7600gt vid card, 2gb 3200 2-3-2-5 ram, audigy2 from current rig, and a 250gb sataII 16mb drive. However i've run into a block in picking a motherboard, I just dont know what to look for and after researching all the other stuff my head is kinda swimming, so I figured i'd ask here for some advice. I read lots of good things about the a8n32-sli or somethin but i'm not prepared to pay $220 for a motherboard.

Any recommendations? If possible, 2 16x PCIe slots would be desirable, cause while i'm not going SLi now, if i ever required more power in the future in teh reviews I read get about 90% performance gains with SLi of the 7600GT, and adding a second of those would be cheaper than another processor/mobo/etc upgrade.

Thanks in advance!

Decane · 04-08-2006, 09:08 | posts: 4,997 | Location: Finland

Get either the Asus A8N32-SLI DELUXE or the MSI K8N Diamond Plus. Both of these cost over 200, but I wouldn't settle for anything less... And that AMD X2 4200+ is a waste: The L2 cache is (as far as I know) 512kb.... Not good. Get the X2 3800+ instead, it has the same L2 cache and it overclocks very nicely from what I've heard. It is not worth the extra money to get a 4200+. If you want a dual core that's worth the money, get either a 3800+ or a 4400+. Both of these have excellent value-for-money ratios. Just please do me a favor and don't buy a cheap, crappy motherboard... Hope you find my advice useful,

-Arzek

Whirlwind · 04-08-2006, 12:26 | posts: 55

First off, thanks for the post!

I made a point to target the 4200 over the 3800 because while they had the same L2 cache i remember reading that there was something different in teh chip architecture of the 3800 that was rather icky (memory bandwidth maybe? i forget, i'll have to look again for the detailed info I used before) that the 4200 and up didnt have a problem in and the $50ish increase over the 3800 was worth it. I forget the exact reason but i just have it written down not to go under 3800 for a chip reason. I'd love to go for the 4400 but my budget isnt huge like some of the other people I see on the site who have like $1500 budgets and such, and $100 more than teh 4200 for only a bigger L2 cache i didnt see as cost effective. If i can score one on ebay for cheap that'd be fantastic, but only if i could find a retail version thats from a high feedback seller, wouldn't risk a high price for an oem chip from an ebay seller.

About the motherboards, why would you say not settle for anything less when those boards are (considering the price and reviews and such) "top end"? How much different can they be from lower priced boards like a8n-sli deluxe or premium? Spec sheets say something but not everything and I dont know "real world" experience with such boards etc. The main differences I saw in specs were about the nforce4 16x controller vs regular non 16x, and i have no clue what that means to real performance (except the obvious explained 16x in both sli as opposed to 8x 8x in sli for normal, but the other places the chipset is i dont know what the difference is).

Decane · *Last edited by Decane; 04-08-2006 at 19:16.*

The A8N32-SLI deluxe and MSI K8N Diamond Plus differ from the rest because:
- Both have excellently cooled chipsets. The heatpipe technology is top of the line. (the chipset fan on my A8n-SLI deluxe died after 2 months of use

)
- Both get top scores in games, and they are very overclockable. Almost as overclockable as the DFI boards.
- Both feature the newest technology (nforce 4 16x chipsets).
- Both are premium quality
- Both are extremely well designed, meaning that you can fit everything you want in the slots on the board, without having to worry about space.

I'd just pay that 50 bucks more for either of the two in order to get the best. After all, motherboards are not all that expensive in comparison to other pc components.

P.S. Sorry about the 3800+, I didn't know that the core was different from the rest of the X2s...

nathanstaples89 · 04-10-2006, 02:33 | posts: 705 | Location: Canada

Why not get an Opteron dual core CPU? like the 165 or 170? they've got the full 1mb cache (per core) and cost around the same (opteron 165 like X2 3800, and opteron 170 like X2 4200).

ElementalDragon · 04-10-2006, 02:50 | posts: 8,249 | Location: Pennsylvania, USA

Arzek: the A8N-SLi Premium has a heatpipe-cooled chipset.... which if you have the correct kind of CPU cooler, can have the air from the CPU fan blown across the heatsinks at the end of said heatpipe cooler, and exhausted straight out the rear case fan. the A8N-SLi Premium is also high quality.... just doesn't have the 16x pci-express slots when in SLi (only 8x for each in SLI, or 16x for single card), but from what i've read there isn't really any noticable difference as of yet between them. if he's just trying to upgrade to get nice performance.... he doesn't have to do a complete top-of-the-line overhaul. like he said.... he doesn't have boatloads of money to blow like some people in here do, that go out and buy FX-60's and 2 7900GTX's the day they're released.... and neither do i. just after christmas i got the A8N-SLi Premium, an Athlon 64 3700+, and an eVGA 7800GT CO (came to around $700 at the time), plus used the 1GB DDR400 from my old setup, and Oblivion runs pretty damn well. Stop tryin to get him to waste his money on something that as of now is nowhere close to being necessary. PLUS, AMD's new socket will be out in a few months.... so he could spend less money now, and have a bit more to spend later on when the new socket comes out.

Decane · 04-10-2006, 16:55 | posts: 4,997 | Location: Finland

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElementalDragon

Arzek: the A8N-SLi Premium has a heatpipe-cooled chipset.... which if you have the correct kind of CPU cooler, can have the air from the CPU fan blown across the heatsinks at the end of said heatpipe cooler, and exhausted straight out the rear case fan. the A8N-SLi Premium is also high quality.... just doesn't have the 16x pci-express slots when in SLi (only 8x for each in SLI, or 16x for single card), but from what i've read there isn't really any noticable difference as of yet between them. if he's just trying to upgrade to get nice performance.... he doesn't have to do a complete top-of-the-line overhaul. like he said.... he doesn't have boatloads of money to blow like some people in here do, that go out and buy FX-60's and 2 7900GTX's the day they're released.... and neither do i. just after christmas i got the A8N-SLi Premium, an Athlon 64 3700+, and an eVGA 7800GT CO (came to around $700 at the time), plus used the 1GB DDR400 from my old setup, and Oblivion runs pretty damn well. Stop tryin to get him to waste his money on something that as of now is nowhere close to being necessary. PLUS, AMD's new socket will be out in a few months.... so he could spend less money now, and have a bit more to spend later on when the new socket comes out.

Allright allright, I get your point. It's just that getting a premium quality motherboard isn't anywhere near as expensive as getting any other premium quality pc component. I've always had a soft spot for a high quality motherboard (currently have an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe)...And incase you're wondering, I'm not rich either. 300€ is a huge sum of money for me, but considering my perfectionistic personality traits, I always aim for the ultra high-end if affordable. Anyways, I suppose he could settle for less. The A8N-SLI Deluxe I own is a nice piece of hardware, and as far as I know, you can get one cheap these days. If I was buying a new motheboard on a limited budget, I suppose I would go for an A8n-Sli deluxe.

ElementalDragon · 04-10-2006, 21:10 | posts: 8,249 | Location: Pennsylvania, USA

the A8N-Premium is even still relatively affordable, and it's still (at least to me) considered pretty high-end. pretty much the only difference between the A8N32-SLi (~$250USD i think), and the A8N-SLI Premium (~$160USD), is the dual 16x PCI-Express lanes for SLI setups. I just don't see any reasoning behind suggesting a motherboard that costs that much, when the new socket is around the corner, and he could save what he doesn't spend on this upgrade, for his next one. Think this'll be one of the last major motherboard revisions until the new socket, which'll introduce DDR2 to the NForce chipset. That'll give intel a nice kick in the teeth. lol.

Whirlwind · 04-19-2006, 23:00 | posts: 55

Thanks for the comments Elemental, i'm wary of the new socket though, new technology (particularly motherboards) goes through the bumps in the road, and I want to upgrade once and have it last a while into the future, and bumps in the road aren't good for me, and I dont really want to wait the first couple months after release for those bumps to be revealed and smoothed out.
Back to the motherboards though i'm gonna go with the a8n32 in the end. I was initially "hooked" to the a8n-sli deluxe because the price difference was just big, I had pricewatch showing 2 places selling at $135ish and the a8n32 was around $215, but over the past 2 weeks of my price shopping and such (not to mention having to wait for a check to go through :-P ) a8n32 dropped to around $199 and double checking pricewatch and pricegrabber i noticed the general price for the a8n-sli deluxe was still 155-160, so i wondered why those 2 places were $135. Then I noticed those 2 places were the same place, and the "model" was a reference model....the normal one they sold as well was 170ish, so i was like ugh, refernce, no thanks.
So yea in the end, as Arzek said, the price for high end motherboard isnt' near the cost for the high end of other components, so $50 difference from "regular" to "high-end" is fine with me.

Thx for the advice guys!

sakis213 · 04-20-2006, 00:09 | posts: 566 | Location: Cyprus

Get Asus or Msi,but if you are a hard overclocker i suggest a Dfi board,i hane the asus a8n32 sli and am really happy with it

Your Choice mate

Mr_ALLroy · 04-20-2006, 00:42 | posts: 1,644 | Location: Calgary Canada®

I've got an Asus A8N32-SLI and I love it. I'd recommend it to my friends for sure.

phrozin · 04-20-2006, 06:20 | posts: 2,835 | Location: Earth

I would leave the a8n32 where it is m8!!

red777 · **new mobo -** 04-21-2006, 07:15 | posts: 10 | Location: york

hi guys just ordered myself x1900xtx and 4800 x2 which mobo would you rec
my mate who got same card and cpu went for a msi board but was waiting to see what ppl in the know would rec im not a overclocker but would like to try a little to get some xtra power

phrozin · 04-21-2006, 11:29 | posts: 2,835 | Location: Earth

Quote:

Originally Posted by red777

hi guys just ordered myself x1900xtx and 4800 x2 which mobo would you rec
my mate who got same card and cpu went for a msi board but was waiting to see what ppl in the know would rec im not a overclocker but would like to try a little to get some xtra power

I have a x1900xtx and a 4800 sitting on a dfi nf4 sli dr board and the thing is just as smooth as a babies bum, set up has also runs ok on a dfi rdx200 and dfi expert, the a8nsli dlx is also a great board for the non over clocker its solid but the a8n32 was one of the buggiest 939 board i have owned and I have owned most of them, msi I currently have one in ra as it flattens the cmos battery ever 2 weeks or so not really that happy with it, don’t know what’s with that and I also have a epox also a good runner @ stock that doesn’t give me any issues at all