Help! Need someone's opinion on motherboards

gowaii · Post by **gowaii** » Fri May 02, 2003 10:45 am

What is the best motherboard? For Intel and for AMD? I was thinking of going with Abit Nforce2 or Abit kt-400? thank you

loosecannon · Post by **loosecannon** » Fri May 02, 2003 5:22 pm

MSI kicks ass and affordable

Post by **Richie** » Fri May 02, 2003 8:39 pm

From what I've read, there isn't that much difference between the nForce2 and the KT400. KT400's are cheaper, anyway.

Evilmagicpirate · Post by **Evilmagicpirate** » Fri May 09, 2003 9:40 pm

I like the Nforce2.. but Im a bit of an Nvidia fanboy..
Also, Im with dreamcubeboy in saying that MSI know there stuff and make great products and at amazing prices.

I've always wanted a top of the line Nforce2 with built-in Geforce4mx, and another 8x AGP slot.. that is a heavenly set-up.. although, you'll pay a pretty penny.

Juan The Pirate · Post by **Juan The Pirate** » Fri May 16, 2003 2:10 pm

I don't see the point... (Juan posting :-O) of actually having an Nforce if you are getting a real video card, as you should. Unless you want to have dual monitors, you are going to have some headaches. Also if you want a Radeon, that is definately out of the question. I like many others have been baffled by what card I should upgrade to this summer, and I have yet to discover a good answer

Post by **Richie** » Fri May 16, 2003 6:56 pm

Juan The Pirate wrote:I like many others have been baffled by what card I should upgrade to this summer, and I have yet to discover a good answer

Ya, it's a tough decision. I finally made one just a couple weeks ago, and got a Gainward GeForce 4 Ti4200. No problems yet, overclocking capable, and has some neat A/V software and hookups. Even a little system tray icon that lets me OC and change the antiailasing and anistropic filtering on the fly

.

Evilmagicpirate · Post by **Evilmagicpirate** » Fri May 16, 2003 10:20 pm

Get this card Juan,

Geforce FX 5900, released some time next week.. It benchmarks higher on Doom3 than the latest 256mb Radeon. Although, I think you'll have to sell your first born child to the devil to afford it or something..

Edit:
This'd also work for you. Same Nvidia chip, different card.

Post by **Richie** » Sat May 17, 2003 3:34 pm

(Richie bows to the raw power that is contained within the FX 5900)

I'm glad to see they dropped the old style heatsink with the 5800. You know, the monster heatsink with the plastic addition that used the adjoining slot for air flow. These heatsinks here probably require you to vacate the PCI slot next to the video card, anyway, but they look a hell of a lot better

.

Evilmagicpirate · Post by **Evilmagicpirate** » Sat May 17, 2003 4:46 pm

Interestingly enough, the MSI card (top pic) has another Heat-sink and Fan on the other side of the card.. Im not sure how that type of fan set-up compares to the older 'vaccum-cleaner' type one that Nvida was using, or even to the one Gainwood (lower pic) is using..

Im sure Benchmarks will keep springing up, and they'll let us know the temperature these things run at.

It's funny though, cause I was looking at my parents P3 733 the other day, the fan on the processor is smaller than the fan on these Video Cards..

Padrino · Post by **Padrino** » Thu Oct 09, 2003 11:15 pm

AMD + nForce. How can you go wrong. As as far as AMD goes this is an unbeatable combination IMO. Asus is now making nForce motherboards and if I was building a PC today this would be my choice.

rogue · Post by **rogue** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 4:17 pm

when i got my tax returns last year i knew i was going to build my computer with it(and yes i'm useing it as we speak). i wanted the same options you did, i got on board NForce 2, which dispite my anger against anything onboard anything, is the best i could for, and with 6X agp slot which cradles a peppy GeForce4 MX 440 128ram. Its called the EPox. I find that its very stable and hasn't given meany trouble, the board goes up to 2.1 Athlon XP ( i have a 1.8 ) 1.5 gig Ram SDRAM i think (i only have a 256 simm) but the buss speed is sweet with 3300 frontside and optional built in ethernet support and IDE controller. over all, with 1.8gighz AMD, 256 ram, GeForce4 MX 440,(the FX wasn't available at the time) cost just a little over 400 bucks, not bad. I think anyway.
Rogue

Evilmagicpirate · Post by **Evilmagicpirate** » Mon Dec 01, 2003 5:37 am

Not bad for $400! You'll probably find that the board will support all the way up to and over 3ghz with a BIOS flash.
Also, if you have a XP1800 thourghbread core you might be able to safely overclock it to a 2400 to 2600 without extra cooling. AMD stopped producing new XP1800 early this year, but due to unexpected demand for them, they shipped many 2600 thoughbreads underclocked as 1800s - they did this until about June this year. What this means is that you might have a CPU that can safely operate as a XP2600, but is running at a lower default clock speed because of AMDs marketing ploys.
You're especially lucky with your nForce2 chipset because Nvidia (link to download page) offer a utilty that allows you to safely overclock your CPU from windows without a reset! So more than likely, you'll be able to squeeze extra performance out of your system. Just download the utility, bump the speed up a few mhz, run a benchmarking program, if it doesn't lock, bump up a few mhz and try again.. Keep doing this untill the either your computer locks (which will happen once you set it too high, but no damage is done, just reset and set it slightly lower next time) or you feel uncomfortable with the processor temperature (which the utility will also report).
I dont know how confident you are with overclocking etc, so if you need more advice or detailed steps - I'm happy to help. I have the said 1800XP overclocked to a 2600 and its works a treat!

rogue · Post by **rogue** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 10:33 pm

thanks, i already knew that AMD has detailed instructions on how to properly over clock its chips from a hardware stand point,. Bu i didn't know invidia was in on it to! i would do it, but right now my case fan is just barely enough to keep it nice now, i have to pick up a cheapo fan and hook it up over the holidays when/if i get the CD-R or ram upgrade. but i'll keep it mind. Thanks alot man, your the first to reply to my posts. ------Rogue

Evilmagicpirate · Post by **Evilmagicpirate** » Wed Dec 03, 2003 12:40 am

What temperature is your CPU at now? You'll probably find you can easily go an extra 50mhz above specifications with any AMD chip without excess cooling... * And thats just the minimum - the 1800xp that I was speaking of in my previous post gets a massive 600mhz overclock!! Also, I hear that all the XP2600 barton cores can easily reach 3200 clock speeds too. The limiting factor might very well be your RAM before it's your CPU (especailly since it is SDram and not DDR).

That being said, as long as you do this sensibly, by only increasing the FSB speed a few mhz at a time, and then doing some good testing for stability and watching the heat, you should be able to overclock your computer as it is right now. Just don't up the FSB speed 50mhz to begin with and then come crying to me when the you smell melting plastic and see smoke pooring from your computer.

Also note, I havent used the Nvidia utility, but most probably you will just be bumping up your FSB speed, which when combined with a multiplier, gets you your CPU speed.. For example, XP1800 has a multiplier of 11.5 x FSB of 133 (you'll notice your ram is pc133 speed). You want to bump that FSB speed up a mhz at a time - which will add 11.5 mhz to your CPU speed.

* I take no responsibility for you breaking your computer.

Yankee · Post by **Yankee** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 9:30 pm

Gowaii: I choose Intel brand motherboards for all the computers I build. They are usually a little more expensive than the offbrands, but I have found over the years with certain computer parts, you get what you pay for. Intel boards are very stable. The one I am running on this machine is the D854PESVL. I usually try and save money when building a computer with buying a cheap case or floppy drive etc. Those are pretty easy to replace.

BreakmanX.com

Help! Need someone's opinion on motherboards

Help! Need someone's opinion on motherboards

with and nForce and AMD combo, heres an Idea.....

thanks for the tip dood