UpgradeFilter: Help Me Choose A New Motherboard
July 21, 2005 1:07 PM Subscribe
I'm seeking help choosing a new motherboard. I'm an AMD fan, but willing to go with Intel should the argument be strong enough. What do you recommend?
I have the exact same mobo, but with SLI. I have had no problems other than a needed bios update.
posted by eas98 at 1:23 PM on July 21, 2005
posted by eas98 at 1:23 PM on July 21, 2005
A bit more information would be useful. Do you use SATA or IDE hard drives? Do you use an AGP or a PCIe video card? What do you use the system for?
posted by Jairus at 1:25 PM on July 21, 2005
posted by Jairus at 1:25 PM on July 21, 2005
i just bought a cheap asrock(?) board. it was a nice blue colour, didn't cost much, took my trusty athlon chip, had enough pci slots for network cards, and works just fine in my rebuilt firewall (although i stuck in an old agp graphics card rather than download the rater dodgy looking linux driver for the onboard chipset).
a lot depends on what you want to use this for,
posted by andrew cooke at 1:27 PM on July 21, 2005
a lot depends on what you want to use this for,
posted by andrew cooke at 1:27 PM on July 21, 2005
I bought an AOpen i915GMm-HFS motherboard to run a 2.1 Ghz Pentium-M Dothan chip.
Low power == low heat and minimal impact on my electric bill, and the Dothan gives equivalent performance with a 3.8 GHz Pentium 4, with a little room left over for stable overclocking.
posted by Rothko at 1:55 PM on July 21, 2005
Low power == low heat and minimal impact on my electric bill, and the Dothan gives equivalent performance with a 3.8 GHz Pentium 4, with a little room left over for stable overclocking.
posted by Rothko at 1:55 PM on July 21, 2005
Response by poster: I have 80GB and 160GB IDE, an AGP graphics card, and various PCI cards including a Hauppauge WinTV PVR-150. I'd like to be able to keep the drives, but the graphics card is negotiable. Ideally the new motherboard would support both IDE and SATA.
posted by kc0dxh at 2:13 PM on July 21, 2005
posted by kc0dxh at 2:13 PM on July 21, 2005
The AOpen I mentioned supports IDE, SATA and SATA-II. You would need to either use the on-board video, which shouldn't be a problem if you have lots of memory installed, or you would buy a PCI Express 16x video adapter and remove some jumpers from the board.
posted by Rothko at 2:27 PM on July 21, 2005
posted by Rothko at 2:27 PM on July 21, 2005
You might be interested in this Anandtech roundup of Nforce4- Ultra based motherboards.
Any decent SATA supporting motherboard should also support IDE. And a lot of them have at least 3 PCI slots.
posted by selfnoise at 2:34 PM on July 21, 2005
Any decent SATA supporting motherboard should also support IDE. And a lot of them have at least 3 PCI slots.
posted by selfnoise at 2:34 PM on July 21, 2005
The Intel C/C++ compiler generates code that degrades application performance when the app is run on AMD processors. As a software developer, I am absolutely disgusted by this slimy, unethical, illegal practice. It really, really pisses me off.
More info: Google(intel+compiler+amd)
In light of this egregious conduct, you may wish to avoid Intel products.
posted by ryanrs at 2:36 PM on July 21, 2005
More info: Google(intel+compiler+amd)
In light of this egregious conduct, you may wish to avoid Intel products.
posted by ryanrs at 2:36 PM on July 21, 2005
Response by poster: I'm going to miss my old US Robotics Courier V.Everything. It's ISA. *Sniff*
posted by kc0dxh at 2:38 PM on July 21, 2005
posted by kc0dxh at 2:38 PM on July 21, 2005
Whenever I'm building a new system, I vigourously embrace the recommendations in the Ars System Guide at Ars Technica. It's never let me down.
posted by chrismear at 2:46 PM on July 21, 2005
posted by chrismear at 2:46 PM on July 21, 2005
Hey, just read your blog. I'm assuming that this is for your PVR machine. Why do you need a new motherboard, anyway? Seemed like things were working okay.
posted by selfnoise at 2:46 PM on July 21, 2005
posted by selfnoise at 2:46 PM on July 21, 2005
The Epox EP-9NPA Ultra is the motherboard I'm getting for a new PC. After about 2 weeks of research and weighing different factors, I settled on this motherboard because of certain advantages:
1. Unlike the Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9, this motherboard has a more sensible PCIe arrangement that doesn't end up blocking other ports that might be necessary in the future.
2. It has an above average number of both USB2 and IEEE1394 headers (useful if you have a case that has connectors for these on the front).
3. It's hella cheap.
4. (This probably doesn't apply, but...) It has acceptable overclocking options without being anywhere near as user hostile as something like the DFI LanParty boards are.
Note however that this is only if you have the budget for a new PCIe video card; the lowest cost option you're going to find here would be a PCIe GeForce 6600GT 128 MB, which would run you around $175-200.
posted by invitapriore at 3:00 PM on July 21, 2005
1. Unlike the Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9, this motherboard has a more sensible PCIe arrangement that doesn't end up blocking other ports that might be necessary in the future.
2. It has an above average number of both USB2 and IEEE1394 headers (useful if you have a case that has connectors for these on the front).
3. It's hella cheap.
4. (This probably doesn't apply, but...) It has acceptable overclocking options without being anywhere near as user hostile as something like the DFI LanParty boards are.
Note however that this is only if you have the budget for a new PCIe video card; the lowest cost option you're going to find here would be a PCIe GeForce 6600GT 128 MB, which would run you around $175-200.
posted by invitapriore at 3:00 PM on July 21, 2005
Assuming you want PCI-E (non-SLI), these seem to be the current consensus favorites:
Cheap(er), easy to install and upgrade: EPoX EP-9NPA+
More of a hassle but can be stupidly overclocked: DFI Lanparty UT nF4 Ultra-D
posted by rxrfrx at 3:01 PM on July 21, 2005
Cheap(er), easy to install and upgrade: EPoX EP-9NPA+
More of a hassle but can be stupidly overclocked: DFI Lanparty UT nF4 Ultra-D
posted by rxrfrx at 3:01 PM on July 21, 2005
Response by poster: Selfnoise, this is the same machine. Yes, the PVR functions are working properly. The thing is, everything on this box is slow (800MHZ, WinXP Pro, multiple concurrent users, mobo limited RAM @ 512MB, 133MHz FSB, etc) and frequently spikes 100% CPU usage. There's not been a problem recording, but playback can take a long time to get going if I have Firefox running, or another user logged in.
The machine is 5 years old. It's served me well, but it's time to throw more money at it. I've enough spare parts to piece together a second computer if I get a new CPU, Mobo, and RAM.
posted by kc0dxh at 3:09 PM on July 21, 2005
The machine is 5 years old. It's served me well, but it's time to throw more money at it. I've enough spare parts to piece together a second computer if I get a new CPU, Mobo, and RAM.
posted by kc0dxh at 3:09 PM on July 21, 2005
My last motherboard purchase was a Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI Mainboard (I think), as bundled with the 3D1 dual-GPU video card. It's pretty sweet.
If you want something really kick-arse, try the Tyan Thunder K8WE -- If I'd had enough money to deck one of those out with two CPUs and two 6800Ultra SLI cards, I would have.
posted by krisjohn at 5:31 PM on July 21, 2005
If you want something really kick-arse, try the Tyan Thunder K8WE -- If I'd had enough money to deck one of those out with two CPUs and two 6800Ultra SLI cards, I would have.
posted by krisjohn at 5:31 PM on July 21, 2005
Keeping what you said in mind, you might want to go the easier and less expensive route... get an AGP motherboard with a reasonably powerful Athlon or Sempron, keep your current video card, and up your RAM to at least a gig.
Because you REALLY don't need a new video card, I don't think... it would just be a waste of money.
Also if you go with an AGP board you'll probably get at least 5 PCI slots for all your card needs. Sounded like you had a couple.
Obviously if you're going to be gaming this is right out the window, but for an HTPC that should help you right out without costing too much.
In this category, Anandtech seems to like the Chaintech VNF3-250 and it seems like a good board for not too much dough.
Another tempting option is the one Rothko outlines above. The Pentium Ms are nice because they're notebook processors and thus have low power needs and run cool. But I don't know much about the Intel lines of CPUs so I will defer to more knowledgeable folks.
posted by selfnoise at 5:52 PM on July 21, 2005
Because you REALLY don't need a new video card, I don't think... it would just be a waste of money.
Also if you go with an AGP board you'll probably get at least 5 PCI slots for all your card needs. Sounded like you had a couple.
Obviously if you're going to be gaming this is right out the window, but for an HTPC that should help you right out without costing too much.
In this category, Anandtech seems to like the Chaintech VNF3-250 and it seems like a good board for not too much dough.
Another tempting option is the one Rothko outlines above. The Pentium Ms are nice because they're notebook processors and thus have low power needs and run cool. But I don't know much about the Intel lines of CPUs so I will defer to more knowledgeable folks.
posted by selfnoise at 5:52 PM on July 21, 2005
Response by poster: Really good stuff here -- thanks! After reviewing what's been listed I think I would like a board with an nForce chipset and both PCIe and AGP. SATA is good too. Is there anything like this?
posted by kc0dxh at 7:12 PM on July 21, 2005
posted by kc0dxh at 7:12 PM on July 21, 2005
The only motherboard that I know of that "supports" both AGP and PCI-E is the Biostar NF4UL-A9. It has a "XGP" slot with is supposedly compatibly with some but not all AGP cards.
Personally I would avoid a solution like this. It's a kludge, since support like this isn't standard. I'd either go AGP or swallow hard and go PCI-E with a new video card.
One more thing: Starting with PCI-E, motherboards now have a 24-pin power connector instead of a 20-pin. You can buy adaptors and some mobos (like Gigabytes) come with the last 4 pins blocked, but you should be sure (google it) that your mobo of choice is going to be okay with your 20-pin power supply.
posted by selfnoise at 7:33 PM on July 21, 2005
Personally I would avoid a solution like this. It's a kludge, since support like this isn't standard. I'd either go AGP or swallow hard and go PCI-E with a new video card.
One more thing: Starting with PCI-E, motherboards now have a 24-pin power connector instead of a 20-pin. You can buy adaptors and some mobos (like Gigabytes) come with the last 4 pins blocked, but you should be sure (google it) that your mobo of choice is going to be okay with your 20-pin power supply.
posted by selfnoise at 7:33 PM on July 21, 2005
Response by poster: Ugh. I saw that and balked immediatly. I also found a review of an upcoming chipset from ULi, the M1659, that supports both PCIE and AGP natively. Unfortunately, there are no boards using it yet.
If I'm going to have to spend another ~120 on a new graphics card, the WAF (wife acceptance factor) just dropped 60 points.
posted by kc0dxh at 8:11 PM on July 21, 2005
If I'm going to have to spend another ~120 on a new graphics card, the WAF (wife acceptance factor) just dropped 60 points.
posted by kc0dxh at 8:11 PM on July 21, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
Enough buzzwords for you?
That's a good platform with a great CPU and allows for some future growth since 939 and PCI-E are just getting their sea legs.
Obviously if you have an AGP video card, though, you'd have to replace your card.
My current motherboard is made by Gigabyte (GA-K8NF-9) and has run just fine. The trouble with recommending mobos is that you tend not to notice them unless they fry, at which point you're pissed.
posted by selfnoise at 1:19 PM on July 21, 2005