which motherboard would you choose

KELTICKNIGHTT

hi all
cant decide which one to get,so doing a poll.some of you have use either or have a view etc
cheers in advanced
1/
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=312220

and

2/
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=312897

Jammer

For those too lazy to copy & paste....

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=312220

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=312897

I'd go with the MSI, unless you need onboard gfx

KELTICKNIGHTT

Jammer wrote:

For those too lazy to copy & paste....

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=312220

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=312897

I'd go with the MSI, unless you need onboard gfx

cheers jammer,l could have done it easier,just back from weekend trip and tired,installed links as well

KELTICKNIGHTT

Jammer wrote:

For those too lazy to copy & paste....

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=312220

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=312897

I'd go with the MSI, unless you need onboard gfx

no.jammer
staying away from onboard gfx
will get either x1800xt or x1900xt with 512 memory on it
decided not to get xfire,setup would cost too much and 2 gfx's would be outdated too soon,anways a1 512 memory gfx would be enough

SeanW

Definately the sapphire one. The Radeon chipset beats the nuts off the nForce IMO on most counts. You get one extra PCI slot with the Sapphire, and it's €11 cheaper, despite being largely similar on most other counts, (so you can get a better PSU or Graphics card).

I concur about the Crossfire/SLI. Unless you've got a pile of money, and want to do something crazy like run every game at the highest possible settings, you're better to get one good graphics card at the start.

What are the other components of your proposed build?

Cuddlesworth

I'd go with the saffire, as I have had to rma 2 of those Msi neos

astrofool

Don't go with the Sapphire, the chipset on it is crap, and everything will be going PCI-E soon anyway, and you won't need all the PCI slots anyway. If anything, choose between different brands of nforce4 ultra boards, but if you're going for an ATI chipset, make sure its the Xpress 3200.

conzy

Why are you choosing between those 2?

This one would beat em both;)

KELTICKNIGHTT

the gear l have uses standard pci,would cost too much to change and will be anotherwhile before it goes all pci-e,if it does

KELTICKNIGHTT

conzymaher wrote:

Why are you choosing between those 2?

This one would beat em both;)

need more pci slots than the one you show
you have 3 pci slots on it,when you install a gfx,would loose one and only have 3 on it,need a min of 3 with gfx
msi has 4 pci slots
sapphire has 5 pci slots
that one of reasons l choose that one

KELTICKNIGHTT

astrofool wrote:

Don't go with the Sapphire, the chipset on it is crap, and everything will be going PCI-E soon anyway, and you won't need all the PCI slots anyway. If anything, choose between different brands of nforce4 ultra boards, but if you're going for an ATI chipset, make sure its the Xpress 3200.

afraid l do need at least 3-4 min standard pci slots
that one of big reasons l chose thes 2
was looking at dfi xfire ,the new one.only it costs over 240 euros,too much
so went to look at these

SeanW

astrofool wrote:

Don't go with the Sapphire, the chipset on it is crap, and everything will be going PCI-E soon anyway, and you won't need all the PCI slots anyway. If anything, choose between different brands of nforce4 ultra boards, but if you're going for an ATI chipset, make sure its the Xpress 3200.

I just bought an even cheaper version of the Sapphire board Kelticknight is looking at, and aside from some memory issues (now sorted) and USB2 performace (which itself can be sorted by a PCI USB2 controller), there's nothing even remotely "crap" about it.

Yet for the last few months I've been reading nothing but trouble with nForce chipsets. Maxtor HD problems. SB Audigy card troubles. Dodgy onboard LAN. Lord only knows what else is wrong with those things.

As for "everything soon being PCI-E" well I've *already* used 2 of my 5 PCI slots, and I expect to have no difficulty figuring out what to with the rest of them. As for PCI express, if it ever does start to take off for anything other than graphics cards, the sapphire boards mentioned have one PCI Ex 1 slot to deal with that.

astrofool

Compared to the direness of the ATI south bridge, the problems the nForce4 has are mild. ATI with their new RD580 and SB600 south bridge have now got their motherboards up to standard. Before that, they were in SiS territory. Also, if you're buying a USB2 controller, then you're immediately losing one of the slots anyway.

Fact is, that nowadays, good motherboards have so much built in that PCI slots are no longer as needed. Right now you're limited to Sound cards, soon to go PCI-E, and most are using on board sound, tv tuners, already available in PCI-E, and then what else? Maybe a physx PPU, soon to go PCI-E as well.

OP, it would probably help if you noted what equipment you were putting onto the board.

Would this board not be perfect:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=311894

3 PCI slots, even with a dual slot cooler gfx and the option to go SLI, and its a nice overclockable Epox

KELTICKNIGHTT

for work and for play.l use min of 3 pci slots,atr mommet using 4,will be loosing one,so need 3 pci's

KELTICKNIGHTT

cheers for the votes
looks like msi in the lead

astrofool

That Epox: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=311894 is also suitable giving 3 PCI, and giving an empty slot for breathing room, and the option to go SLI in the future. Diff of €8 but a longer lasting board (MSI are great as well).

zerodown

MSI mean big trouble with raid drivers! I also had to rma 2 boards before. But overall i'd go with MSI over sapphire. Mainly because its chipet and it has PCI_Express (Way2Go) and also SATA2 which is twice the sapphires sata 1.

I built a machine with that board the only issue was the darn drivers. I could not get XP onto it. I ended up putting 98 first using an old driver then upgrading. Nightmare but its fine now. Msi don't have great customer care either!

Kintarō Hattori

Sapphire aren't exactly known for the quality of their motherboards and the ATI chipsets while getting better do leave alot to be desired. Most definetly go with the MSI board.

KELTICKNIGHTT

zerodown wrote:

MSI mean big trouble with raid drivers! I also had to rma 2 boards before. But overall i'd go with MSI over sapphire. Mainly because its chipet and it has PCI_Express (Way2Go) and also SATA2 which is twice the sapphires sata 1.

I built a machine with that board the only issue was the darn drivers. I could not get XP onto it. I ended up putting 98 first using an old driver then upgrading. Nightmare but its fine now. Msi don't have great customer care either!

SO will l have problems with xp with this mobo??

8T8

I imagine not, it should be fine just flash the latest bios when you get it and use the latest official drivers, if you are not using RAID then you need not install any NVIDIA IDE/SATA drivers as it emulates a normal IDE controller. (Note to link above for bios, check that you have the correct PCB 1.0 version)

The only NIVIDA drivers you need to install are the SM Bus/ethernet and optional are the sound drivers, you can use NVIDIA's audio driver or Realtek's. Don't bother with the Network Access Manager aka Active Armour when prompted it was a bit buggy and you can forgo the Storage [IDE/SATA] drivers if not running a RAID array.

Just to add though I would go with Epox nForce 4 Ultra it's a plain board but rock solid & reliable (cheaper too but doesn't have the Firewire port like the MSI board does).

KELTICKNIGHTT

8T8 wrote:

I imagine not, it should be fine just flash the latest bios when you get it and use the latest official drivers, if you are not using RAID then you need not install any NVIDIA IDE/SATA drivers as it emulates a normal IDE controller. (Note to link above for bios, check that you have the correct PCB 1.0 version)

The only NIVIDA drivers you need to install are the SM Bus/ethernet and optional are the sound drivers, you can use NVIDIA's audio driver or Realtek's. Don't bother with the Network Access Manager aka Active Armour when prompted it was a bit buggy and you can forgo the Storage [IDE/SATA] drivers if not running a RAID array.

Just to add though I would go with Epox nForce 4 Ultra it's a plain board but rock solid & reliable (cheaper too but doesn't have the Firewire port like the MSI board does).

cheers for that
been abit mobo user for many years,current av8 3 eye mobo l have is good overclocker and runs without any probs from the time l got it to now,but its a agp mobo and looking at these mobos to migrate to pci-e
was lso looking ar asrock dualsata II ,which is also good mobo,and cheaper than the 2 mobos here
just dont like look of epox

KELTICKNIGHTT

8T8 wrote:

I imagine not, it should be fine just flash the latest bios when you get it and use the latest official drivers, if you are not using RAID then you need not install any NVIDIA IDE/SATA drivers as it emulates a normal IDE controller. (Note to link above for bios, check that you have the correct PCB 1.0 version)

The only NIVIDA drivers you need to install are the SM Bus/ethernet and optional are the sound drivers, you can use NVIDIA's audio driver or Realtek's. Don't bother with the Network Access Manager aka Active Armour when prompted it was a bit buggy and you can forgo the Storage [IDE/SATA] drivers if not running a RAID array.

Just to add though I would go with Epox nForce 4 Ultra it's a plain board but rock solid & reliable (cheaper too but doesn't have the Firewire port like the MSI board does).

Thanks for the help,looks like msi is winner
cheers for the votes