Looking for a decent motherboard

[nicK]

as you may know i'm building a pc but i'm struggling to choose a decent motherboard as i don't know the difference between them..

the pc will be:

amd xp1800
512ddr ram 2.5cleric or whatever
80gig harddrive 7200rpm
geforce4 ti200 64mb
etc..

Any suggestions on a decent motherboard to go with that....would i be safer getting a mobo with onboard sound?

price range - 100-150 euro...

Xithus

spend all that money on a high end pc... then go get onboard sound ! ewww..

that new abit board looks good. kx7 is it ?

[nicK]

im looking to stay under 150euro for the motherboard...

also, what sort of cheap, midi-sized cases do you recommend?

JustHalf

Scrappy, when do you want the information you asked for in the pms?

Drazhar

Well, lad, if your going to go for all that sweet kit, then go for a mid range MoBo, your just pissin in the wind!!

Abit board, get a SB Live or Audigy bulk from Komplett or whoever, but dont kill the system with onboard sound.

Also, whatever you do, do not get a transcend board, unless you intend to burn it or piss on it

[nicK]

ok...a transcend board it is..

nah....justhalf, i'm intending to buy all of the parts tonight....so, before then? i think i know what i'm getting now anyways..

[nicK]

well, all i really need now is the motherboard and case...so if you could just recommend some decent, cheap parts i'll buy it all tonight ...wooah! finally

thegills

This may not help you but there's a motherbaord for sale on Ebid.
Pentium 4 motherboard - socket 423, new in box - unused. Takes SDRAM. Winner can collect in Stillorgan, South Dublin. 087-2281696
No reserve price quoted.

koneko

PC World (shock horror) have a decent midi tower type case (including power supply) for 30-something Europeans.

Saruman

If you want a good mobo i got an Asus a7v333 and it rocks!! Its an overclockers board (have not done so yet, the 2100xp is more than fast enough) The damn board even tells me if there is a prob instead of beep codes.. i tested it at the weekend and it works.. has 6 channel on board sound (dissabled and stuck in my sblive!)

JustHalf

Which PC world is this? I need a new case for a unix box, so looks and size isn't that important.

By the way Scrappy you're shooting yourself in the foot if you spend that little on a motherboard.

bugler

For around the €170 mark you could get an Epox 8KHA+ from Marx. Could also get the 8KHAL for a few quid cheaper, I don't know anything about that one though. Have an 8KHA+ myself, very happy with it.

byte

Originally posted by Saruman
If you want a good mobo i got an Asus a7v333 and it rocks!! Its an overclockers board (have not done so yet, the 2100xp is more than fast enough) The damn board even tells me if there is a prob instead of beep codes.. i tested it at the weekend and it works.. has 6 channel on board sound (dissabled and stuck in my sblive!)

How mucho costo? Roughly?

koneko

JustHalf, they have it in the PC World in Blanch, in their little "OEM parts" corner.

Gerry

I'd recommend the msi kt3 ultra board:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?action=info&p=21870&t=845&l=2&AvdID=1&CatID=10&GrpID=5&s=pl

155 euro, plus about 5 - 6 euro delivery.

Very well built, and very stable. I built a machine with this recently, and it was the most hassle free amd machine I ever built. The kt333 northbridge, and the new 8233 southbridge solve a lot of via's infamous "issues".

JustHalf

I hear the Intel ICH4 solves most of the infamous VIA 'issues'

By the way, thanks Koneko.

Quigs Snr

Whatever you do don't get an ECS board even if you are given it for free.

Quigs Snr

By the way, I'm with Gerry on this one, the MSI board is a cracker for the money.

koneko

No worries

Quigsy is right on the money. No matter how cheap, no matter how tempting, don't get an ECS board. It's basically a piece of plastic with slots on it. Really bad. Spend a teensy bit extra and get something decent.

Gerry

*shudders*

Just remembered my days in maplin flogging ecs boards. Roughly a 25% rma rate.

byte

So this would be a good deal then?

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?action=info&AvdID=&CatID=&GrpID=&p=19218&s=fp

MSI KT3 board
XP1800+ CPU
256MB DDR
Coolermaster Fan

It all costs €344.81

Saruman

That sounds good Irishbyte but price them individualy... You may find you can get a higher spec cpu for not much more...Oh and my mobo (asus a7v333 w/raid) costs €211.96 but if you dont want raid its €177.48

[nicK]

thanks for all of the info on all of the motherboards but i think i'll choose the one that Gerry recommended as it seems v. reliable.

Quigs Snr

25% RMA rate Gerry ? I'd say ye got away lightly. I have had 6 of these now and all but 2 have been crap (couldn't run at 133FSB without problems, coldboot errors etc...)

In fairness, I had one in my gaming machine for 6 months and it performed very well. One day however, I began getting problems booting up for no reason and things went downhill from there. Even the ones which work initially seem to deteriorate very quickly. My brothers one is the only one still going strong, however he is not taking the chance and is getting a new MSI or perhaps ASUS/ABIT.

Buyer beware ! Most small time local shops that make up AMD based systems seem to be using these boards because they are so cheap.

Gerry

Well we actually got about 1 in 2 back with the boards, but this being still the early days of amd boards ( these were kt133 and kt133a boards ), usually incompetence resulted in people destroying the board before it had a chance to destroy itself.

Quigs Snr

Incompetence eh? I'll give you a good example. A mate shall we call him Mr X attempted to build his own PC based on what he read in a magazine. First thing he did was attach the processor and HSF to the socket, as he was pushing the (very very tough) clip down on his coolermaster fan he slipped with the screwdriver with such a force that he hit and cracked the board in half. Whoops. Then he asked me could I glue it back together and solder whatever, I kid you not. I told his girlfriend to not allow him to use scissors unsupervised and sent him on his way.

Saruman

What an amusing little story there Quigs Snr!

Quigs Snr

Yeah let that be a lesson to you kiddies. From what I could tell the reson the board broke more or less in half was because the board had been mounted in the case, except we only had about 6 of the little brass divider screws which keep the board off the cases backpanel, he had put these all around the edges of the board and none it the middle. The pressure on that board with the force he was pushing, it must have been horseshoe shaped before it was hit with the screwdriver, no wonder it snapped.

Imagine trying to RMA that. Damaged in Transit, hmmm. He didn;t even try it. What I found funny was that he thought it could be repaired with a soldering iron, or maybe he was being hopefull.