Best Motherboard with onboard graphics

my experience of onboard graphics has been that they handle some games very well [half life on top resolutions] and some very badly [GTA3]
they're normally about 32MB, of which they knick off your RAM.

i'm actually buying a very similar setup for a friend.
the reviews i've read of the mobo seem good.
the mobo supports 333 FSB though, and the chip you've listed runs only at 266 FSB. and komplett doesn't mention how fast the RAM is aswell, or how many sticks it is [1 X 512, or 2X 256]. the board supports up to 3200 ram, in dual config.

what i'm gonna get is:

AMD Athlon XP2600+ Barton 333 MHz bus
- Socket A 1.917 GHz processor
Abit NF7-M mainboard for Socket A, LAN
- nForce2IGP/MCP/, ATX, VGA, USB2.0
TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB Dual Pack
- Kit w/two matched PC3200 CL2.5 DDRs


TOTAL after VAT: €305.92


not that much more money for MUCH better performance.

dave

AMD Athlon XP2600+ Barton 333 MHz bus
- Socket A 1.917 GHz processor
Abit NF7-M mainboard for Socket A, LAN
- nForce2IGP/MCP/, ATX, VGA, USB2.0
TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB Dual Pack
- Kit w/two matched PC3200 CL2.5 DDRs

Friend of mine had a lot of trouble with a xp2500/nf7-m/pc3200 pair. We think it was something to do with the intergrated graphics, but it was a very disappointing start to having a new machine (he spent probably two weeks patching and reinstalling crap to try and fix it).

Never worked out exactly why it wasn't working, but I swapped 2x256MB of Twinmos PC2700 with his memory and neither of us had any more problems. I'd do a search for nf7-m and pc3200 before you spend any cash and see if any problems have surfaced on the web since.


rob

The guy isn't a fool (I know that's not what you were suggesting ) so I don't think he'd of messed up on something small like that. I'd wager a few euro that his memory would have ran fine if I had lent him my graphics card and he'd disabled the onboard.

You'd also save a few euros on pc2700 memory, if they guy is getting intergrated graphics his primary concern must be cost rather than performance.

I'd also swap the xp2600 with an xp2500 if they have them available, mine is overclocked from 1.8 to 2.0something, using the stock cooler, no fancy psu or anything. I getting it to run at this speed is a nobrainer and it's kinda neat when you move from xp2500 to xp2800 without paying the extra 50 euro

Rob

EPox 8RGA+

Has everything and a Gf3 MX440 onboard.

LD

I have a 8rga+ with an xp1800
I can get aroung 5500 in 3d sysmark 2001se which aint bad

I'd suggest getting a cheap agp card instead of any onboard gfx - will be better. buy a cheaper mobo instead and spend a little on the gfx.