Help me choose a new motherboard

[Jeansi]

I feel sort of lost among new computers nowdays because I haven't followed the newest technologies very much lately. But after some thinking I've come up with some requirements. Feel free to tell me what else I should need, what in my list is bullshit and most of all, free feedback on different brands and models. There are just too many of them out there.

Socket 939
Passive cooling (very important for me)
min 3 slots for ram, four would be better
1 IDE (need to be able to connect two old harddrives)
2 SATA
1 PCI-E x16
2 PCI-E x1

Thanks.

[404 Not Found]

Will it be an Athlon or Pentium based system?

Some boards will only allow for so much RAM, such as 1 or 2 gig max. Not to mention the chipset as to what you can use on the board.

I personally like the Asus and MSI boards.

The newer Athlon 64's are real nice if you are looking to do graphic work or game as a primary function, plus they are backward compatable to the 32 bit drivers you may have on your old printer, scanner or whatever.

Depends on what you want to do & how much money you want to spend.

Are you building the system yourself?

ASUS A8V-E SE Socket 939 VIA K8T890
PCI-Express mboard MB-A8VE-SE
Mfr Part Number: A8V-E SE CPU: Socket 939 for AMD Athlon 64FX / Athlon 64 X2 / Athlon 64 AMD64 architecture enables simultaneous 32- and 64-bit computing

or

MSI Socket 939/nForce4 SLI/SATA2/RAID/A&GbE mboard
MFN 7185-020(K8N SLI-F) RETAIL Specification 7185-020(K8N SLI-F) CPU: Socket 939 Supports for AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core/ Athlon 64 FX/ Athlon 64

These can be found for under $100

[Displaced]

If i were upgrading now id be looking at an AMD X2 or an Opteron based system with one of the following motherboards (in order from best to worst)

DFI LanParty RDX300
Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe
Abit AN8 32X

The DFI is however not passively cooled, so id suggest the Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe.
One point to note, if you are gonna be using a ATI X1900XTX the Asus has a capacitor that makes it a tight fit, so be very careful when mounting it.

[Jeansi]

AMD X2:s are a little too expensive for me I guess, 300+ euros for a processor? Same with FX, apparentely they go from like 500 euros and up.

And yes, I'm building the system myself, just buying a new motherboard, memory, graphics card, processor cooling and the processor itself. That's why I need to IDE-connectors to plug my old hard drives until I can afford to buy a decent SATA drive.

A motherboard that doesn't allow more than 1 Gb of ram isn't an option, I'm going to need at least two.

That asus A8V-E does look nice, can't find any flaws with a quick glance at least. But what makes it different from the motherboards I could get if I invested another, say 40-60 euros?

[ZeUs!!]

Flashing lights are a must

[Riesen]

I have an Asus A8R MVP. I like it. I'm running an AMD 64 dual core processor with 1.5g of Ram. It's a nice little system.

but, if you want 2 video cards, they HAVE to be crossfire supported.

[tahkis]

but, if you want 2 video cards, they HAVE to be crossfire supported.

You mean motherboard has to have either crossfire support with Ati or SLI support with NVIDIA?

[Riesen]

No, the PCI express graphics cards you have must be CrossFire ATI, or you can only use one...not dual. I made a huge, dumbassed mistake in that. =/

I'm explaining it in a far too confusing manner...let's see...The motherboard I have can support SLI video cards, however, only one at a time. If you want to run dual video cards, they MUST be CrossFire ATI or else it won't recognize them.