Help: Motherboards

[Barton]

my motherboard died last night so i'm getting a new one
so here is my Q what to get?

i was thinking of thoes 2 (AMD) :

Got an Athlon 64 3200+

Asus A8 VFE Deluxe 64 Bit (about €79/$94.27)

Or

Asus A8N-SLI, Nforce4 SLI (about €109 - €125/$130.05 - $149.15)

Or anything els?

[Mr. Peanuts]

You pay for the extra features and better quality so spend what you can.

[WuTang420]

Nforce chipset is awesome, well worth the extra $. i bought one about 5 months ago and it was such a difference my uncle, brother and best friend have all bought the exact same thing recently simply because it runs so fast while staying so stable. btw <3 AMD

[Subjugation]

The decision of what mobo to pick really depends on what you're going to use it for.


*Do you just want a simple replacement for what you already have, and nothing more?

*Do you want to add some features that your old mobo didn't have?

*Will the new mobo be compatible with all your existing hardware (memory, gfx card interface, CPU socket, ATX power connector)

*Do you have a printer with a USB cable or the traditional parallel port interface?

*Do you want something upgradeable?

*Are you really into gaming?



I have an A8N SLI-Premium, with the passive heat pipe on the nF4. I had no problems whatsoever with the install, but make sure you check out the ASUS forums to get some idea of what drivers are good NOT to install. Some people have conflicts with certain drivers. For example---several people recommend AGAINST installing the Nvidia firewall, the IDE_SW driver, and there is an admitted conflict with Maxtor hdd's.

Good luck with the ASUS forums, though---the layout and functionality is about the worst I've seen from a professional company. Unforgivable, considering how much business this profitable company does.

I love the mobo, however. The BIOS is quite tweakable, and the layout is awesome for homebuilders. ASUS ships it with a ton of extra cables---like extra usb and firewire ports, like...1/2 dozen sata cables, and more. Just about every part on the mobo is clearly labled, and the manual is very detailed and helpful.

Just be aware that when you buy a high end mobo (especially those supporting SLI or Crossfire), get an SLI rated power supply and avoid value RAM, or you might experience some problems (BSoD's, freezes, and shutdowns). I have heard this to be problematic with premium DFI and Abit boards.

--------------------------------
Here's the specs for my setup:
--------------------------------
Mobo: ASUS A8N SLI-Premium
Mem: 2Gb Corsair XMS C2PT (DDR400) (Running stable at 2.5-3-3-6)
PSU: Fortron 600w (SLI rated)
CPU: AMD64 3200
GFX: XFX GeForce 6600GT
HDD: 40Gb WD Caviar Sata (temporary until Raptor upgrade)
Optical: NEC DVD/CD Burner

[Barton]

this might be a stupid Q but do you need a SLI power supply to run your SLI motherboard?

or is SLI power supply only needed when u get SLI Gfx card?

[Subjugation]

Technically, neither one. Basically, Nvidia has started giving out ratings for certain PSU's that meet their requirements for running dual gfx cards. My guess (and it's only a guess) is, this rating is just a "stamp of approval" of sorts---like when a mobo company lists their compatibility with certain brands and models of memory. However, I'm sure it's partly a marketing angle, since they are still directly competing against ATI's Crossfire technology.

You don't really "need" an SLI rated PSU to power an SLI mobo, nor do you need an SLI rated PSU to run a single SLI compatible vid card. However, if you don't get a quality PSU from a reputable manufacturer, with enough juice to cover all of your components, you should expect to encounter "wierd" problems like mystery shutdowns, random no POST'ing and BSoD's.

The idea behind SLI is that you're going to use it to run dual gfx cards, and the reason why you would do this is for gaming. If you're not looking to have a serious gaming rig, then there's really no point in buying an SLI mobo. Just get a good single card, like a 6800GT or a 7800GT, and a regular mobo.

But if you're hoping to build a good gaming system, some assumptions can start being made: You're probably going to get at least 2gb's of quality memory, the mobo will have to support SLI, you probably are going to have at least one or two 256mb gfx card, you're probably going to get a quality HDD...the demand for resources start adding up. If this type of system is what you're hoping to build, then you cannot overlook the importance of a quality power supply.

I'm not sure if I've explained this clearly, since I'm pretty tired. But you can find some more info at Abit's forum: http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=66079
and here's a list of PSU's and the ratings some users have given them:
http://forum.abit-usa.com/showthread.php?t=82666

The first one has a couple of good links...an article explaining the importance of a quality PSU, and a handy voltage calculator so you can assess your own power needs.