Best MOBO for the buck?

[Mysterie]

I'm going to the Long Beach Computer Sale and considering upgrading. I haven't done any decent looking so I am lost on what good or not. I'm think about going AMD XP and DDR RAM, any suggestions? I don't like integrated anything (bad experience), and looking for a good stable board at a great price (no overclocking and such) and enough outlook for future CPU upgrade.

I already have a SB live! Plat 5.1 card, Radeon 32DDR (one of the reasons why I'm upgrading cause I think this guy is cause problem with the mobo and win xp).

 

[Strawberrymom]

the Epox 8k7a is a cheap reliable and stable platform

has onboard audio but takes 5 sec to disable.

and it comes XP compatable with the latest bios and overclocks well

 

[o1die]

Check out newegg's refurbished section. I use the shuttle ak31 version 3.1, and they have one for only $59 with free shipping. They have excellent service, and are located in California.

 

[Athlon4all]

For a brand new mobo, my money would have to go on Shuttle AK31A because of it's overclocking features. That's the only reason it gets the nod over K7S5A is because of it's overclocking. It can be had for $80 at newegg while K7S5A can be had for $55.

 

[HappyPuppy]

The ECS K7S5A fits all your needs. It has the best price to performance ratio around. If you don't like integrated anything, just disable onboard sound and lan.

 

[Mysterie]

The Long Beach show was crap. $9 for a 15min walkthrough, luckly I got both my parking and my entrance fee refunded. I'm going to visit the Pomona show coming up (live like two minutes from it but there no show last weekend) this weekend. I'm thinking about the Iwill XP333 or the Shuttle AK13 rev 3.1. I just had a bad exprience with a shuttle before so I'm still considering, also there's the ~ $30 - $20 difference. I like the Iwill board because the onboard sound (okay I was convinced to get onboard sound) seems to be better than the shuttle one and the Iwill also seems to be a more advanced board.

Thanks everyone for your imput. More is welcome as I have until the weekend to make up my mind.

BTW how does one spread thermal paste on a XP CPU? Spread it on the cooler then attach to the CPU? A dab, the whole bottom, a section (where the main chip is going to touch the cooler?)? Just spread it all over on my slot A thunderbird, seemed to work fine, but the new CPUs look more... well fragile.

 

[o1die]

If your heatsink comes with a pad, and you don't overclock, it will work fine without thermal paste. If you use thermal paste, use a tiny dab on the center of the cpu core. Too much makes a mess.

 

[Endless]

Hhhmmm...the answer to this may also depend on whether you are going to overclock or not. Many seem to like the K7S5A for all it's features and the SIS 735 chipset, but this board is not that great for o/c'ing. The Shuttle AK31 v3.1 is another board that is popular. Some others you may also want to look into are the Epox 8KHA+, Gigabyte GA-7VTXH+, and the MSI K7T266 Pro2 (there's also a Raid model available)...the last two may be a bit pricier than the others though....

 

[ChiefWiggum]

If the ECS K7S5A works- it's the best bang for the buck.

I just replaced my ECS with a MSI KT7266A Pro2-RU. Slightly pricey, but worth it.

 

[EXman]

EPoX 8K7A proven winner!

 

[MoFunk]

8k7a!

 

[render]

One more vote for K7S5A

I made a comp with this board and duron 1.0 along with sound blaster live and Radeon 32MB DDR. ( but used old 256MB SDRAM)

I installed WinXP and it's rock stable.

 

[Turkey22]

I wouldn't get that Iwill personally, I read that it doesn't actually ofiicially support 333 but that you can get it with oc'ing. I would recommend the epox 8kha+ or if you want a little cheaper the 8khaL is the same board just cheaper and missing a few things. But the kt266a chipset is probably the best out there and the epox is one of the best in it. Has integrated sound but no other extras.

 

[sadb0i]

go with the shuttle board...the iwill was overhyped and a little on the steep end pricewise...

 

[MrBumpy]

<< go with the shuttle board...the iwill was overhyped and a little on the steep end pricewise... >>



I wouldn't consider $99 for the non-raid board to be to steep pricewise. Besides, the Iwill board has some nice overclocking options. Also, it has the ALi MAGiK 1 chipset revision C, which is almost as fast as the VIA KT266A, but without the PCI bugs. A lot of people have found the XP333 to be a nice relief from the troubles that they've had with VIA boards.

Also, although the ECS K7S5A is a cheap board, it can also be a bit flakey with certain hardware combinations. A number of people, particularly those with 1.4 GHz Athlon processors have had issues with the board. The oft-repeated cause for this is said to be incorrect resistors used on the motherboard to save cost.

Overall, in my opinion, the best bang for the buck would be the ECS K7S5A, as long as you are willing to accept that everything *may* not work properly. Don't get me wrong, the majority of people don't seem to have a problem with it.

When I upgrade, I will be going with an Iwill XP333, non-raid. For $99 I think it is a great deal, and I think the chipset has some nice features, and is a great alternative to VIA (who I have been avoiding lately).

 

[MrBumpy]

<< I wouldn't get that Iwill personally, I read that it doesn't actually ofiicially support 333 but that you can get it with oc'ing... >>



Well, DUH! How else are you supposed to get it? There are no processors officially supporting this speed yet. And don't give me that "asynchronous RAM" crap, because performance in asynchronous mode is far from optimal anyway.

On the other hand, the Iwill XP-333 is very future proof, because when processors begin supporting the high FSB speeds, the XP-333 will already be able to handle it, while everyone else will need to upgrade their motherboards.

 

[Omer]

along the lines of what MrBumpy sais re: future proofing with the Iwill XP-333 -- I wouldn't count on it.

By this time next year we should see the new "hammer" chips from AMD which will require a new motherboard as they are 64bit chips ( someone correct me if I'm wrong).

so I would go for the best one right now which everyone seems to think is the Epox 8KHA+.