Help choosing a new mobo..

[whoatethepies]

I need some reccomendations on a new mobo. I'm looking for a socket 939 mobo with PCIe (not SLI), no fan if possible (got to keep things quiet!) and preferably 3 (or more) ATA connectors, as well as the usual SATA ones (got some old HDDs I want to keep for extra storage).

Thanks

 

[TankGuys]

Originally posted by: whoatethepies
I need some reccomendations on a new mobo. I'm looking for a socket 939 mobo with PCIe (not SLI), no fan if possible (got to keep things quiet!) and preferably 3 (or more) ATA connectors, as well as the usual SATA ones (got some old HDDs I want to keep for extra storage).

Thanks

Are you going to do any over-clocking? Do you want Firewire? LAN? More info would be helpful. Also, a price-range would help too.

 

[whoatethepies]

I'm not bothered about overclocking, more about keeping the thing quiet. Firewire would be nice (though not critical as my sound cards got a port on it). Ditto for LAN, I've got an ethernet card that could go in but having it on the board would save on a PCI slot. Price isn't really a concern. The more features the better but the main things are noise (either a very quiet fan or none at all) and the 3rd ATA connector (most seem only to come with 2 these days).

Thanks

 

[flibidyflob]

I don't think you're gonna find one (a socket 939 mb) with a third PATA connector, I don't know of any and I think I'm pretty familiar with all the 939 PCIe boards available. SATA is current tech and the PATA are there mainly for CD/DVD drives and if you have an old PATA drive or two you want to hook up. If you've got so many that you need 3 connectors then it sounds to me like it's time to get a new SATA (they're actually pretty cheap if you ask me) and move some things off those drives and retire them to duty in another system for completely non-critical data, they aren't going to last forever anyway.

My suggestion would be for a DFI LanParty UT Ultra-D (has a fan but it's a quiet one) or the only fanless solution that I know of since the Chaintech NF4 board is no longer passively cooled, the Asus A8N SLI Premium. I own both these boards and both are excellent. Most any 939 board you get is going to have on-board LAN, sound and FW although there are choices without some of that.

 

[furballi]

If you don't plan to upgrade to a dual core AMD CPU, then check out the Abit AX8 for $95 or less. All Japanese caps with 3 yr warranty on the board.

 

[whoatethepies]

Yeah think I'll just have to consign one of the old drives to storage for now. I've heard good things about Asus boards so probably go for one of them.

Thanks for the help guys!