help me pick :(

[scim22]

Aight ... Im at the point were Im in need to building a new system. Im looking for a motherboard that has a reasonable amount of features, ease of overclocking, a good reputation, etc.. Im probally going to be using a barton 2500+ on it ... also ... I dont want it to break my wallet ... so let me here what my options are

 

[Boonesmi]

newegg has the new asus kt600 based board instock (they just got it yesterday )
it comes with all kinds of features, including sata

its only $100 shipped

 

[scim22]

any reviews on the kt600 chipset??? or any input...

 

[Boonesmi]

the nforce ultra400 is the fastest chipset you can buy for socketA cpu's
but the kt600 is only a tad bit slower.. they are close enough that you would never be able to tell which was faster if you didnt benchmark them (and the benchmarks are very close)


also the kt600 comes with the southbridge that has onboard via vinyl (awsome onboard sound) and it has onboard serialATA.. not to mention all the normal stuff like usb 2.0, agp8x, etc, etc

the problem is that its so new there are very few boards available (personally im waiting for the new kt600 from MSI link ) but the one from asus looks pretty dang awesome also... and if you want very high quality audio the asus board is a great choice


the reason im going with a kt600 and not an nf2 is that price is lower and it has more of the features i want

 

[Corporate Thug]

nf7-s rev2 from excaliber for 109...

 

[McArra]

NForce chipset is faster and more compatible than Via. I vote for the Asus A7N8X Deluxe 2.0. It has the Nforce 2 Ultra 400 chipset and lots of features and it's good for overclocking.

 

[scim22]

my friend has the a7n8x deluxe ... and he had some problems with it at first... but I think he got them worked out.. anyways... I know asus makes good boards and all.. but any other companies that make good boards ???

 

[Boonesmi]

NForce chipset is faster and more compatible than Via.

yes its faster.. but how can you say its more compatable? if anything its less compatable (especially when it comes to ram)

ive only setup 2 nforce 2 systems so i really dont have a whole lot of experience with them... but of the 10 or so nforce 1 and the 100 or so via kt333 or newer
the via tend to be much less problematic (so easy to setup and i dont have to spend time trouble shooting)


your friend that had trouble with his a7n8x deluxe and he had some problems with it at first... but I think he got them worked out.. thats pretty normal... the boards are very fast and can be very stable.. but they seem to have lots of quirks

 

[Corporate Thug]

IMO, the abit board is better than the asus nforce2

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Boonesmi

ive only setup 2 nforce 2 systems so i really dont have a whole lot of experience with them... but of the 10 or so nforce 1 and the 100 or so via kt333 or newer
the via tend to be much less problematic (so easy to setup and i dont have to spend time trouble shooting)

Out of curiosity, what problems were you seeing with nForce1, and with what OS? I have two dozen of them under my care at work, and they're as simple as pie to set up and maintain. I also have one at home that presently dual-boots Win98SE and Win2000 Pro (I've even run Win2000 Server Eval on it, and may be trying Win2003 Server Eval soon ). The boards I'm using are the Asus A7N266-VM.

(specs are here btw, nothing too exotic... Crucial PC2100, Antec power. We're getting 16 more for this fiscal year, with 2400+'s this time around.)

 

[scim22]

battle between abit and asus .. hmm .. any other input?

 

[mechBgon]

One thing to remember with a KT600 solution is that overclocking will affect the speed of the PCI bus, so you'll want to pay attention to your resulting PCI speeds if you pick a KT600 solution to overclock with. Using the PCI divider should allow you most of the lattitude you want. I'd still lean towards the ABit, Asus or EPoX nForce2 boards if it were me.

 

[LastRide]

For a cheap board the SOLTEK SL-75FRN2-L for $88 or raid version for $99 at newegg is pretty good.There is a thread in the motherboard section on this model and most seem to really like it.My first pick would be the Epox 8RDA+ for more money.

 

[KimPhilby]

An Nforce 2 Ultra will be a revised version of the original NForce board and should have had any issues ironed out. That is definitely true for the Abit NF7-S, which is also an overclocker's dream and very stable. They also have SATA, Firewire, and a parallel to serial adapter. IMO the Barton 2500+ was made for this board... I can't speak for other NForce 2 boards, but any of them would be better, IMO, than a KT600 one.

The KT600 boards are new, and new boards almost always have some problems. Notice that Boonesmi hasn't even gotten his board yet. I can't see why anyone would go for an untried board, and pay more money, just to get better audio (at a CPU hit I bet), which you probably won't be able to tell the difference anyway.

 

[Sheriff]

The Epox 8RDA+ can be had for under $90 shipped

 

[Boonesmi]

KimPhilby:
1. the nforce2 is not a revised version of the nforce1 (its a totally new chipset) heck for that matter the kt600 is much much closer related to the kt400/kt400a then the nforce1 and nforce2
2. the kt600 is not an untried board (it would have been much more accuratly named if they had callled it the kt400b)
3. im not getting the kt600 for the onboard via vinyl audio (2 channel ac97 is fine for what i need )
4. onboard audio on the kt600 doesnt take the "performance hit" you mentioned
5. kt600 will cost less, not more then nforce2
6. the main reason im getting a kt600 is because it has the features im wanting, at the price i want

 

[mechBgon]

I'm not saying KT600 isn't good (let's see what end users have to say), but let's also be accurate about the price question: $63 shipped gets you an nF2 board now at Newegg. That doesn't leave VIA a ton of wiggle room!

Insane3D's initial findings with the Shuttle AN35N Ultra are right here if anyone's curious to see what his results are.

 

[KimPhilby]

Boon my dear boy, I meant that NForce 2 is on revision 2.0. What revision is the KT600?

I'm not sure what features you want if it's not the audio, coz all the other ones you mentioned are on the latest NF2 boards...

 

[Boonesmi]

I meant that NForce 2 is on revision 2.0. What revision is the KT600?

kt600 is just a name the actual chipset is basically the 3rd revision of the kt400

also the kt600 chipset has built in SATA support... so it hardly costs anything for mobo makers to implement sata features on the boards... unlike the nforce which needs a third party sata controller chip


but plz dont get me wrong, im not saying the nforce2 isnt a good board. (according to most people its the best choice right now for socketA) but that doesnt mean its the only good choice for a socketA board


**edit to add**
another good point about the via based boards is that they tend to be much less picky about ram and powersupplies
meaning even if the board only costs a couple $$ less then the nforce (or even if it cost the same) you still can put together a much cheaper system that is 100% stable by using generic case with generic powersupply and generic pc2700