Most stable budget Mobo?

[Jassi]

I need to order 4-5 Mobos for a friend who will use them heavily. There will be no overclocking (that I know of) and he is on a limited budget as well. Which manufacturer should I recommend. There will be no gaming either, just heavy database stuff.

I was thinking MSI Neo2 Platinum. That name was thrown around a lot a while back as the top dog. Can anyone else think of other ROCK solid Mobos I can reccomend?

Thanks,
Jassi

 

[Mogadon]

The MSI NEO2 has an AGP slot as opposed to a PCI-E slot, is that what you're looking for ... also the NEO2 is out of production so finding them is kind of hard.

Confirm whether you're after a mobo with an AGP slot or PCI-E slot and I can give you more info.

 

[Jorakal]

Lots of variables there and questions to be answered like what cpu do you want? Have you checked out the motherboard forum?

 

[Mogadon]

He said socket 939, that's all we need regarding the CPU.

 

[Jassi]

AGP or PCI-E is not important because we will probably use the 5200 video cards in the old ones if the Mobo does not have integrated video. The current set up uses 1GHz Durons so it will be a major upgrade. The use is simple office work in a heavily networked environment, a lot of number crunching software (payroll - I think he mentioned QuickBooks). The only thing he cares about is stability. The computers will be running almost 24/7 for extended periods of time. I hope that takes out some variables.

 

[Mogadon]

So you mean you're are gonna be using PCI video cards you already have?

The Epox EP-9NPA are pretty good, stable boards, though you can probably find something cheaper if need be.

 

[Googer]

Anything with muli-phase power and a decent chipset on an eight layer PCB will be very stable. ASUS A8N SLI-32 is Ideal.

My recomendation for mission critical-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage...20ATX%20AMD%20Motherboard%20-%20Retail

 

[Mogadon]

At the end of last year anand did this review with recommendations for office hardware.

They recommended the Biostar GeForce 6100-M7 as a good solution for an office board, note that is a socket 754 board.

 

[Jassi]

Originally posted by: Googer
Anything with muli-phase power and a decent chipset on an eight layer PCB will be very stable. ASUS A8N SLI-32 is Ideal.

My recomendation for mission critical-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage...20ATX%20AMD%20Motherboard%20-%20Retail

Unfortunately budget restrictions donot allow 940 and ECC RAM. I'll keep looking, I appreciate all the help guys.

 

[conlan]

I like my MSI Neo-4F Refurb. It's run solid without a hitch for 6 months.

 

[Rockhound1]

I can recommend the Asus A8N-E. This is the motherboard that I am currently using and it is rock stable. Asus has an excellent reputation for building quality motherboards , and my experience supports this. I have had several motherboards manufactured by Abit, and never had any problems with them either.

I tried a MSI K8N Neo4-F, but I could never get it to run stable. I finally replaced it with an Asus A8V-E Deluxe.

The only problem is that the Asus A8N-E is not the cheapest board out there.

Good Luck!

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: Jassi

Originally posted by: Googer
Anything with muli-phase power and a decent chipset on an eight layer PCB will be very stable. ASUS A8N SLI-32 is Ideal.

My recomendation for mission critical-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowImage...20ATX%20AMD%20Motherboard%20-%20Retail

Unfortunately budget restrictions donot allow 940 and ECC RAM. I'll keep looking, I appreciate all the help guys.

1x series Opteron processors are cheap and about the same price as their 939 Counterparts. ECC Registered RAM can be expensive but I have seen it for about the same price as Value Ram.

CPU $166 1.8GHz 1MB (aka 3700+) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103422

RAM is competitivly priced with the non registered ecc.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi...147+70002909&ATTR9=2010170147+70000389
A while ago Tankguys.com had opteron 2xx for around $75!

Any motherboard that is stable at highly overclocked speeds should be very stable at lower speed. The biggest factor to worry about when deciding is driver stability and bios compatability.

 

[Googer]

512MB CAS 2.5 DDR400 Registered ECC Corsair Value Ram $69

 

[Jhhnn]

You'd do well to check out the matx boards based on the Via K8M800 chipset, particularly those from Asus and MSI. I say that because it's the oldest A64 integrated video chipset available, so the bios and drivers have been sorted out, and they're aimed to the business market, where stability and reliability are key. Limited bios options and conservative behind the scenes settings are geared towards that goal. Going with S754 isn't a bad idea, either, as they and the processors cost less at insignificant performance hits... and are an even more mature solution.

It seems unlikely that your friend needs the features and video performance of the integrated video nvidia boards, so why pay for them?

With matx boards, matx cases work well, some of which have high quality psu's at a lower pricepoint... The V and Z series Inwins come to mind, as do some of the Athenatechs having fortron or fortron-made Power Q psu's...