MSI vs. ABIT with 3500+

[imported_IslandTechie]

ive been wanting to upgrade for some time now and figured now is the time.

i want to get the amd64 3500+ 90nm for sure but confused on what motherboard to get.

ive read about the msi k8n neo2 platinum being a good motherboard (according to anandtech) but then reading these forums seems like people are having issues with them.

also i can across the abit socket 939 motherboard (not sure what the particular model is) that has the uguru clock. that interested me because it stated that you can overclock with the simply touch of a button on a desktop module without having to exit whatever program you are currently running. also gives you the temp of componenets in your case, email notification, messenger icon, and some other features.

i want a motherboard that is easy to overclock, has firewire, usb 2.0, 4 sata, ide, fdd, 8x agp, 5 pci slots, capable of 4gb of ram (just in case), dual channel.

any suggestions?

 

[slpaulson]

You also might want to consider the Asus A8V (or is it AV8). I'm not a fan of MSI and I've heard of a lot of bad stories with their nforce 3 board. The Via chipsets are just as good as the nvidia chipsets at the moment. I've heard of a few people having problems with the Abit board and winchesters, and that's why I have an Asus board on the way.

 

[Subhuman25]

Read my post on this thread page 2 http://forums.anandtech.com/me...9342&enterthread=y

 

[Andres3605]

we just hear the complains about msi i just wonder why the costumer reviews in newegg.com show overall satisfaction with MSI NEO2, it most likely bad configurations and bios settings

 

[Jeraden]

I'm planning on going with the Abit board myself. Seems MSI is the post popular board, but just too many problem posts. I know, the more people that use it, the more people that will have problems. Maybe the current MSI board is a good board, but their brand reputation is fairly low based on their history. Abits always been a solid performer for me. MSI might let you crank out a bit more overclocking, but Abit seems to overclock very well also. The MSI board also seems to pull out ahead in benchmarks by a very small margin, but its really so insignificant.

 

[Jeraden]

Well I take that back. After some more research, seems the abit has its share of problems too. Won't run a 90mm chip unless it has a more recent bios. So if you get a board with the old bios you are out of luck, and you can't do the 1-memory stick flash trick either. I was planning on getting a 90mm cpu, so I guess I'm going with the MSI afterall. Well at least for now, in about an hour I'll have read enough messages to talk me out of that too, lol.

 

[Myotis volans]

Jeraden, have you looked at the Asus A8V (or AV8...I can't ever get that straight!)? From what I've been hearing, it seems to be a pretty solid 939 board.

 

[Jeraden]

The Asus A8V looked like a solid board, but if you look at Anand's 939 roundup, it pretty much consistantly finished last or near the bottom in all the tests. Yes, it was only by a small margin, but it still kinda makes one think they are getting an underperformer. If you plan to overclock though, I think the Asus and the MSI are the only good choices, or an Abit if you can be assured you get the latest bios or aren't using a 90mm cpu.

After like 3 hours of research last night and an hour this morning, this is what I dug up:

MSI - best overclocking and fastest overall, but tons of people with stability problems
Asus - kind of slowest overall, but stable and good overclocking. Make sure you get rev 2.0 though.
Abit - good performer, good overclocking, but iffy 90mm support and could be a pain to get a bios update. Also has inaccuracies with temperature reading. Plus read some power supply incompatibilities.
Soltek - great solid board, skimps a bit on features, poor overclocker
Epox - great performer, but faulty onboard LAN.
Gigabyte - never really bothered researching this one

So right now I'm deciding between the MSI and Asus. I'll probably go with Asus, just because the MSI scares me.

Ok, I'm tired of researching, I'm getting the Asus board I decided.

Actually, I think I'm just gonna pass on the 939s this time and just wait for the nforce4's.