I?ve decided to go with a Barton core 2500+ AMD processor for my gaming rig and am now trying to decide on a motherboard. I?m definitely going with the NForce2 chipset, most likely the 400mhz ?Ultra? version. MSI?s K7N2L, Epox?s 8RDA+/3+, Gigabyte?s and Abit?s boards, Asus?s popular A7N8X in its several incarnations, and even some boards by Chaintech and DFI all seem to be contenders.
I simply don?t need a gigantic array of features like multiple raid or firewire support. What I need are reliability and speed. It is imperative above all else that my system runs very fast, with extremely few problems, for a long time. I wouldn?t mind onboard sound if it was really good, comparable to a TBSC. From what I?ve read?
http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20030214/nforce2-13.html
http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20021111/nforce2-17.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20030721/index.html
As for speed:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20030523/nforce2_11boards-15.html
The tested boards are all very similar in performance, so reliability/stability is again the key issue. There aren?t any benchmarks for that, and TH gives the crown to Gigabyte and DFI. There is a big features table included, but honestly, most of it is Greek to me. I?ve also searched these forums and others, but there?s not much clarity in most of the posts. Everyone just seems to like the motherboard they own because they own it. Anandtech forums have some nice information threads, though.
I simply don?t need a gigantic array of features like multiple raid or firewire support. What I need are reliability and speed. It is imperative above all else that my system runs very fast, with extremely few problems, for a long time. I wouldn?t mind onboard sound if it was really good, comparable to a TBSC. From what I?ve read?
http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20030214/nforce2-13.html
http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20021111/nforce2-17.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20030721/index.html
As for speed:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20030523/nforce2_11boards-15.html
The tested boards are all very similar in performance, so reliability/stability is again the key issue. There aren?t any benchmarks for that, and TH gives the crown to Gigabyte and DFI. There is a big features table included, but honestly, most of it is Greek to me. I?ve also searched these forums and others, but there?s not much clarity in most of the posts. Everyone just seems to like the motherboard they own because they own it. Anandtech forums have some nice information threads, though.