AMD motherboard recommendations

[bladestorm]

Hello, i'm in the market for a new motherboard/cpu and was wondering if anyone could recommend a reliable board? As money is a factor I will get a 2500+ 333mhz FSB Barton for now, but I want a board that can handle up to 3200+ 400mhz FSB for future upgrades.

Thanks

[holistic]

The last machine I built (for bro-in-law) had the Gigabyte GA-7VAX
No complaints.

You Decide :
http://www.motherboards.org/rank/AMD/total/motherboard-rank.html

The Gigabyte GA-7VAXP may fit your needs.
Honorable mention the Abit AT7-Max2 with its SATA drives.

][

[rallynavvie]

The Asus A7N8X Deluxe is my favorite single-CPU AMD motherboard. I've recommended it to two of my friends and they love it. Reasons why I like it:
Supports up to XP3200 400FSB with latest BIOS
nForce 2 chipset
Dual channel DDR400 RAM
Onboard LAN, USB 2.0, and FireWire
nVidia 6-channel audio onboard
Serial ATA capable (2 ports)
5 PCI slots for anything else not onboard

You can get it for $115 at several online shops. One friend put the same CPU you're planning on getting onto this board. That's a fantastic CPU for the price, though the 2800 Barton is coming down in price.

Dunno about the other Gigabyte model mentioned above but the 7N400PRO2 is the equivalent of the Asus board I posted. Priced about the same. Haven't tried it yet but it looks just as good as the Asus board.

[bladestorm]

Thanks for all the info! I think I may buy the Asus A7N8X Deluxe, but I have a few questions.

1. Everywhere I look it says its only AGP 8X, does it also support 4X?

2. For the BIOS update do you need a PCB 2.0 or higher rev. or does every version of the board accept the update?

[rallynavvie]

I believe all AGP 8x slots are backwards compatable with 2x/4x cards. The fact that 8x AGP can't even be utilized fully may have something to do with it.

If you get the PCB 2.0 version it supports XP3200s with 400FSB right out of the box. The BIOS upgrade is for PCB versions 1.06 and earlier. PCB version should be printed next to the name between PCI slots if you need to check.

[Faustus]

If you want a smoking board either get the Asus mentioned above or the DFI LanParty board.

[elmotheteapot]

No doubt the asus is the one to get second place to the Abit NF7, the Asus is a kick a** board, and coupled with the 2500 Barton its a great overclocking combo.

[redwudz]

I'm using a Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro with a XP2500 Barton and it works really well. I think the Nvida chipset helps also. My CCE encoding times were cut almost in half. The ASUS A7N8X is also a good choice. If you want to go with dual channel memory, make sure you buy a matched set of memory modules. I bought a second module a week later from the same supplier and it won't work for dual channel. Still fast enough though.

[elmotheteapot]

redwuz believe me dual channel kits are a marketing gimmic, the problem in your case was you bought another stick a week later, ie from a different batch. As long as he buys the two sticks at the same time hell be fine.

[rallynavvie]

Dual channel "kits" are not necessarily a marketing gimmick as long as they cost no more than two sticks of the same RAM otherwise. You need to have two sticks of the same brand of the same speed of memory for dual-channel to work properly. I've had tons of problems with certain brands of memory not working with others even though it's the same type of RAM. Most places that sell dual-channel packs (such as Mushkin) actually cut you a little discount for buying two sticks instead of one. Too bad they didn't have a discount when I bought my 4 sticks of PC2100

[scottrempel]

Abit NF7-S all the way!!!

Get a 2500+ and some good ram and you will never have a reason to buy a 3200+ as a good 2500+ will run over 2.3GHz at 200+ FSB.

Check out www.nforcershq.com for the best info and help on nforce2 boards.

Also, come check out my new forum at www.ap0calypse.com . Just getting started and I would be happy to have any of you guys as members.

[bladestorm]

Allright, I sort of made up my mind. I'm stuck between the Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 and the Abit NF7-S Rev. 2.0. What should I get?

[scottrempel]

The Abit!!!