What do you guys think of this for my new motherboard?

[baker]

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?sku=MBM-AK32L-2000#

I have never really bought a new motherboard before so I need to know am I ok with this?

I have an agp card which I assume will fit in here. Am I correct?

Baker

[Nelson37]

My opinion - I am not very fond of either Tiger Direct or Shuttle as companies, I would not personally do business with Tiger. I say this based not on one experience but half a dozen or more.

On the particular board - ATA tops at 100, USB not specified as 2.0, AGP is only 4x, and the price seems a little high. And its a Shuttle. Shuttle is primarily known for inexpensive (not necessarily cheap) components. Tiger makes cheap computers. I would rather buy a low-end product from a high-end company than ANY product from a company that makes ONLY low-end products. YMMV

If you haven't done this before, be EXTREMELY CAREFUL attaching the cooling fan (center it and drop straight down, do NOT put the fan on at an angle), use the silver goo, do NOT turn it on without a fan attached to the CPU.

[colday]

Years ago when I built my first system I bought a low grade motherboard. My benchmarks stunk! A few months later, after reading a whole bunch on usenet, I bought a name brand mobo. I changed absolutely nothing else. My video, hd, and memory benchmarks all doubled!

So, without even looking at it (I have a simular opinion about Tiger as Nelson), I would say think about it. Go to www.googlegear.com and get an ASUS, or some other name brand. Go to the hardware sites (www.tomshardware.com for one), and read reviews.

This is a big adventure your first time. Do it right!

[medievil]

If you are going amd, get a Soyo Dragon (Lite, ultra or platinum) with a KT333 chipset.... the KT400 is a bit of over kill at the momnet., They are prolly the est AMD socket A boards on the market right now.
I don't like the ASUS boards that much...although they are reliable, they are too damn expensive..

[Bondiablo]

Actually, the price isn't THAT bad since it includes the Athlon XP 2000+ though you could get the same combo from a more reputable dealer like www.newegg.com for $155 including fedex 2-day shipping.

If you want all the onboard extras, the Gigabyte GA-7VRXP is one of the best KT333 boards, if not then the Abit KX7-333.

Amoung the cheaper ones Soltek actually makes some nice boards but they're not very user friendly to get setup. Once it is all set up though the SL-75DRV5 performs very well.

check out www.resellerratings.com before you buy from any online retailer.

[Craig Tucker]

I agree with medievil about going for a board with a 333MHz fsb. Actually if you read some reviews at toms hardware the kt333 is faster than the kt400. You want to go for something that is going to offer good upgrade options in the future. The new thoroughbred athlons have a 333MHz fsb, which now matches the 333MHz DDR ram which has been available for some time. I myself run a 266MHz FSB XP1900 CPU with 333MHz ram and buying one of the new thoroughbred chips should see a good increase in performance, because as well as the increase in clock speed, synchronising the FSB speed of the ram and the CPU can only help when it comes to performance.

As far as actually recommending a board, I think epox make superb boards. They are very stable, very fast and are an overclockers dream. I have an Epox EP-8K3A+ and would highly reccomend it. I think the raid channels are well worth having, even if you aren't planning on setting up a raid array they are very useful for just adding another 4 IDE devices.

[Craig Tucker]

By the way as this has nothing to do with DVD writers I am moving it to off topic

[baker]

Actually from what you guys are saying I think I will take this Mb.
I went to that great website that somebody above posted here that gave reviews of sites and it helped emmensly(I know they will only listen if you make up a fuss which I am ready to do ;_)). Another con for me Is that I live in Ireland. I have a friend who gave me there website address and he said they were great at overseas deliverys to ireland.

The only thing I am worried about it this motherboard not being fast enough. that guy above really scared me. I tought as long as I have 2ghz a sound card and a agp slot I was flying. But now I am wondering if I will actually get the full use of that 2ghz if this MB is crap.

Thanks,

Baker