Mother Board ... Looking for a reliable MOBO

[lacywest]

Right now the guys [California State Parolees (26 beds) at a ReHab facility] are using a funky computer the staff office personnel didn't want.

I want them to have a good computer ... so in there leisure time ... can get down and play some good games ... Doom3 ... Quake4 ... Half Life.

Just what the taxpayers want...parolees and violent games

I can't argue with you on ... making your point ... but ... there is some drawbacks on these games ... each client is only suppose to stay on the computer for 90 minutes and let another person have their share.

For the games mentioned above ... a client will pick up where another one left off.

The arcade type of games ... different persons can start a game and display how high they got up in points before the game ended ... those type of games will be there also.

As for ... parolees ... Federal money can be cut off if the State can't lower the amount of inmates going back to Prisons. So they create programs that allow a parolee a chance to join society in a structured environment. At our facility ... they have a curriculum paper they keep on them ... to gather up 40 hours a week.

For example ...

Life Skills: doing laundry ... ironing their clothes ... getting a hair cut
Recreation: reading a book ... working out with weights ... writing a letter ... playing a game on a computer
Job Skills: doing their chore assigned to them

On every Sunday night this curriculum is turned in ... with hopefully 40 hours on it. If they are working ... only 20 hours are needed. There are other items on the sheet ... NA meeting AM ... and PM .... Health Education ... Relapse Prevention ... Anger Management ... Money Management ... Men's Issues ... and a few other things on the sheet.

Currently this week ... I do the classes ... Monday night - Health Education ... Tuesday Night - Anger Management ... and on Wednesday Night - Money Management.

If they screw up ... we give them a L.E. ... aka ... Learning Experience ... which is usually ... 4 Hours of community service ... clean the kitchen ... pick up cigarette butts ... rake leaves. We have a very very large back yard.

Let us stay on topic ... back to reliable mother boards.

[budz]

Newegg has a BIOSTAR socket A mobo on sale for $59..00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138234

I've never used one but it does have lots of reviews to read over.

[DereX888]

geez...
why dont you donate a comp to someone who haven't commited any crime?
(hint: school, church, etc)


edit:

/.../
If they screw up ... we give them a L.E. ... aka ... Learning Experience ... which is usually ... 4 Hours of community service ... clean the kitchen ... pick up cigarette butts ... rake leaves. We have a very very large back yard.
/.../

Please, please dont tell me that normally the California State taxpayers pay for cleaning the kitchen or cleaning the parolees' back yard!

[lacywest]

DereX888 ... posted

why dont you donate a comp to someone who haven't commited any crime?
(hint: school, church, etc)

... LacyWest says ... I don't work at those places ... so NO ... is the answer

Please, please dont tell me that normally the California State taxpayers pay for cleaning the kitchen or cleaning the parolees' back yard!

... LacyWest says ... yes the taxpayers do pay for this ... Californian tax payers and a lot of programs receive support for through Federal money.

It is all part of ... Rehabilitation ... whether they warehouse them in a prison or a half-way house ... it is still called ... Rehabilitation.

But at the place I work at ... they are given a chance to learn how to become more productive.

[ROF]

/.../
If they screw up ... we give them a L.E. ... aka ... Learning Experience ... which is usually ... 4 Hours of community service ... clean the kitchen ... pick up cigarette butts ... rake leaves. We have a very very large back yard.
/.../

Please, please dont tell me that normally the California State taxpayers pay for cleaning the kitchen or cleaning the parolees' back yard!

Does it matter? The California taxpayers are paying more money to house criminals then they are to fix their communities. Does it matter whether an employee or a criminal(sometimes one in the same) does the housekeeping? The learning experience is supposed to by a negative reinforcement type of education that is shown to not work on adult humans in most cases, so in essence the taxpayer money is wasted.

[lacywest]

/.../
If they screw up ... we give them a L.E. ... aka ... Learning Experience ... which is usually ... 4 Hours of community service ... clean the kitchen ... pick up cigarette butts ... rake leaves. We have a very very large back yard.
/.../

Please, please dont tell me that normally the California State taxpayers pay for cleaning the kitchen or cleaning the parolees' back yard!

Does it matter? The California taxpayers are paying more money to house criminals then they are to fix their communities. Does it matter whether an employee or a criminal(sometimes one in the same) does the housekeeping? The learning experience is supposed to by a negative reinforcement type of education that is shown to not work on adult humans in most cases, so in essence the taxpayer money is wasted.

Some of the people in our program ... do graduate ... and get their name added to the wall plaque

[dwill123]

Asus is top of the line but you're going to be hard pressed to find a new Socket A board from them now. I wouldn't recommend ebay either. If you find a motherboard for sale chances are its been used by a gamer for overclocking (and he probably dialed it up a notch to high and fried some of the circuits). Newegg has some new Socket A boards fore sale (they come with factory warranties). My recommendation (in order): ABit KW7, this is an A level board (IMO) very adjustable for gamers but also very stable. The next set are B level boards mostly will work well but not considered A level (in order): ASRock (this is Asus' budget level board not bad), Foxconn another not bad board (Foxconn used to make motherboards for Compaq I believe). Lastly, Biostar . This is a feast or famine board. It is either going to be the best board you can buy or have you kicking and screaming 24x7. As I said before Socket A boards are goint the way of the "Do-Do". Good luck.

[lacywest]

Asus is top of the line but you're going to be hard pressed to find a new Socket A board from them now. I wouldn't recommend ebay either. If you find a motherboard for sale chances are its been used by a gamer for overclocking (and he probably dialed it up a notch to high and fried some of the circuits). Newegg has some new Socket A boards fore sale (they come with factory warranties). My recommendation (in order): ABit KW7, this is an A level board (IMO) very adjustable for gamers but also very stable. The next set are B level boards mostly will work well but not considered A level (in order): ASRock (this is Asus' budget level board not bad), Foxconn another not bad board (Foxconn used to make motherboards for Compaq I believe). Lastly, Biostar . This is a feast or famine board. It is either going to be the best board you can buy or have you kicking and screaming 24x7. As I said before Socket A boards are goint the way of the "Do-Do". Good luck.

At the time I made the post I wanted a reliable board for the guys to use ... I don't plan on staying there at that place ... I am mostly getting my hours needed to become a certified Drug and Alcohol Counselor.

Tuesday ... April 4th ... I had a bad experience with a client during the Anger Management session ... I had to call the Director of the facility and he came in to help out.

This stupid idiot ... created a lot of crap. He definitely needs to go back to prison and rot ...

My thoughts have changed since then ... about going out of my way or to think about spending my own money to help them.

But I do appreciate the advice ... you and all the others have offered here.

[budz]

Asus is top of the line but you're going to be hard pressed to find a new Socket A board from them now. I wouldn't recommend ebay either. If you find a motherboard for sale chances are its been used by a gamer for overclocking (and he probably dialed it up a notch to high and fried some of the circuits). Newegg has some new Socket A boards fore sale (they come with factory warranties). My recommendation (in order): ABit KW7, this is an A level board (IMO) very adjustable for gamers but also very stable. The next set are B level boards mostly will work well but not considered A level (in order): ASRock (this is Asus' budget level board not bad), Foxconn another not bad board (Foxconn used to make motherboards for Compaq I believe). Lastly, Biostar . This is a feast or famine board. It is either going to be the best board you can buy or have you kicking and screaming 24x7. As I said before Socket A boards are goint the way of the "Do-Do". Good luck.

At the time I made the post I wanted a reliable board for the guys to use ... I don't plan on staying there at that place ... I am mostly getting my hours needed to become a certified Drug and Alcohol Counselor.

Tuesday ... April 4th ... I had a bad experience with a client during the Anger Management session ... I had to call the Director of the facility and he came in to help out.

This stupid idiot ... created a lot of crap. He definitely needs to go back to prison and rot ...

My thoughts have changed since then ... about going out of my way or to think about spending my own money to help them.

But I do appreciate the advice ... you and all the others have offered here.

Your welx.....I work with drug addicts and their families and it's not a easy task....Good luck on getting your certification.....

[InXess]

It is a good idea to check anandtech.com or sharkyextreme or tomshardware in order to get their input on a particular MOBO. A name like Abit or Asus is not always enough... they are not immune to errors and that has been proven many times. Just determine the CPU type and find out what they have to say... I have once purchased out of desperation a ECS MOBO recommended by all of them and this has been the most stable board I have ever set up (for kids) and owned. You'd say what? ECS? Gimme a break... Yeah, stable as a rock... I never had to fix anything on this PC even though it's been abused beyond belief.

[DereX888]

DereX888 ... posted

why dont you donate a comp to someone who haven't commited any crime?
(hint: school, church, etc)

... LacyWest says ... I don't work at those places ... so NO ... is the answer

Please, please dont tell me that normally the California State taxpayers pay for cleaning the kitchen or cleaning the parolees' back yard!

... LacyWest says ... yes the taxpayers do pay for this ... Californian tax payers and a lot of programs receive support for through Federal money.

It is all part of ... Rehabilitation ... whether they warehouse them in a prison or a half-way house ... it is still called ... Rehabilitation.

But at the place I work at ... they are given a chance to learn how to become more productive.

you dont have to work at those places to donate, never thought of that?
Ofcourse its your choice, same as mine is NOT to help any ******* criminals (rehabilitated or not).

As for the Cali taxpayers paying for the lowlifes cleanup etc - it doesnt surprises me at all actually.
The "western countries" have embraced criminals' rights over victims' rights for long time already, and in general the morale of US population had rotten down long ago before that. IMO its funny that a corrections employee (you) wants to help 'poor' bored inmates, while it doesn't occur to you that there is plenty people much more worth helping than the criminals. Its even funnier when no one else sees it unapropiate (at least) either.
Yeah, feed them, pamper their asses and give them whatever they want - maybe they will not rob, steal or murder again when they get out, riiight...

[LSchafroth]

Asrock and MSI are second level Mobos. Go first tier and get ASUS.

You can always go to the asus site @ http://usa.asus.com/index.aspx

And look at the products.

I have used ASUS forever but recently switched to ASRock due to the much cheaper price. They aren't as handy to tweak for overclocking and etc using jumpers instead of hte bios, but I have used 5 of them now and every one of them has been rock solid.

The ASRock ASV4T Pro (or whatever the number can't recall off hand) actually outperforms my ASUS one at twice the cost.

LS

[lacywest]

Asrock and MSI are second level Mobos. Go first tier and get ASUS.

You can always go to the asus site @ http://usa.asus.com/index.aspx

And look at the products.

I have used ASUS forever but recently switched to ASRock due to the much cheaper price. They aren't as handy to tweak for overclocking and etc using jumpers instead of hte bios, but I have used 5 of them now and every one of them has been rock solid.

The ASRock ASV4T Pro (or whatever the number can't recall off hand) actually outperforms my ASUS one at twice the cost.

LS

Good info ... thank you

[lacywest]

you dont have to work at those places to donate, never thought of that?
Ofcourse its your choice, same as mine is NOT to help any ******* criminals (rehabilitated or not).

As for the Cali taxpayers paying for the lowlifes cleanup etc - it doesnt surprises me at all actually.
The "western countries" have embraced criminals' rights over victims' rights for long time already, and in general the morale of US population had rotten down long ago before that. IMO its funny that a corrections employee (you) wants to help 'poor' bored inmates, while it doesn't occur to you that there is plenty people much more worth helping than the criminals. Its even funnier when no one else sees it unapropiate (at least) either.
Yeah, feed them, pamper their asses and give them whatever they want - maybe they will not rob, steal or murder again when they get out, riiight...

I don't work at a church or other similar facility ... and I don't work inside a prison ... but my wife ... she works at Corcoran State Prison #2 ... and when Robert Downey Jr was doing prison time ... my wife was his librarian. Corcoran State Prison #1 [Old Corcoran] is where Charles Manson is kept.

I went to jail for drugs ... from July 89 and I was in and out until July 97. I never went to Prison ... only the jails in the two counties in our area. My soberiety date is March 7th 1997. A few years later ... I decided to go to Fresno City College and take their ... Drug and Alcohol Certification course. I started interning at different facilities and one of them hired me.

My wife is standing next to me and she says ...

I would rather have these inmates educated and rehabilated because one day soon they will be your next door neighbors. It costs $25,000 a year per inmate ... and Corcoran State Prison #2 holds 7,000 inmates ... and there is 33 prisons in California. There is a big push on letting them out ... YIKES

So that is why ... people like me are needed to help them adjust to living outside the prison walls.

My wife also says ... this is not confidential information ... it has been all over the Fresno Bee ... for the last couple of years.

The thought of donating a computer to a church is okay but that is not where I work ... it will be more easier to maintain it ... etc ... etc. And during slow hours ... I can play games on it.

That is the reason why I wanted to find a decent reliable mother board ... the one I recently obtained is becoming a pain in the butt and this bothers me ... I've been lucky up to now with buying Mobos and installing them ... but this recent one the ... MSI KT4AV ... is not behaving.

[lacywest]

DereX888 wrote:

you dont have to work at those places to donate, never thought of that?
Ofcourse its your choice, same as mine is NOT to help any ******* criminals (rehabilitated or not).

As for the Cali taxpayers paying for the lowlifes cleanup etc - it doesnt surprises me at all actually.
The "western countries" have embraced criminals' rights over victims' rights for long time already, and in general the morale of US population had rotten down long ago before that. IMO its funny that a corrections employee (you) wants to help 'poor' bored inmates, while it doesn't occur to you that there is plenty people much more worth helping than the criminals. Its even funnier when no one else sees it unapropiate (at least) either.
Yeah, feed them, pamper their asses and give them whatever they want - maybe they will not rob, steal or murder again when they get out, riiight...

I take it ... you don't live in the US or California for that matter

[DereX888]

I take it ... you don't live in the US or California for that matter

<buzz> wrong

but anyway theres this catchy tune by Rammstein that fits here as the answer:

We're all living in America,
Amerika is wunderbar.
We're all living in America,
Amerika, Amerika.
We're all living in America,
Coca-Cola, sometimes WAR,
We're all living in America,
Amerika, Amerika.

lyrics here

[RDS1955]

Lacywest, I commend you on your efforts and your desires to be a help and not a hindrance..I know what your going through, been clean and sober since 1986...If your efforts only help one out of a thousand it's worth it, not so much for society but to that individual and their own family that you help wake up out of his/her addiction and
self destructive behavior..Only those that have been through the Hell of recovery actually know what I speak of..
So you just march on forward, you get an attaboy from my end..
There are alot in the prisons that deserve to be in them... but there is also a lot that should be in some other type of facility that would better serve theirs and societys' needs...

[lacywest]

I take it ... you don't live in the US or California for that matter

<buzz> wrong

but anyway theres this catchy tune by Rammstein that fits here as the answer:

We're all living in America,
Amerika is wunderbar.
We're all living in America,
Amerika, Amerika.
We're all living in America,
Coca-Cola, sometimes WAR,
We're all living in America,
Amerika, Amerika.

lyrics here

Well then ... you most likely have a neighbor somewhere close by that has seen the insides of the county jail or a prison in your state.

And ... there is always the person who hasn't got caught yet ... and unless that person finds a way to break the addiction of using a controlled substance ... he or she will see the insides of a correctional facility.

And once they get into the "System" ... finding a decent job will be very difficult. Unless they choose to get into the field I'm in. Convicts don't relate well with counselors who haven't walked in their shoes.

Halloween 1988 ... I went into a area in Fresno ... called the "U" ... I drove out of there as fast as I could ... in my 1988 Ford Escort GT ... WHY ?? ... Because the dude had just finished putting 5 bullets in my car ... and all I wanted was a $20 dollar rock ... oh I got the rock all right ... plus $2000 bucks of damage ... that my Insurance company paid for. Nobody got hit ... but the girl in the back seat ... she was bleeding ... but that was from all the glass that went flying everywhere when the back window exploded. The things we do and the places we will go ... just to get high

[lacywest]

MSI K7N2 Delta2-LSR I had nothing but headaches with that mobo. I was able to return it to a local pc shop for a full refund. I found my ASUS A7N8X mobo from pcconnection.com back in October 05'. It is difficult to find socket A mobo's so as redwudz has mentioned. I just build socket 754 pc's. If you can find a A7N8X be prepared to pay big bucks for it. I paid $86.00 for mine but I sold that pc 2 months ago. I have another A7N8X mobo that I bought at a local pc shop for $115.00. Good luck in finding a socket A mobo. Check computergeeks.com they have socket A mobo's from time to time.

Well I didn't mention this but during the time I made this post ... I bought MSI K7N2 Delta2-LSR ... on Ebay ... the box arrived yesterday ... all the parts are sealed in plastic bags.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=6864981809&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT

MSI K7N2 Delta 2 LSR

MSI K7N2 DELTA2-LSR SOCKET A MOTHERBOARD NEW!!! This board is like new. I doubt that it's ever been used, but there's no way to be sure. It's the original pack, and comes with everything pictured, including instruction manual and driver disks.

Sold for: US $45.88
Auction ended early with Buy It Now.

Ended: Apr-02-06 15:09:18 PDT
Shipping costs: US $15.00
Standard Flat Rate Shipping Service

So ... hopefully ... I wont have any problems with it ...

[budz]

lacywest good luck and let us know the outcome.

[RabidDog]

I would recommend an Asrock, Hell guy you can buy mine!. They are reliable but not really for the overclocker, every time I tried to overclock mine it either works or goes back to the default. ASrock were an offshoot (chinese affiliate) of ASUS but as soon as they had all the board designs they needed to start-up they told ASUS to **** off. Truly reliable, excellent.. what you need when LArry "slamdini" gambino is getting fragged for the Nth time.

[Doramius]

I used to be big on Soyo Mobos. Never had any problems with them. I also have a MachSpeed and it's great, though the best part is LIFETIME WARRANTY. I don't overclock, though my friends all say I should, and some would die to get at some of my systems. I have 2 systems running water cooled and they are solid. One of the Watercooled systems has a Soyo and the other has an ASUS. My MachSpeed has fans out the wazoo, but I had all these extra fans after I put in the water cooling systems in those other systems.

Altogether I have 2 Soyo's, 2 ASUS, 1 MachSpeed, and I'm still deciding on machine #6, though I'm leaning towards this 'EVGA 133-K8-NF41 nForce4 SSI'

[lacywest]

lacywest good luck and let us know the outcome.

lacywest Posted: Apr 08, 2006 07:56

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

budz wrote:
MSI K7N2 Delta2-LSR I had nothing but headaches with that mobo. I was able to return it to a local pc shop for a full refund. I found my ASUS A7N8X mobo from pcconnection.com back in October 05'. It is difficult to find socket A mobo's so as redwudz has mentioned. I just build socket 754 pc's. If you can find a A7N8X be prepared to pay big bucks for it. I paid $86.00 for mine but I sold that pc 2 months ago. I have another A7N8X mobo that I bought at a local pc shop for $115.00. Good luck in finding a socket A mobo. Check computergeeks.com they have socket A mobo's from time to time.


Well I didn't mention this but during the time I made this post ... I bought MSI K7N2 Delta2-LSR ... on Ebay ... the box arrived yesterday ... all the parts are sealed in plastic bags.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=6 ... RK:MEWN:IT

MSI K7N2 Delta 2 LSR

Quote:
MSI K7N2 DELTA2-LSR SOCKET A MOTHERBOARD NEW!!! This board is like new. I doubt that it's ever been used, but there's no way to be sure. It's the original pack, and comes with everything pictured, including instruction manual and driver disks.

Sold for: US $45.88
Auction ended early with Buy It Now.

Ended: Apr-02-06 15:09:18 PDT
Shipping costs: US $15.00
Standard Flat Rate Shipping Service


So ... hopefully ... I wont have any problems with it ...

Today is ... April 30 ... I fired up the MSI K7N2 DELTA2-LSR ... last week and everything was ready and I brought it to work and the guys liked it alot ... but the Sony 500 [quite old] wouldn't play DVD movies I brought to play ... I didn't attempt to play any while still at home.

So I slipped in a Lite-On unit ... fired the computer back up and ... CRAP !!!

That message about ... Boot disk not found ... was being displayed.

I figured the Maxtor 40GB drive ... 3 years old ... died.

I went home and installed a Seagate 120 GB ... fresh out of the box. Same message appeared. I hit the reboot button and played around with the BIOS settings.

This time when I rebooted ... no error messages appeared. So I turned it off and connected the Maxtor 40 GB drive back up ... and it booted up correctly.

so ... now what ... CRAP ... This was a disappointment for sure. So I am now back at the drawing board again.

Something else to mention ... when I used PC Alert 3 or 4 ... the siren would sound off ... the voltage for 12 volts was reading 1.9 volts ... in Windows.

But the voltage reading in the BIOS ... showed a correct 12 volts.

So ... Budz ... what kind of problems were you getting ???

Was PC Alert 3 and 4 ... telling you the 12 volts reading was wrong ... and did it boot up and sometimes not boot up ???

[budz]

So ... Budz ... what kind of problems were you getting ???

Was PC Alert 3 and 4 ... telling you the 12 volts reading was wrong ... and did it boot up and sometimes not boot up ???

Sorry to hear you have problems with that MSI mobo. The problem I had with the MSI was it wouldn't boot up correctly. Sometimes it would boot up okay then as soon as I shut it down and booted up again it would fail to. When I had that mobo I used working components that worked in another pc so I knew the problem was with the mobo.

[lordsmurf]

If you remember nothing else, just remember that VIA chips suck, avoid those boards like the plague.

One of the biggest reasons I'm fond of Intel CPUs is because Intel motheraboards work. Simply just work.

[budz]

Here's some socket A mobo's that newegg.com still has available:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=ENE&N=2000200022+1070907493&Subca...ice=&maxPrice=

[TBoneit]

lacywest:

To quote from your post "Quote:
MSI K7N2 DELTA2-LSR SOCKET A MOTHERBOARD NEW!!! This board is like new. I doubt that it's ever been used, but there's no way to be sure. It's the original pack, and comes with everything pictured, including instruction manual and driver disks. "

First it says NEW!!!, then it says this board is like new.

To quote again" I doubt that it's ever been used, but there's no way to be sure."

Yes there is as I describe below.

All the parts sealed in plastic bags sounds suspicious. You can pretty much get a feel for used or not by looking. have the manual pages been folded over, is the disc envelope dirty or showing signs of being opened? Did the cables look new or did they have folds or wrinkles? Usually the Mobo should be in a sealed anti-static bag, The rectangular plate that fits the KB, Mouse, ethernet and such should most likely be in clear sealed plastic that is a decent fit. Cables should be in a sealed plastc bag. And of course none of the above should be Zip-Lock bags as a general rule.

Too bad you installed it. If it hadn't been installed you could look at the solder around where the mounting screw go. If the board hasn't been mounted in a case then the solder will usually have bumps in it. If the board was mounted then you will see where the head of the screw has disturbed the solder. Is I suspect It had been mounted a photo would have been nice as proof. I suppose it is to late to try and get your money back?

Good Luck

[lacywest]

It is too late to check this but ... the bag was sealed with the typical yellow sticker I've seen used. And all the other parts that came with it ... the bags were sealed up ... I had to use scissors to open them.

I did catch that ... ... new ... and later he says ... like new. But this is just something most Ebay sellers have to say to keep them selves honest. He could have got it from somewhere ... where he doesn't know the true history of it.

It was up and running and last night I installed a 120 GB Seagate HD and used Seagates software to move everything from the Maxtor 40 GB to the Seagate Drive. It was getting [1:30 AM] ... I went to bed.

And I haven't changed the jumpers yet. So as of 1:30 PM ... it is off and it is waiting for me to see if the transfer went alright.

And just in case ... I replaced the ribbon cable ... the other one looked alittle ragged.

Well ... I want this project to end soon ... I need to start another computer building project ... but this one is for a friend I have ... no charity ... I owe this person.

Heh ... any comments on the Asus A7N8X-X ... [I don't need the dual memory feature]

http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/Motherboards/Asus-A7N8X-X/

[budz]

Heh ... any comments on the Asus A7N8X-X ... [I don't need the dual memory feature]

I used that mobo with a amd barton 2800 cpu with no problems. The big problem you're going to have is finding a online retailer that still has a Asus A7N8X-X instock. Asus no longer manufactures that mobo. I was lucky that I found it at Pcconnection.com which was last October 2005. It was expensive but I needed it then I sold that pc to a friend. I got tired of buying use mobo's from ebay that didn't work to begin with. I've realized that finding a working mobo on Ebay is like trying to find a needle in a haystack!

[TBoneit]

Or you could just pop for a new cheapo board with everything built in. We sell a Winfast K7S socket A retail for $79 in the store. Actually the main reason we stock it is for repairs. I have been replacing a E-Machine AMD Mobo and usually Power supply a month lately.

Same reason we still have Asus P4P800 SE and a P4P800 Deluxe for repairs. Although if we get a 3.0Ghz P4 in used or cheap I may take the deluxe and build myself a spare. The one I'm using with the same board is rock solid except for a weird mouse problem after installing the XVid codec. I don't know if it doesn't like the Logitech wireless or what, I'm tempted to get a MS wireless to test, But I digress...

The Winfast is a cheap board but so far, Knock wood, no problems in the repairs.