Mother Board ... Looking for a reliable MOBO

[kush]

I know that you (kinda) resolved this issue, but...I'm somewhat surprised that after 2 pages noone has suggested upgrading your CPU as well.

Outpost (Fry's) has a S754 3100+ Sempron, with ECS board for $79. ECS may not exactly be the best in the world, but they're getting better - they even make some of Abit's stuff these days.

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWeb/Products/ProductsDetail.aspx?MenuID=21&LanID=9&DetailID=5...=Specification
http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4705559?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

3100+ / ECS
+ Lower power consumption (90nm process vs AXP/130nm)
+ Cooler running (see above)
+ AGP slot, so no having to get new gfx card too.
+ Decent upgradability (up to either 3700+ or 4000+ A64)
+ Semprons overclock nicely even on default voltage (although I don't know that particular ECS's options, their "Extreme" NF4 boards are decent there
+ 20-pin ATX connector - keep your existing PSU (assuming you have a quality unit, not some cheap ass $20 special made by LC/Deer or others)
+ DDR based board/CPU - no need to go DDR2 memory, unlike P4/upcoming AM2.. S754/939 run fine on dividers (unlike Socket A)
- S754 and S939 are both on their way out, like S462/A
- No dual core support (only S939/upcoming AM2)
- Combo may be OEM CPU (no heatsink - get one for $10-15 @ Fry's would be fine, or eBay one of the quad heatpipe coolers from a PIB S939 Opteron (anywhere from $12-20 shipped), nice setups).

..In short socket A is LONG since dead, but at least with S754 the chips are still being made, and will be through until the end of the year, at least.

/me goes off to his somewhat hypocritical part of the intar-web..(Typing from his backup AXP/Abit NF7-S box due to waiting on 7800gt -> 7900gt stepup from eVGA)

ps I understand where you're coming from with the rehab'ing people - my mom works @ the Federal Public Defender's in L.A. They (the prisoners not the FPDs people) may have done some horrible things, but they are HUMAN beings - the CA state prisons are appalling.. I figure it's best to help them improve themselves, and decrease *recidivism* rates for those that WILL be on the streets in the future! Lock em up and throw away the key for X years, no wonder people go straight back to their old ways upon release... Not to mention the low level drug offenders and mentally ill that have otherwise no reason to be in the system in the first place (clogging up an already crowded system as is), and the NIMBYs that want all the prisons in BFE outta sight, outta mind. I'd better shut up now before this gets me warned/banned. :P

[edit] Uhh derrr - checked LW's Comp Details, I guess that PR for AMD may go un-needed - you already have an A64/3500+ box..

[lacywest]

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.

Is Winfast a computer mobo company ?? Can you provide more info ... haven't heard much about them ...

Are they made by Foxxconn ?

[TBoneit]

From this website

http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/Motherboards/Foxconn-Winfast-NF4SK8AA8EKRS-Motherboard-Review/

branded with the Winfast name instead of Foxconn. All of their AMD-based motherboard are branded as Winfast, a name the company has leased from Leadtek (one of their customers).

Review about a higher perfomance motherboard by Foxconn, as You guessed they are made by Foxconn. We've had no problems with foxconn here. We used 23 of their mobos for one customer around Christmastime.

[gf]

I just want to add my input to this posting, I used Epox, Asus,... and the best one I have used is a Tyan motherboard with a AMD chipset. No overclocking capabilities, but rock solid, no blue screens of dead, or any other problems I have encountered in the past.

Tiger K8W (S2875)


http://www.tyan.com/products/html/tigerk8w.html

[lacywest]

From this website

http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/Motherboards/Foxconn-Winfast-NF4SK8AA8EKRS-Motherboard-Review/

branded with the Winfast name instead of Foxconn. All of their AMD-based motherboard are branded as Winfast, a name the company has leased from Leadtek (one of their customers).

Review about a higher perfomance motherboard by Foxconn, as You guessed they are made by Foxconn. We've had no problems with foxconn here. We used 23 of their mobos for one customer around Christmastime.

Thanks man ... you've put a smile on my face for sure ... Foxconn ... is still out there with available mobos.

I'll be switching over to the 64 systems soon. But I've got the AMD CPUs ... 2500 ... 2600 ... and the 2800 / with the Barton cores [hopefully I do have the 2800 still in working condition -- might have gotten fried awhile back].

I brought the computer with the MSI K7N2 DELTA2-LSR mobo in it to work today ... the guys there LOVE it ... they were playing Doom 3 and Clive Barker's Undying ... fired up just fine.

In fact ... I brought it in ... set it down next to the piece of shit computer they've been using ... went back out to the car to get the optical mouse and when I got back in ... the clients had already fired it up and had it running.

It's playing Doom3 with no problems ... it has a ATI Radeon 9800 / 128mb video card in it ... 1 GB of DDR ram and two 120 GB Seagate hard drives in it. And two 80mm fans blowing air out ... with air being sucking in through the side vents and from the back bottom where the brackets have been popped out [nice breeze is being pulled in through there] to make way for a sound card that was there but not anymore and the LinkSys wireless LAN card that is also not there ... anymore.

I shall check out the Foxconn mobos ... didn't see any bad reviews on them and there seems to be some available on the net in several areas

... Very Good ... TBoneit ... Thank You

[TBoneit]

Good Luck, As I say we have had no problems with them in terms of stability and reliability and they are not too expensive.

[lacywest]

lacywest good luck and let us know the outcome.

For a few months ... everything was fine.

But one day I came to work and it would not boot up.

For more than 2 months ... the guys went without a computer. We had a staff meeting and my supervisor asked the staff members how the computer was doing ... uhm ... uhm ... uhm.

So ... I quickly whipped up another mother board ...

In the mean time ... I brought them a Dell GX400 running at 1.7 GHz with another copy of WinXP installed ... with a ATI 9800 Pro video card.

I won on Ebay >>> NEW Foxconn 748K7AA Socket A (Socket 462) SiS 748 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail 748K7AA ... on May 03, 2006 ... total cost ... $53.87

NEW Foxconn 748K7AA Socket A (Socket 462) SiS 748 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail 748K7AA

AGP Slots: 1x AGP 4X/8X
CPU Type: Athlon XP/Athlon/Duron/Sempron
DDR Standard: DDR 400 (PC 3200)
FSB: 400/333MHz
Maximum Memory Supported: 3GB
Number of DDR Slots: 3x 184pin DDR
Other Slots: 1 x CNR
PCI Express x16: None
PCI Slots: 5
South Bridge: SIS 964L
Click here for additional description

$37.99 ... plus US $15.88 for Shipping and Handling

This mother board is simple simple but it is working.

Problem is ... I don't know where the WinXP setup install cd is ... and I'm not going to buy another WinXP CD if the install messes up anymore than it is already messed up.

Surprisingly ... I swapped mother boards and everything went fine ... of course Microsoft wanted to verify the install but that only took a minute or two.

The reason I'm saying this ... MS Office 2002 doesn't work anymore ... shit fire ... I can't even uninstall it and reinstall it.

So if the guys want to make a resume ... they have to use Word Perfect 9 or Windows Notepad or Wordpad.

Too many people got on the computer and thought is was cool messing with settings they had no business touching.

Like using ATI CCC and turning the desktop picture ... Sideways

They keep it up ... their next computer from me will be that Dell GX400 running at 1.7 GHz ... again but this time ... with Windows 2000 installed ... with a ATI 9800 Pro video card.

[redwudz]

Two things you might look into: Setting user privileges for the computer so they can't change things and maybe investing in a backup program like Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost to restore it if they do.

And you might try the freeware Open Office as it's similar to Word and can open most Word files. http://www.openoffice.org/

[lacywest]

Two things you might look into: Setting user privileges for the computer so they can't change things and maybe investing in a backup program like Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost to restore it if they do.

And you might try the freeware Open Office as it's similar to Word and can open most Word files. http://www.openoffice.org/

Okay ... your idea about making an image is a good idea. I believe if I do a search on my computer ... I will find Acronis True Image. As for Norton Ghost ... yeah ... I've got it too ... somewhere.

How do they create a image ?? ... on a DVD disk or on CDs spanned from disk to disk.

I didn't want to have user privileges set for me only because I'm not there enuff to be there when they need me.

Some of them have games they want to install ... what games I saw appear on the computer ... where crap by my standards ... geez ... how else did they get them ... he he he ... nobody wanted them and they were given away to them.

About WinXP ... back in April ... May or June 2006 ... Best Buy was selling WinXP Home for 60 bucks [upgrade version] and then a couple of weeks later ... for $50 bucks ... I bought a few copies.

[redwudz]

I haven't used either backup program for a while, but they should be able to back up to DVD or CD or a second hard drive, maybe an external HD in a USB case, depending on your motherboard boot options. The backups aren't as big as the stuff on your hard drive, so space is not such a big deal. CDs will work if that's your only option. A backup of your install would make thing easier if your fellow workers really mess things up.

I suggested permissions as that's one way to control access, and it's already part of XP. You make yourself administrator and the only one that can install or change the system. It does get a little complicated with a lot of users. It depends on how much control you want over the computer and how much you want to give the users, and how it's used.

If you don't have a major problem, the backup is maybe the way to go. And a stern warning to the other users, but I know how that works.