Motherboard for AMD

The_Judas 2004-03-10 23:06:26 UTC #1

Which motherboard should i pick for an AMD 2600+ Barton ?
I'm interested in nforce2 chipsets.

I'm building a system for a friend of mine and he isn't interested in gaming , overclocking and stuff like that , he only needs a stable system.

Should i get him the ASUS A7N8X-E DELUXE , ABIT NF7-S or something else ?

AZImmortal 2004-03-10 23:41:10 UTC #2

if he's not interested in those things, then an nf2 system is probably too good for him anyway. i like the NF7-S myself, but if he doesn't plan on doing any of those things, then pretty much any nf2 board would do.

The_Judas 2004-03-11 00:05:59 UTC #3

Thanks for the tips.
Now i have some more questions about the system i'm building...

about ddr ram :
Should i get cl3 or cl2.5 ? Whats the difference ?

about power supply :
I need a good but not very expensive ps , i have found a Q-TEC 400W (with 2 fans) in a reasonable price , is it a good choice ?

damiandimitri 2004-03-11 00:14:43 UTC #4

the nforce chip set has nice options, but if i am correct it is slower then the via chipset.

i would go for msi, asus or chaintech. Not sure if they al have nforce chipsets, but they offer good quality and a lott of options.

How faster the ddr ram how more stable your mobo/os will be. ALso handy when you want to overclock a bit. Always buy a brand.
cl2.5 is faster..how lower the timings how faster the mem

q-tech psu's are ok for normal users. High end overclockers need to buy expensive psu'with more stabel output (>100euro).

xtacydima 2004-03-11 00:49:30 UTC #5

ASUS is da best IMO
VIA chipset is good enough
CLx.x is best when x.x is lower # - consider dual channel memory
Antec True power all the way - otherwise thermaltake or enermax

Hope that helps some

Dee-ehn 2004-03-11 02:40:25 UTC #6

I think you may be better of with a VIA KT600 based board. The performance is somewhat lower, but so is the price. And... it generally gives more features for the price (such as SATA etc).

Performance?

1. VIA KT880 and NForce2 400 (about equal performance)

2. NForce 2

3. VIA KT600 (about 5 to 10% slower than the #1).

The_Judas 2004-03-11 10:08:23 UTC #7

Which KT600 motherboards-brands should i consider buying ?

Is that chipset stable compared to the nforce2 ?

damiandimitri 2004-03-11 10:21:37 UTC #8

msi is pretty good

Dee-ehn 2004-03-11 10:22:01 UTC #9

Originally posted by The_Judas
[B]Which KT600 motherboards-brands should i consider buying ?

Is that chipset stable compared to the nforce2 ? [/B]

I only have experience with the Asus KT600 deluxe boards (build 3 systems on that) and I must say that stability isn't any issue (super stable) and the set of features is very good, especially for the pretty low price!

damiandimitri 2004-03-11 10:33:25 UTC #10

other optiuon besides the above

MSI

kt600
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=474

nforce 2
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=436

MSI, got no kt880 yet

CHaintech

kt600
http://www.chaintechusa.com/tw/eng/product_spec.asp?MPSNo=13&PISNo=249

they also have lots of nforce mobo's

For cheaper mobo's you also can have a look at Soltek. They have pretty goof mobo's i heard...but cheap....they strip of many options. But they still leave enough for normal use