[X-post] Athlon Mobo

[z00t]

(had posted it earlier in QnA section: *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12197)

Hi,
I was using Athlon 1.1 GHz on Asus A7VI-VM mobo till recently, when the mobo decided to overheat and generally blow up!

I want to keep my processor and other stuff intact, and would ideally like to have a new motherboard which would support my processor... can you guys suggest any? And provide indicative prices as well.

How much would 512 megs DDR cost ?

 

[swatkat]

A7N8X-E features:-
Based on the nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset with the nForce2 GPU-Southbridge.
Supports the entire range of AMD Socket-A CPUs with 200/266/333/400 MHz FSB (Front Side Bus).
3 DIMM slots that support up to 3 GB of DDR RAM with clock speeds of 266, 333 and 400 MHz in single and dual channel mode.
FireWire, SATA RAID (Raid 0 and 1), USB 2.0, AGP 8X,onboard-LAN.

Read the whole review here:-
*www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/showstory.jsp?storyid=51860&upto=0

Costs around Rs.8000.

 

[pimpom]

The A7N8X-E suggested by swatkat is a very good board but has no onboard video. If you've been using the onboard video of your old board, you won't be able to do that with the A7N8X-E, and you'll have to buy a separate card. The A7N8X-VM version has onboard video but has fewer bells and whistles such SATA, Gigabit LAN, fewer PCI slots. From my regular supplier : A7N8X-E = 7k, A7N8X-VM = 5.4k.

You may also want to consider a Krypton C18G-400 which is actually a Biostar M7NCG-400, marketed in India by Priya under their brand Krypton. This board is similar to the Asus A7N8X-VM, but has better features and costs considerably less - 4.1k. It's quite popular in western countries as a good economy board. I'm using one right now. The onboard video is much better than that of your old board.

 

[z00t]

Athlon Mobo

Thanks for the inputs guys.
I am really looking for something under 5k as the comp is not used very regularly.

I also feel if I get a really high end mobo, the bottleneck would then be the processor (its only 1.1 GHz, and nearly 3 1/2 yrs old now) rather than any of the mobo subsystems.

Does anyone has any experience with using an Athlon (nearly same class as mine - 1.1 GHz) on these mobos?

 

[pimpom]

Did you see the price I quoted for the Krypton C18G-400 ? It's 4.1k. I've used more than 30 of these boards and it's very stable, has better than average features and the onboard GeForce4 MX video is quite usable for most games too.

I've installed Duron 1.1GHz processors on these boards and they're good enough for most users except real hard-core gamers. A friend of mine has a Duron 600 MHz CPU on a mobo similar to your old one, but has a GeForce3 Ti gfx card. For gaming it's better than most P4 systems with run-of-the-mill onboard graphics.

One thing you should note is that you won't be able to use your old SDRAM sticks on the new boards as they all use DDR SDRAMs.

 

[swatkat]

Yes,Asus A7N8X-VM has onboard Graphics but it's a Micro-ATX motherboard
which has fewer features compared to big brother A7N8X-E Deluxe (which is packed
with features) which an ATX motherboard.

If u dont have/plan to buy G-Card and dont mind fewer PCI slots,fewer features
(it has no onboard LAN and RAID suport)compared to A7N8X-E Deluxe version,go for VM version.
But if u now have/plan to buy a G-Card gor A7N8X-E version.

There's another mobo from Asuu with VIA chipset called A7V8X,which has similar features
of A7N8X versions and also has onboard GPU which not so powerful compared to that of
A7N8X-VM's nForce GPU,but has LAN and some other good features namely:-
KT400 chipset,
Supports Athlon XP on 333MHz FSB,
AGP 8X interface,
DDR 400 memory,
S/PDIF digital audio,5.1 channel surround sound




Some other good boards are:-

Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 (GA-7N400PRO2)
ATX form factor,
NVidia nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset,
Serial ATA x 2, DMA/ATA-133 (Ultra) x 4,
SATA RAID 0, SATA RAID 1,
USB 2.0 x 5, Serial Port x 2, FireWire (IEEE1394a) x 2, RJ45 Lan Port x 1
AGP x8 x 1, PCI x 5,
RAM-3GB,speeds supported-400 MHz, 333 MHz, 266 MHz,


MSI K7N2 Delta II LSR (k7n2delta2lsr)
ATX
Chipset NVidia nForce2 Ultra 400
Serial ATA x 2, DMA/ATA-133 (Ultra) x 4
IDE RAID 0, IDE RAID 1, IDE RAID 0+1
USB 1.1 x 8, Serial Port x 1, RJ45 Lan Port x 1
AGP x8 x 1, PCI x 5