Which to choose?!? Please pick for me!

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paco

Gawd
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Feb 3, 2003
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I've been reading around at peoples' opinions on the socket 754 boards, and there seems to be a ton of different opinions on what is good and what is not. I will hopefully be putting in an order for an Athlon 64 2800+ soon. But I just don't know what board to get.

I'm not an overclocker. I may do it sometime, but not in the near future, or maybe ever. Firewire or Raid capabilities aren't necessary, but would be nice, just in case.

I have 2x512 Kingston PC2700 RAM right now. I may pick up some PC3200 eventually.

I just want something stable and reliable. Is there anything to definitely stay away from? Also is there a benefit to going with a nForce 3 150 chipset as opposed to a nForce 3 250 chipset? What about K8T800?

So many questions, please give your opinions.
Thanks!
 
ok I am not a VIA nut nor an Nvidiot - I have owned chipsets from both in the past/present.
Now, as I am looking at this question myself - I have come to some conclusions - no go on the nf3 150 series as they are not good performers. The K8T800 is better. My suggestion is go with their the new nf3 250gb or the K8T800 PRO as they are the new sets and have the better bells & whistles. Either chipset (250gb or Pro) should do well and perform similarly.
Now if you really want to be cheap go with the Sis 755 Foxconn board - no overclock but seems to be stable and cheap (FYI: Foxconn makes the pci slots, agp ports, memory slots, hard drive cables, etc. that are in your present system - this seems to be their first motherboard) $92 newegg but there are better options -
I like Epox and their board sounds like a winner:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-123-219&depa=0
its the NF3 250gb for $99
I'd look hard at that one - price is excellent and epox/abit/asus boards are the ones overclockers usually recommend - tho this one is lite on the extreme overclock ability.
This abit looks good too
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-178&depa=0
hmm it even has gigabyte lan
Those seem to be the price leaders - (I'd look real hard at these two epox/abit boards)
It seems you'll have to put $30-50 more out for other boards with the new chipsets
If you want raid (like more than 2 channels - epox has the same chipset with an addon raid chip)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-123-220&depa=0
but that sounds like overkill for you.
Just make sure you are getting the 250gb and the PRO edition of the chipset (not board as some of the old k8t800 boards are labeled "pro" - double check the chipset info to ensure you are getting the right one.)
Good luck
 
I have heard good things about that first Epox board. I appreciate the in depth response. It's good to hear others opinions on this stuff. That $100 range is right where I am looking.

Thanks! More suggestions or comments are welcome!
 
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