best all-in-one board

Rutkus · Jul 14, 2003

I am looking at making a new linux box, I am tired of my old p3 550 gateway which is what i run red hat linux on. I am looking for a no frills mobo that has onboard sound, video, lan. I am looking for as cheap as possible and overclock friendly hopefully.

my setup will include a 1700+ and i'm not sure what else yet. I was looking at ECS and Asus, but I was just curious to what you guys think, I was reading and i guess ECS i total crap so that may be out of the picture.

thanks,
Rutkus.

emericanchaos · Jul 14, 2003

the ECS isn't total crap. it's a good stable board it just won't let you OC it.

for a cheap nforce board with the stuff you've mentioned look at the Epox 8rda. it's like mid $80's in price and has everything you've asked for. it's known to kick out some heat once you start oc'ing it so you may want to look into some extra cooling for the northbridge southbridge and mosfets.

Rutkus · Jul 14, 2003

I already own an 8rda+ but it doesn't have built in video which is what i'm looking for. I don't want to buy an extra video card.

Peter007 · Jul 14, 2003

Agree, ECS are very Decent Motherboard

when people say ECS are Crap, there usually referring ot its LACK of Overclocking Ability.

I had a series of ABIT/ECS motherboard over the year. While ABIT are more FUN - due to numerous Overlocking Option, they also tend to DIE after 3 years.

While ECS are boring, and have limited FSB speed, they tend to work as promise for a long time.

Asus suppose to have great quality too, but I came across many DEAD Asus board after 3 years as well

hkgonra · Jul 14, 2003

The 8rga and NF7-M are good boards. You might want to do some price checking , you might be able to buy the extra video card for less than buying it built in. I know when I got my 8rda for work that was the case. I picked up an mx440se 64mb card for $25 and it ended up being cheaper and having a slighly better graphics card than what would have been integrated.

Rutkus · Jul 14, 2003

is the 8rga similar to the 8rda in terms of overclockability>? I have my 8rda and i'm really happy with it.

hkgonra · Jul 14, 2003

From what I have heard yes it is.

e laursen · Jul 15, 2003

If price is important and you don't mind working for the ability to OC you might try the Asus a7n266-vm (newegg $65). It is the nForce 1 with single channel DDR, but it has 5.1 sound, gf2mx video, usb, etc... It DOES NOT overclock out of the box, but people have been able to enable the ability to OC by shorting a jumper that is missing on the MB.

Search these forums for this board if you are interested. There are a lot of threads about it.

This may not meet your needs, but if a cheap, reliable, feature filled MB is what is the most important criteria, this MB is it.

james.miller · Jul 15, 2003

ECS are one of "those" companies. Their boards either work or they dont. I have an ECS k7s5a, and whilst it was never the fastest or most feature-packed, it was damn stable - which brings me to my next point.

ECS's boards are definatly NOT the best all-round boards. the k7s5a for example, while being stable (when they work) does not have any bell any whistles of any kind - no on board lan, mediocre on-board sound, no usb 2, no fire wire, no raid........you get the idea. ECS make cheap boards that dont overclock at all.

honestly i couldnt reccomend anything other than my nf7-s - it has it all.

Mustanley · Jul 16, 2003

I think the Chaintech 7NIF2 fits the bill. Be sure you check out the hardware compatibilty list first though. Linux has problems with some of the Nforce2 features.

jhbball · Jul 20, 2003

james.miller said:
ECS are one of "those" companies. Their boards either work or they dont. I have an ECS k7s5a, and whilst it was never the fastest or most feature-packed, it was damn stable - which brings me to my next point.

ECS's boards are definatly NOT the best all-round boards. the k7s5a for example, while being stable (when they work) does not have any bell any whistles of any kind - no on board lan, mediocre on-board sound, no usb 2, no fire wire, no raid........you get the idea. ECS make cheap boards that dont overclock at all.

honestly i couldnt reccomend anything other than my nf7-s - it has it all.

Actually, the k7s5a does have onboard lan. But if you're looking for a cheap board w/ usb2.0 and lan, get the k7s5a pro. I don't own one, but I hear most of its issues have been taken care of in this revision.

james.miller · Jul 20, 2003

jhbball said:
Actually, the k7s5a does have onboard lan. But if you're looking for a cheap board w/ usb2.0 and lan, get the k7s5a pro. I don't own one, but I hear most of its issues have been taken care of in this revision.

how many times........ you can buy the board with or WITHOUT lan. trust me on this - i am looking at an ECS k7s5a right now and it doesnt have lan.

Sorry, i should have said that.

best all-in-one board

Rutkus

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emericanchaos

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Rutkus

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Peter007

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hkgonra

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Rutkus

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hkgonra

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e laursen

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james.miller

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Mustanley

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jhbball

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