Buying mobo on a tight budget

Right now I have a Duron 900 and plug & play motherboard that don´t overclock at all.

Came across this used MSI 745 Ultra board and thought it might be a decent way to upgrade a bit and still be a cheapass. It supports both sdram and ddr, which means I could cut some expenses by keeping my two sticks of sdram. The newest BIOS update should support up to Athlon XP 2600, which could come in handy when I´m tired of overclocking my old Duron and/or feel like spending another buck or two.

Has anyone any experience of these boards? Good or bad? Any suggestions on this potential budget upgrade appreciated.

hmm, if i were you i'd look for any of the nforce2 refurbs at newegg. if you are partial to msi you could grab a k7n2-l (i think i have it right) for a cheap $59.99 w/ free shipping. i have seen a few delta's there too, but they are a bit more and disappear rather quick .

I have personally used thek7n2-L and it is AN AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! board.... as for ram that is definetly not the place to skimp.....I am positive you could find some 2700 ram or even 3000 if need be 256 meg sticks for around $30-40....and with that setup you will be able to reach for the moon....and you should be able to get both the ram and bored for around $100 from newegg.....and once you get boared I would get yourself a 1700+ dlt3c Jiuhb with which you could hit around 2.4gHz on air....just my 2 cents......if you wanna stray from msi I would get the soltek or the epox boards...both are uber cheap and ultra overclockable......don't think abything is as cheap as the k7n2-L and as overclockable though....I might be wrong..........as for the sound on the k7n2-L if you have a 2.1 setup like most computer users..I would say it is on par with a sb live 5.1 setup ...so for bang for your buck that board is way up there ..hope I could help

Thanks for the replies. The nForce2 chipset seems like the new hot thing...what´s the advantages to these chipsets compared to the older types, like SiS 745 (as on the MSI 745 board)?

First of all, the biggest advantage offered by the nForce2 chipset is Dual Channel DDR. Two memory controllers means more bandwidth and a faster computer. Here is a list of some other features of the MSI K7N2-L:

- 8x AGP (Nothing to get all excited over...yet)
- Support for 200MHz FSB (Unofficially, but it does)
- Onboard 6 channel audio
- USB 2.0
- OVERCLOCKING! (FSB, Multiplier, CPU:Mem ratio, Voltage)

I have the K7N2G-L and I love it. I have the onboard GeForce4 MX but I don't use it, so it's basically the same as the K7N2-L. It's a great board and definitely worth $60.

the new k7n2- Delta L has official 400fsb suport!

Delta-ILSR
- has SoundStorm 6 channel audio as the delta-l does not (only K7N2-ILSR models have soundstorm the L's use 6 channel realtek)
- 2 sata
-- IDE 3 (raid)
- FSB goes up to 225 or 230 i forget
- onboard lan
- onboard firewire
- 6 USB (4 onboard and 2 on the D-LED)
- 8X AGP
- Dual DDR

The red is only for ILSR models and the Delta is only one that supports 400FSB officially as treepop stated. the board is a little high but in the long run its worth the extra cash.

john deere said:

Came across this used MSI 745 Ultra board and thought it might be a decent way to upgrade a bit and still be a cheapass. It supports both sdram and ddr, which means I could cut some expenses by keeping my two sticks of sdram.

Click to expand...

i'm afraid it ain't so. DDR only...