Need motherboard recommendation

Hello everyone. I am building a new computer and need help choosing a motherboard. I probably won't be overclocking that much if at all.

I will be buying an Athlon 64 Venice CPU. Not sure what model yet, most likely a 3500+ or 3700+.

As of right now I have a Sapphire X800 Pro AGP card on order, so the mobo would have to have AGP.

Also I will be using a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache HD.

I will be getting dual channel memory. Not sure what brand yet or what size.

So far i'm thinking a Asus A8V mobo would suit me. But please if you guys have any other recommendations let me know. Thanks!

If you are buying a new video card to build a new system an AGP card is not a good idea. You should go with the current technology not yesterdays. A pci-e card and an nf4 based system are probably the best combo right now. If you are getting a 3700 cpu I'd go for the San Diego with it's larger cache. If you get a Venice it makes more sense to get a 3200 and OC it to the 3700 speed. That's my opinion, I'm sure you will here a lot of different ones. Good luck with whatever you choose.

Well if you know that you won't be doing any overclocking for as long as you own that board, then all you need to look for in a mobo is the features you want and that it is from a good manufacturer.

rseven said:

If you are buying a new video card to build a new system an AGP card is not a good idea. You should go with the current technology not yesterdays. A pci-e card and an nf4 based system are probably the best combo right now.

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True true...But from what I've read in various articles and benchmarks, there is not a whole lot of difference between AGP and PCI-E "yet". And after this upgrade I don't intend to upgrade again for a few years. And by then the mobo I will be buying will be obsolete and will need upgrading.

rseven said:

If you are getting a 3700 cpu I'd go for the San Diego with it's larger cache. If you get a Venice it makes more sense to get a 3200 and OC it to the 3700 speed. That's my opinion, I'm sure you will here a lot of different ones. Good luck with whatever you choose.

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Yes, if I do go with a 3700+ I would most likely go with the San Diego. And that brings me to another question. What sort of performance differences would there be with 1MB L2 cache over 512KB?

Avg said:

Well if you know that you won't be doing any overclocking for as long as you own that board, then all you need to look for in a mobo is the features you want and that it is from a good manufacturer.

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I've done a little more research and was wondering if I should go with a VIA K8T800 Pro or NF3 chipset. From what i've read more people lean towards the NF3.

Thanks for your guys help.

You are correct. There is no big difference between AGP and pci-e for now and if you don't plan to upgrade for several years then it does not matter.The only problem is the agp choice gives you little room to change your mind, Sometimes when I get something I don't plan to upgrade but something comes out that looks very good or I'm disappointed in the performance of what I purchased and I decide to upgrade sooner rather than later. Also, the nf4 boards offer more current technology in other areas such as SATA. I apologize for sounding like a PIA but I have made short term buying decisions that turned out to be poor long term buying decisions and I just want to point out all the options to you.
If you do stick with agp, as I suspect you will, the nf3's are better overclockers but offer no stability benefits over the via's. If you are not going to OC then either will do just fine.
As for the larger cache of the San Diego's I am not certain of just how much performance advantage you will get. I can tell you that it depends a lot on the kind of application you are running. Good luck.