Looking for a cheap, overclockable am2+ mobo

[siDDis]

Im going to upgrade my htpc. I've decided to buy an athlon II 245 but I have no idea about what motherboard I should get. It should have onboard video, 1 pci-express 1x slot, and one 16x slot(In case I should need a better video card in the future), 1 regular pci slot and at least 6 sata ports.

I found the Asus M3N-H/HDMI which looks exactly like the motherboard I need, however this motherboard seems to be to old cause none of the webshops here where I live have it. Are there any other cheap, overclockable am2+ motherboards you can recommend me?

 

[bldegle2]

AsRock AOD790/128....

Same clockage as my DFI issues (M2R), instant boot (very nice) and it meets all your needs...

and the price is right...

laterzzzzz.................

 

[Virtual1101]

Biostar T-Force 790GX 128M, Made for overclocking and meets your needs plus has very nice capacitors for the double life span mobo onboard cmos switch and power/reset switch aswell as a HW error LED to let ya know if something is malfunctining. I got one for about $115.00 and highly recomend it to you.

 

[siDDis]

Thanks for your suggestions, unfortunately none of the two are available in my country.

Instead of the Athlon II X2 245, I find the Athlon II X4 620 very interesting and it will put even further requirements for the motherboard when it comes to overclocking.

Currently I have three motherboards in my list which I find interesting...

The first one is the Asus M4N78 PRO with Nvidia 8300, since I'm a linux user I can take advantage of VDPAU and some basic 3d acceleration.

I really don't know how AMD/ATI is in this area(ATI has a bad linux reputation when it comes to 3d/stability), but I've read they're better overclockers.

The Asus M4A78 PRO with 780g is another good looking board and is really cheap. The Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H with 785g is slightly more expensive.

Is the Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H worth the extra money when it comes to overclocking?

What do you recommend?

 

[QuietIce]

Given those choices I'd take the Gigabyte. I've been a big ASUS fan until the AM2+ and AM3 boards came out. ASUS just hasn't done a very good job with this platform except their high-end boards. The 785 chipset on the Gigabyte is better then the 780 and Gigabyte has been producing very good OC'ing boards for this generation. You didn't specify prices but the Gigabyte would have to be a LOT more expensive for me not to choose it over the ASUS.


BTW: nVidia doesn't seem to be doing a very good job producing OC'ing chipsets (or maybe it's just their BIOS?) for AMD boards ...

 

[s3ppel]

Hey there.

In case you're not set yet: I can confirm that the Asus m4n78 pro runs well with linux (vdpau, hdmi sound, etc) and fsb can be overclocked at least to 240mhz, haven't tried higher yet. I ordered an A2 X4 620 as well and will see how much juice I'll get out of it.

 

[silent bob]

I had the intel version of the Asus , I dont know if they did it for AMD but for intel the hdmi is ONLY video no audio, which kinda fools you into thinking it had audio on the HDMI output .I dont know what they were thinking !! IF you guy a mobo with hdami confirm the hdmi has audio , otherwise its just a DVI port which is hdmi without audio

 

[QuietIce]

My ASUS M3A78-T has an IGP w/HDMI out - including sound. Of course, that's the AMD 790GX chipset, not nVidia.

You'd think it would be easy enough to pipe on-board sound into the on-board HDMI ...