Need Help Picking AMD AM2 Mobo

[TorqueRanger]

I am doing the up coming wars and i need a new mb because i just found out my oem does not oc at all and whats the point to be in the wars without a mb that does not oc .. So i am running a amd athlon 64 x2 4400+ am2 with ddr2 ram and i would like a board that i can upgrade down the road to am3 and ddr3 and my budget is about $50.00 and i was looking at the asrock boards but i figured i would get some help before makin a decision so any input would really help thanks


Torqueranger

 

[JLK03F150]

Sorry I don't know good overclocking AMD chipsets, but drop DDR3 support from your wishlist. Look at AM2 to AM3 support & DDR2.

The boards with DDR2 & DDR3 support are good for upgrading on a budget, but very rarely overclock well.

 

[TorqueRanger]

i was looking at GIGABYTE GA-MA74GM-S2 AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 740G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...rue&Keywords=(keywords)&Page=1#scrollFullInfo

 

[JLK03F150]

Aren't the 780 or 790 chipsets much better overclockers? Also many mATX boards have limited BIOS options. Try to stick with full ATX boards.

Here's an open box...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130265R

 

[JLK03F150]

Ranger, you might wanna PM a mod to change the thread title to something like "Need Help Picking AMD AM2 Mobo!!!".

 

[QuietIce]

In that price range there just aren't many choices. The Open Box is the best idea to get a good board if you don't want to spend much.

 

[TorqueRanger]

well i don't know what company to stick with because i have used a asrock in my p4 build and that ran with no problems at all and can oc very well with awesome benchs and i really need to pick one out today or i can not be in the wars at all because of the deadline and i will not be ready because or my own stupidity . So any help would be great and can some mod change the title

 

[Seebs]

Look for ASUS, Biostar, Gigabyte.
But in that price range it's going to be hard to find anything good; unless you are able to find a used board somewhere.

 

[QuietIce]

I haven't heard of any problems with ASRock on their newer boards but have no clue how long they'll last. IMO, Gigabyte is the best choice for low- to mid-range followed by Biostar then ASUS (ASUS quality in that range isn't so good).

 

[TorqueRanger]

Well what about MSI ,well how about can i get a list from the very best to just crap with each company

 

[TorqueRanger]

Question
1- What the best board size to oc with??
2-I am running 2x1gb ballistix ,how memory would be the best ??? ( I am running xp for now but a upgrade might come soon to win 7 )
3-best company to have ??? ( I was thinking about getting the MSI 770T-C35 AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard but was not sure how it well oc )

Oh sorry about this crap i never bought a mb to oc with seriously because i got my p4 mb really cheap

 

[QuietIce]

1 ATX is almost always better than mATX
2 2x2 Gb DDR2-800CL4 - any name brand will do. I like OCZ Plats for the price but I also like Corsair XMS2
3 MSI is OK if the board isn't DOA

 

[TorqueRanger]

1 ATX is almost always better than mATX
2 2x2 Gb DDR2-800CL4 - any name brand will do. I like OCZ Plats for the price but I also like Corsair XMS2
3 MSI is OK if the board isn't DOA

Oh i am sorry how many memory slot are best??? That was what i am running and what would be a better brand then and whats wrong MSI????


Well if i wrote a list of brands of the best to crap how would the list go then please..

Well would you take asrock or msi because they are about the same price??

 

[QuietIce]

??? I haven't seen enough boards with only two RAM slots to even comment on that.

There have been more than an average number of MSI's arrive dead.


The list is different for low- to mid-range boards than high-end boards. Low- to mid-range (in my opinion):

Gigabyte/Biostar (both the same)
ASUS/Asrock/MSI/Foxconn (all the same)
Zotac/ECS (both the same)

ATX better than mATX
MOSFET heatsinks always a plus

 

[TorqueRanger]

Well is it better to have 4 slots or 2 slots??
What companies would you go with and would stay away from???
As far as seeing heatsink on mosfets ,i have not see them on the boards from newegg for sale ,just old boards

 

[QuietIce]

Maybe we have a language barrier?

Well is it better to have 4 slots or 2 slots??

I haven't seen enough boards with only two RAM slots to even comment on that.

What companies would you go with and would stay away from???

For low- to mid-range boards only (best to worst):

Gigabyte/Biostar (both the same)
ASUS/Asrock/MSI/Foxconn (all the same)
Zotac/ECS (both the same)

 

[CgS Drone]

Forget DDR3 if you are planning to run AM2 or AM2+ cpu's their IMC cannot handle the DDR3 so you will be limited to something with DDR2 and at that the AM2 is going to limit your RAM to 800mhz (downclock) you can squeeze a hair more out of it but not much. Newer CPU's can go in reverse but the older CPU's cannot go forward when in comes to RAM.

I have a MSI K9N SLI plat. version 1.1 if you find yourself looking for that board and you can find one used look for the version 2, is has better CPU support and chipset. One of the best/worse AM2+ boards I have ever owned was the Foxconn Destroyer but they are hard to find. They had issue's with bios versions and once you got it stable she would work great but it would take flashing the bios several times for some reason to get it to work well (nice thing is it had dual bios so you where covered when the first one went south) and it was very picky about what RAM you could use, I put Kingston HyperX in it and it hated it but loved OCZ Reaper.

 

[TorqueRanger]

Well i have no idea about anything with mb and this is all new to me, i am trying to put my best foot forward and run with it.. I have no idea what's good or bad , so please just spell it out ( i know i am a dumba$$) I have a budget about $70.oo now

 

[CgS Drone]

Sorry to say your option will be very limited with that price range unless you find someone on here willing to cut you a very good deal. I cannot speak for the other brand motherboards when it comes to bios options but the MSI that I have is somewhat limiting so you will want to watch out for that as well. The foxconn that I had was made for OC'ing but it was a top of the line board in its day compared to this one that was a mid range board. This board will offer you over volt on CPU, RAM only then you are limited on HT link and RAM since it makes jumps in 200mhz at a time so when you adjust the FSB and have to drop RAM you lose a lot by not being able to fine tune it.

 

[Slade122]

Personally I would look around for a used asus m4n82 deluxe. superior overclocking.