Available A64 motherboards and their features

[Thraller]

I'm having a hell of a time choosing a motherboard for my A64. OC is a possibility and it seems that some motherboards do not seem that OC friendly. If you head on over to newegg.com and look at the socket 754 motherboards, you will get a list about 2 pages long. I'm going to list the first page and highlight some motherboards I am looking at. Advice would be greatly appreciated.

CHAINTECH "ZNF3-250GB PRO ZENITH" -- $175 The only nForce3 250GB board here

SOYO "SY-K8USA DRAGON Ultra BLACK LABEL" -- 174

GIGABYTE "GA-K8VNXP" -- $165 Huge feature list, but only has the K8T800 chipset for such a high price

CHAINTECH "ZNF3-150 ZENITH" -- 154 Highly recommended by AnandTech.com

ABIT "KV8-MAX3" -- 140 Highly recommended by Tom's Hardware Guide

GIGABYTE "GA-K8NS PRO" -- 135 nForce3 250, but not the GB chipset. I'm not sure how much of an improvement the GB model is.

SOYO "SY-CK8 DRAGON Plus" -- 129 nForce 150. Said to be extremely fast by THG and Motherboards.org. Again, I'm not so sure how much a motherboard's speed impacts overall system performance.

SHUTTLE "AN50R" -- 129

ASUS "K8V SE Deluxe" -- 124 Highly recommended. One of the best boards out there before the 250 was released. It seems that overall, the Neo is slightly better, though.

MSI "K8T Neo-FIS2R" -- 124 The best early 64 board I could find. I really like the coolcell and cool and quiet features. However, reviews for this board are from before the nforce3 250 and via pro chipsets, so I'm not sure how it compares to those. I also hear it does not OC very well from some sources, but others say its OC potential is pretty good.

Albatron "K8X800 ProII" -- 116

GIGABYTE "GA-K8N PRO" -- 113 nForce3 150 based. I saw a couple of users on here use this board. That's really my only reason for considering it
ASUS "K8V" --111
SOLTEK "SL-K8AN-RL" - 109
EPoX "EP-8HDA3+" - 106
ABIT "KV8" -- 102
BIOSTAR "K8NHA PRO" -- 97
MSI "K8MM-ILSR" -- 96
MSI "K8TM-ILSR" -- 96
CHAINTECH "VNF3-250" -- 95 Very cheap nForce3 250 board.

Additionally, the Neo Platinum is due out soon. However, I need to order a board soon, probably well before that board is released. As I understand it, the 250GB chipset is the best around, but I only found one board with it. There was no K8T800 Pro chipset board offered There were a couple of nForce 250 boards, but I don't know how much better the GB version is that the regular.

Of the older boards, the MSI Neo is generally the best. However, THG posted an article stating that under some stress, the memory capabilities of the Neo were not very good. It seems that THG preferred the ABIT KV8-MAX3 over the Neo, but other sites preferred the Neo.

For those of you much more informed in this area that me (which will be most of you), which board would you take? Money is not really that big of an issue, since the price differences aren't too great. I want a fast, stable board with decent OCing capabilities, but OCing is not a priority.

I am nervous about taking the newer boards based on the nForce 250 and 250GB chipset because I can find no reviews on them. However, I hear that the newest nForce chipsets are much better than the 150 and regular via chipsets.

I especially like the boards with the cool and quiet capability, since my computer is not running at full bore all the time That's why I really like the MSI Neo out of the older boards.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!!

 

[Calculusaurus]

Well, the MSI K8T Neo is undoubtedly an excellent choice. I'm not speaking from personal experience, but I'm just relaying what hardware guide after hardware guide has suggested. I'm planning on purchasing an A64 3000+ system, and am still undecided about the motherboard. Though, the MSI K8T Neo is a likely purchase.

You already have the right idea with not getting an nForce3 150. I say go for a VIA based board if you aren't willing to wait for a few more nForce3 250 boards to come out.

Originally posted by Thraller Of the older boards, the MSI Neo is generally the best. However, THG posted an article stating that under some stress, the memory capabilities of the Neo were not very good. It seems that THG preferred the ABIT KV8-MAX3 over the Neo, but other sites preferred the Neo.
[/B]

If I recall, that test was testing the motherboards under abnormal RAM conditions. If you don't "stress" your RAM and just get some tried-and-true Corsair XMS PC3200 -- or something similar -- then why concern yourself with the results from the guide? Anyway, it was a while ago when I read that article, so I may not have my facts straight.

About the K8N Neo Platinum: this motherboard will likely be released anytime between one and two weeks from now. Many hardware sites have already reviewed it, and the results are good. I may wait a bit for its release.

Check out these message boards for MSI motherboard discussion: http://msihq.designlab.info/index.php?sid=4d659edbec2a516b33723cc9da61bed8

Sorry, I don't have much more information... I don't really know anything past what our favorite hardware review sites can tell us.

 

[DunnoeWhattaDoo]

Unless you are in a VERY big hurry to start building i'd wait (and am waiting...) a week or so untill the MSI Platinum comes out, it'll pretty much blow everything else out of the water.
But if you are in that big a hurry id recommend the MSI K8T FIS2R Neo. You can get an alright amount of oc out of it and its very stable. Good luck to ya which ever way you go...