New motherboard recommendation needed

[Pinky]

I will have to get a new motherboard, turns out the one I have is half-assed, and thanks to the IRS I am getting a few extra bucks, so I can afford one after all. I have been having problems with lower than average memory scores and 3dMark 2001 score with my geforce 3.

I was looking at Asus, the CUSL2-C black pearl edition with the rest of the hardware in my sig.
I don't want to spend more than $120 with shipping, so please keep that in mind.

 

[Placid]

The black pearl is a good board. Alot better than the vl6.
It does have some things you should be aware of.
1.It does not run agp 4x over 140mhz fsb.
2. The bios is soldered to the board.
3. Some people have cold boot problems with it.

 

[Pinky]

Placid (Jul 22, 2001 12:58 p.m.):
The black pearl is a good board. Alot better than the vl6.
It does have some things you should be aware of.
1.It does not run agp 4x over 140mhz fsb.
2. The bios is soldered to the board.
3. Some people have cold boot problems with it.

Dunno if I'd be concerned with AGP 4X, but any issues overclocking is and issue with me... I'm gonna research today, then order overnight so I can work on reformatting, reinstalling (again in 3 weeks ) and hopefully things improve. Placid, you use the VH6rev2 right? Is that a good board?

Still open to suggestions.

 

[FrankMasterFlash]

I think the Gigabyte GA-6OXET looks like a sweet board.Click here for the Specs. I think it supports the Tualatin, not sure though. Theres only 2 entries @ pricewatch.

 

[Placid]

I have a vh6t outhouse has a vh62.
I have no problems with mine. If you use a sb live card you need to set some dma and irq settings in the bios or it causes lockups but not a big deal.
I also have a ga-6oxet it has great onboard sound and runs well at 160fsb. It does have 1 bug when you restart it will hang if you have the cpu voltage set above spec and you have to turn it off to get a boot.
Its new so maybe it will be fixed in a future bios.
Also its a tualatin board so the max vcore is low 1.825
same with the vh6t.
The gigabyte board is a little faster than the abit in benchmarks.
Besides the pricewatch listing axiontech sell them.
The vh62 and vh6t are in the low 80's at compuplus.

 

[Pinky]

Placid (Jul 22, 2001 01:47 p.m.):
I have a vh6t
I have no problems with mine. If you use a sb live card you need to set some dma and irq settings in the bios or it causes lockups but not a big deal.
The vh62 and vh6t are in the low 80's at compuplus.

$250 (this was including tax, see below) for the VH6T and 40GB 7200 RPM IBM Deskstar drive priority overnight mail.

What really gets me is that a site out of state cost $10 more for the exact same items and shipping. I paid tax (live in NY) and saved $10 ??

I bookmarked that site!!

Thanks again Placid; of course now I need those IRQ settings you referred to .

 

[Placid]

Wow you didnt wait long to decide
You just disable dma channels 1 & 3 and reserve irq's 5 & 7 for pci in the bios.

 

[Pinky]

Placid (Jul 22, 2001 05:33 p.m.):
Wow you didnt wait long to decide
You just disable dma channels 1 & 3 and reserve irq's 5 & 7 for pci in the bios.

Thanks for all the advice, and no -- why wait? I don't see the sense, if I have the cash, why not just get the best I can afford now and save myself more headaches down the road?.. I was even considering getting a turtle beach sound card, but that really won't be necessary right now...

BTW -- it's been forever since I tinkered with IRQs and DMA settings, hope I still got it .

I can't wait to have 70GB of storage space and full images of my system... considering how much I tinker, I need the convenience of being able to just dump my image back on if I should mess something up or get corruption. I have a partial image now that I've already had to use, but I really do need more space to create a truly fail-safe system.

 

[Placid]

I ordered my vh6t from them on a thursday afternoon at 3pm and it was at my house on friday at 10am.
You should have it on tuesday.

 

[Pinky]

BTW -- the VH6T is by-far the best motherboard I have owned yet!

Thanks for the info!