What Board to buy??

[Xstatic]

Looking to buy a motherboard for a AMD XP 1800+ Not really decided if im going to OC it or not but it is for a cousin of mine. Im looking for something not so exspensive, Maybe around $50 or so. But i dont want to skip on quality. Doesnt need raid or serial.

 

[Teh]

Eh, 50$ is skimpish... You should atleast prepare to fork over about 100$ for a quality mobo. You may be able to find a refurbished Abit NF7 or NF7-S for 50-60$ on Newegg.com. I think you can buy retail Biostar KT400 boards for about the 50$ pricerange also on newegg. If you don't live in the US I think you could try pricewatch or zipzoomfly.

 

[Xstatic]

If overclocking was important then yes maybe. I dont need many of the features the nf7 has. I already own one myself. This new computer im building is for a cousin for christmas. He is not a big gamer and the games he will play arent very intense in graphics. No need for serial or raid or firewire or the extra usb ports. 400mhz fsb is not extremly important either. Just need something that will perform good at a lower price.

Music, homework, and a few games.
60$ is about high as they are wanting to go. Onboard sound would be nice if its good enough. Other wise for 25$ they can get a soundblaster live 5.1.

 

[Steve978]

You can get an epox EP-8RDA+ for around that if you look around, but if your looking for a solid cheap board I'd say go with MSI I've always liked them for budget projects, I think Shuttle has some nice deals on Nforce 2 Ultra's the AN35N-Ultra is only around $60 and has 400FSB incase he ever wants to upgrade.

 

[Bailey]

I think Shuttle has some nice deals on Nforce 2 Ultra's the AN35N-Ultra is only around $60 and has 400FSB incase he ever wants to upgrade

In that price range not much can touch the Shuttle. Not long on features (MCP south bridge), but it's good quality & a fine board for around $60. One nice touch is that it uses a 3 phase regualtor for vcore (nice for this price range).

 

[deadkenny]

A cheapo m/b to consider for 266MHz FSB is A7S333. If you want to OC, the MSI version of the SiS 745 chipset, 745 Ultra, is worth considering.