Need Help in Search

[ShoobieRat]

Alright...the hunt is on. I could use some help finding the right mobo, and posting on forums tends to be the best way. Here's what it needs to do:

Socket A
ATX
AMD Athalon XP 3200+ 400MHz FSB
1024MB DDR 3200 400MHZ Dual Channel RAM, (at least to 2gigs)
AGP 8x 3.0
NVIDIA-compatible chipset (such as nForce 2)
Support for 2 disc drives (Pioneer DVD & Lite-On CDRW), 2 HDDs (ATA, UltraDMA100), and floppy
Must support USB 2.0 and Firewire
LAN (preferably gigabit) or 100/1000Mbps
at-least 4 PCI slots
(On-board sound, graphics, PCI-Express, is only a plus)
I don't use RAID, so if a board has it, it is just a plus to me

Now, I'm tired...so if I missed something needed...enlighten me...

Right. Out.

 

[jolancer]

y soyo? when everyone with experience says the best and reliable bourds for AMD, are from ASUS.

and shoobierat.. did u already buy the xp 3200? if not, u may wont to look at getting a 64 3000 instead, cause i think there about the same price now, or cheeper.

 

[jolancer]

no, im not talking about opinion, i dont listen to those spammers.. i mean the ppl who have real experience, or actually know the manufactuing difference and reliability. thy all say, ASUS, MSI, AbIt .. are the better choice.

 

[U-Toast]

asus are in the top mobos for amds, i agree with that, which u want is up to you, there are some nice ones. take a look at www.pricewatch.com for good prices on the mobos

 

[ShoobieRat]

I was looking at a bunch of ASUS boards (on merchant sites and on their company website). Problem is, I was having a hard time finding boards that supported dual-channel RAM and could support all the stuff I got on my IDE. I currently run a Giga-byte board that supports 8 devices. All the ASUS boards I looked at support only 4. With 2 HDD, 2 disc drives, and a floppy, I think I've killed that. Plus, in the future, I plan on adding a third HDD, and possibly yet another perif., like maybe a backup tape drive or sometin'sumptin.

 

[ShoobieRat]

(Additional Notes)

I did a bunch of research on the new AMD 64's (that are in the price range I'm looking at) and I wasn't wholely impressed. First off, the best price-matching 64bit proc I could find was the 3200+, which didn't support dual-channel RAM (though I also noted that the 64bit procs don't show a loss with their single-channel RAM over the XP's with their dual-channel). Second, the boards that support 754 pin procs are few and far between, with limited features. (I found one board that only supported TWO IDE devices!)

I think the biggest factor for me was that hardly anything I run can take advantage of the 64bit abilities. So far, the only application I use that really wants 64bit functionality, is physics simulations, and the machine we calc that stuff on is an MPS, so we're dancing circles.

I think I'd rather save my money (and features) and just stick with a Athlon XP 3200+

That is...unless someone can give me a convincing argument otherwise.

 

[ThePCmaN]

Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe... nice mobo.. but of course, i am usin Gigabyte GA-7N400-L for my AMD Athlon XP 3000+.. but the Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe is always a good choice too

 

[ShoobieRat]

*bump*

No bumping of topics!

 

[ShoobieRat]

Alright...I won't bump anymore.