Please help me choose A64 motherboard...

[koSmiQ]

Hi!

I am new here at the forum, but have some experience with overclocking and stuff. But as I am going to buy a A64 I need to know wich motherboard to choose.
And thought that you can help me.. :)

But lets get to the thing.. I have looked on both Shuttle AN50R and the ASUS K8V Deluxe, but I cant decide wich one to choose.

Of course I wants it to overclock good, but also I want as much as possible of extra stuff.
And also the SATA MUST work good. I heard something about that it bails out at higher speeds than 220FSB, is that correct?

Well, hope you can help me... And Thanks in advance.

Current Rig:
PSU: Antec TruePower 430w
M/B: Abit NF7-S rev 2.0
CPU: Amd Athlon XP 1700+ @ 2.4Ghz (watercooled and at 1.75vcore)
Mem: 512mb A-DATA w/ Winbond BH5
HDD: 2x160gb Seagate SATA, 1x30gb IDE.
Gfx: ATi Radeon 9700np (built by ATi)

all the other usual stuff....

[Maxvla]

my AN50R's sata works at 237fsb :)

however that is not typical results.

both are good boards just depends on your goals. if sata is of utmost importance i'd wait on the NF3250 if you have your sights set on very high overclocks as your pci will be so far out of spec sata won't even begin to work. not sure how mine is running at 40mhz pci. :eek:

[koSmiQ]

Hmmm... ok...
Maybe I really do should wait.. But when is the NF3250 to come? I cant wait too long, wants a A64 right now... :slobber:

But will it have stuff like PCI-lock and so? I do really hope so, because I do love my nForce 2 chipset.
And do you know if the nForce3 250 will have SoundStorm, like the nForce2???

Thanks for the fast reply btw... ;)

[isp]

They were originally slated for the fall of 03...
I'd wait a few weeks, I think they will come out in the not so distant future....

[1st.Proplayer]

I have a Asus Kt800 it rocks!!

you can get the gygabite also! but the gygabyte better for Phase change cooling

[doctorcod]

Originally posted by isp
They were originally slated for the fall of 04 I believe but it seems as if they will be coming sooner...

I'd wait a few weeks, I think they will come out in the not so distant future....
originally fall 03

[Speed_Mechanic]

It is not an extreme overclocking motherboard, but that's not necessarally a bad thing (even on these boards :)). But the ECS-755 A2 (and not the ECS 755 A) is looking like a very good buy, despite it's maker's (and chipset's) name.

It's not an extreme overclocking board because it does not allow any voltage adjustment, with the lone exception of limited vDIMM adjustment. There is no vCore or HT voltage options. The vDIMM allows for 2.5V to 2.65V (increments of .05V).

While these voltage options may appear limited, to one planning on using only air-cooling, or basic water-cooling, then these arn't necessarally needed. To those planning on any method of extreme cooling, then this is not the board to get (except to play with).

Let us not forget what (most likely) is the biggest fault of this board, however. It's FSB options are limited to 232MHz. Meaning with an A64 3000+ or 3200+, the highest overclock would be 2.32GHz. But how much would this affect one if the average overclock for a 3000+ or 3200+ with basic air-cooling seems to be around 220-240MHz?

A vDIMM max of 2.65V may not seem like much, but, depending on how accurate bios settings are (someone with the board could tell us if it overvolts/undervolts?) and the A64's liking of good BH-5 memory, this shouldn't be too much of an issue.

If you arn't planning on more then ~2.3GHz out of an Athlon64, or ~2.5GHz out of a Athlon64 3400+, then this is an ideal board. If you are hoping/planning for a higher overclock then this isn't.

This is not a posting to reflect Anandtech's recent review of this board. Just a posting reflecting OCWorkbench's and Anandtech's liking of the SiS755 chipset ;)

The motherboard has a nice suite of features, including 2 SATA ports with SATA RAID 0 or 1 and 8X USB 2.0 ports.

Maybe a bios-hack could enable more settings? But not something that should be relied upon during purchase.

[isp]

Originally posted by gooch02000
originally fall 03

didn't catch that typo, i'll edit it now :)

[koSmiQ]

Hmm... Ok, thanks for the replies. But I think I will wait and see for a while...

Or I'll sell all my stuff and buy the ASUS K8V Dlx... ;)

[Awperator]

What board would you guys recommend for the 3200+/3400+ that is the most stable, w/ the most features that is NOT for overclocking?

Oh yeah I have a friend with wholesale access that is going to check up on prices for some chips for me. How much do you think that I can get for the 3200+/3400+, under wholesale prices? (I'm asking this because if it's not that much compared to say newegg, then I'll just order it from newegg because I want something to put together over the week).

Thanks

- Awperator

[ps24eva]

people always say how the SiS ECS board is limited overclocking wise BUT ANANDTECH GOT THEIR HIGHEST OVERCLOCK ON THEIR TESTING CPU USING THE ECS BOARD!!!!

[Awperator]

SIS ECS board? ECS? I've had one ECS board. No more. I dont think they are that good qualitywise.

[`schr0et]

Originally posted by ps24eva
people always say how the SiS ECS board is limited overclocking wise BUT ANANDTECH GOT THEIR HIGHEST OVERCLOCK ON THEIR TESTING CPU USING THE ECS BOARD!!!!

Hey you see that bright green light on the top right of your keyboard that says "Caps Lock"?. Ya go ahead and turn that off.

But on the other hand I think the SiS 755 chip has a lot of potential, its just that very few m/b manufacturer's are taking the chance in making them. ECS is eh... I researched that board some time ago, wasn't for me. I need the voltage adjustments, and the 3x dimm slots and what not. ECS board = half assed board atm. SiS 755 = has very good potential.

[Speed_Mechanic]

Originally posted by PRanganathan
Hey you see that bright green light on the top right of your keyboard that says "Caps Lock"?. Ya go ahead and turn that off.

But on the other hand I think the SiS 755 chip has a lot of potential, its just that very few m/b manufacturer's are taking the chance in making them. ECS is eh... I researched that board some time ago, wasn't for me. I need the voltage adjustments, and the 3x dimm slots and what not. ECS board = half assed board atm. SiS 755 = has very good potential.

Voltage adjustments come from vDIMM/vCore mods. Higher FSB and DRAM timings comes from newer BIOS. Combine them together and it will make it quite the little board to use. 3x DIMM slots is a waste, as the A64 would bench best with 1x DIMM, work best with 2x DIMM, and would degrade RAM if 3x DIMM's were full.

[`schr0et]

Yes very well aware of that vmods can be done to the board, but the board itself is just so half-assed. I don't consider it worth buying in my case, which is what I stated.

About the 3x dimms, that was just a personal thing for me. Although I don't use 3x dimms, I find that 3x dimms are better than 2 simply because of some m/b's not accepting dual dims in some slots. So having 3xdimms would be assurance that there would be other placements to make sure ram would work.

I currently have the Asus K8V dlx, and so far I just love it. The layout is perfect for me, along with the features. The 2,8 vdimm is low, but I'll be volt modding it very soon.