Looking for best Socket A mobo at the moment

[CCW]

Hi,
I've been looking to upgrade motherboard and memory. I know I want a board running off the KT400, something with USB 2.0 and Serial ATA, I dont care about on-board RAID but if I get it then I get it. WHich are the better makes Epox or ABit? Im also planning to get 256MB DDR 3200 of Kingston RAM as well with it (£69 from www.overclock.co.uk).
I have up to about £150 to spend.
Thanks, any help is greatly appreciated.
Craig

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I have everyhting else i need:
Chieftec Full Tower Dragon Case + PSU
Athlon XP 2000+ and A thermal Take Volcano 9
GeForce 4 MX 440 (crap I know but it currently does all my games)
LG 16x DVD-ROM
LG 48x 16x 48x CD-RW
Adaptec 1200A RAID Card and 2 x Maxtor 40GBs

[Dissolved]

id say Nf2 chipset, either abit or epox.

[CCW]

Hi,
Not really interested in the NF2 chipset boards. Also, I need something with 5 or 6 PCI slots, which I forgot to mention, AGP and at least 3 DDR 400 RAM slots. My case never stays on for long!
Thanks very much for your idea
Craig

[Dissolved]

Kt400 boards are worthless.. i mean there buggy, they run hot, SB problems.. i just wouldnt waste my time with one. id say kt333 for a nf2.. i mean why do you HAVE to have a kt400?

[CCW]

Hi,
I wanted a KT400 board so I could get full memory bandwidth off the 3200 RAM. Admittedly my processor can only do 2100 of memory bandwidth but I wana board that'll last, but would I be betetr off getting a board that'll take a 333MHz FSB processor and DDR333 then?
Thanks
Craig

[Dissolved]

i dont mean to kill your thread or anything, but there isnt much if brealy any benching differences between a good kt333 mobo and a kt400.

What exactly is your goal to buying this new setup?

[Firelord-OCHW]

I'd have to agree with the others an nForce 2 board will provide a better long term investment for greater perrformance. The KT400 has been a bit of a flop for old VIA

[CCW]

Hi,
Right, so nForce is gonna be better. I just wana sum something up about Epox boards...I have seen two epox boards the 8K5A2+ and the *K9A2+, they are KT333 and KT400 boards respectively. If I went for one of these boards, I shouldnt get the 8K9A2+ because the Kt400 is basically a flop so I should go for the other one.
However, the nForce solutions are better so what Im wondering is what manufacturers make them please? Im looknig round the net now.

Thanks,
Craig

[CCW]

Hi,
Do any of the nForce boards have on-board SATA?

Thanks,
Craig

[Dissolved]

Originally posted by CCW
Hi,
Do any of the nForce boards have on-board SATA?

Thanks,
Craig


The only good nforce boards out right now are made by Abit, and Epox.

[CCW]

Hmmm,
Right going for nForce board and 256 PC3500 RAM
I like the layout of the Asus nForce board and it has some good features which the Epox EP-8RDA+ doesnt have, the specs:
I want a future proofed board the asus has agp 8x, serial ata, the dual lan interested me, the layout, the epox board has agp 8x, no sata and only single lan but is the epox the bigger performer?

oh, and i got an Adaptec 29160 SCSI Card today and I have an IBM HDD on order (U160, 4.5ms seek time, 10,000RPM, 4mb cache)

Craig

[CCW]

Also, a stupid question, can a AGP 4x card go in a 8x slot? i presume yes but a pic i saw it looked slightly different

[Firelord-OCHW]

Originally posted by CCW
Also, a stupid question, can a AGP 4x card go in a 8x slot? i presume yes but a pic i saw it looked slightly different

Yes BUT you have to disable 8x AGP support in the BIOS :)

Nice choice btw ;)

[CCW]

Thanks,
As soon as overclock.co.uk are back open its the asus board and 256ddr 3500 cl2.5

Hehe, my new spec (hell, a good spec for a 15 year old! all my kits been bought by me from my saturday job at a computer shop)

Athlon XP 2000+
Air-cooled by a ThermalTake Volcano 9 up to 2600+
Chieftec Full Tower Dragon Case
Asus A7N8X nForce 2 Mobo
256MB PC3500 RAM
GeForce 4 MX 440 (270/400) soon to be overclocked hopefully to (297/440 10%)
IBM 18GB U160, 10K, 4.0ms seek time hdd
2 x Maxtor ATA 100 40GB drives (RAID 0)
Adaptec 29160 SCSI Card
Adaptec 1200A RAID Card
LG 16x DVD-ROM
LG 48x 16x 48x CD-RW (2MB Cache)

Hell, im pleased, only poor component as far as im concered is graphics card!

Thanks for all your help,
Craig