Which K8 motherboard?

I think I need to retire my old K7 and upgrade to a K8. The problem is choosing a motherboard.

I want a Socket 939 MB, I want PCI express graphics, I need a couple SATA ports and a couple IDE ports, but not a whole lot. If at all possible, I'd prefer to avoid RAID so that the post is faster. I want SPDIF audio out, I plan to hook the PC up to my home theater amp.

With the PCI graphics, I would need a new graphics card. I don't play a lot of 3D games, I'm considering a 6600 card. Would such a card be able to play Doom3 and probbably even Quake 4 when it is released? It'd be nice to give HL2 and Farcry a try. Gaming perfomance is not a huge issue, so long as I can get a smooth framerate at a decent resolution.

I will most likely buy from newegg.com, tigerdirect is also an option.

Any recomendations? What brands should I look for or avoid? I've seen some likely candidates from Foxconn, Chaintech, and Soltek, though I have no idea how reliable those boards are.

TIA, L J

 

The Asus A8N-E is a board that seems to suit your specification, and I've found Asus boards to be of excellent quality.

 

Hmm, I would say that ASUS MB looks great. Any thoughts about a GPU?

L J

 

The 6600 is a good card, but I think it's starting to show its age now and I doubt you'd get any good performance out of it with regards to Quake 4. It would be best go for a 6800 vanilla (or an LE if you fancy unlocking it).

 

The Chaintech VFN4-Ultra is a good deal (probably what you were looking at). One is powering the box I'm using right now. Costs about $80-85. Fairly no-frills nForce4 Ultra board - the standard 4 SATA, 2 2-channel PATA (IDE). If you use the audio drivers from the CD/website (rather than the standard nVidia ones), the blue Line-in port converts to optical out, which requires one of those mini-plug converter things. Works fine for standard audio (2ch output) and DVDs (DD 5.1), though not the best quality (like any onboard audio) - it seems to occasionally produce little pops. Overall I'm quite happy with it though, inexpensive and effective, and room for a nonstandard chipset cooler if the fan bugs you (and if you're looking into it for HTPC uses, it probably will like any other 40mm fan)

If you need a cheap standaline optical output card, the AV-710 is a good bet (I also use one, though not in this comp). TBH I'm looking to upgrade to the X-mystique thing or whatever as it has optical and coax digital output and does dobly digital live encoding (so ALL digital audio is DD5.1, not just DVDs), but the AV-710 works fine if I switch over to analog speaker mode for games (like the mobo, it's either DD5.1 or 2ch, and no games I've tried seem to "do the dolby thing")

6600gt seems to be fine in most current games. I could even run the fear demo (with 512mb ram mind you!) with it at 1024x768 and medium-ish details. Doom3 and HL2 are fine on it as well, and as Q4 is based off of the Doom3 engine, i'd expect performance to be similar (wait till tomorrow to find out as I'm sure you can find performance results after it's been released)

 

Nothing to add just I agree.

 

Wrong for once, we're talking PCI-express here. Only the AGP one could be unlocked

 

If you're not ready or can't afford to upgrade your VGA card yet and you still have an AGP one, consider the Asrock 939Dual SATA2 It has both AGP and PCIe slots, SATA2 and is upgradable to socket 940.

 

Napalm- I think going with a lower quality board just to keep a already very low end graphics card would not be a good idea. I don't believe ASRock is a quality company, and I believe there would be compromises, or at least a wasted slot with both AGP and PCIe. I'm also not sure I would want to go with an ULi chipset. . .

Also, are you sure about that board being upgradeable to Socket 940? I thought 939 was an improvement over 940 because it does not require expensive registered RAM.

If Quake 4 is based off of the Doom3 engine, does it have similar specs or is it a modified/improved version of the engine requiring better specs?

So for the video card, after evaluating prices I'm considering one of these. Unless of course their is a cheaper alternative from ATI, I don't know which company has the best performance for $$.

The ASUS MB- I'm really starting to get skeptical about ASUS. I've always heard they are a reliable brand, but is the motheroboard marked well? Is the stability greater in compaerison to other boards enough to justify the premium?

L J

 

AMD's new M2 socket will be 940 pin, which is why the ASRock is upgradalbe, though it will not be compliant with the Opteron 940.

Anyways, I would recommend an MSI motherboard, i've always been very pleased with them. They are very stable, and can usually overclock pretty well. Here is an article that pits the MSI agains some tough competetors. If I remember correctly the MSI is the fastest stock and has a 24 bit creative integrated sound card.

If you want this to last you a while I think i would opt for a 6800gt or maybe 2 6600gt. Although my single 6600gt runs Doom3 w/out a hitch, it struggles with the new F.E.A.R game.

hope that helped

 

I had no idea there were plans for an M2 socket. . . Does this mean 939 is about to move out? If so, then what should I do to upgrade the XP 1800+? Would a 754 solution be better, should I wait or what?

L J

 

I'd just go for a 939 system. You can play the waiting game forever with computers, and you might as well take the plunge and go for the socket, even if it is due to be replaced. It lived a lot longer than 754 - if you want to upgrade in the next few years, AMD will still be making 939 chips for a while, and there's loads of surplus stock as well as people who want to sell their old CPUs.

While AMD's new socket has 940 pins, it's not in any way compatible with the existing socket 940, so buying a 940 motherboard now makes no sense at all - even if you want an Opteron - because even they are on 939.

 

I guess I would have to agree that is smarter to upgrade now then wait.

More on the graphics card- I'm beginning to think a 6600 would be a bad buy. However, there is one important factor limiting that decision- the budget of about $400 USD.

The cheapest Socket 939 CPU is a 3000+ Venice at $146. Add a MB and GPU that cost about $100 each, then a $55 Antec power-supply (old is a 300w with only a 20-pin connector and failing fan). With all that I have barely exceeded the $400 budget. . .

My budget lacks room for a $170+ 6800 vanilla, and deffinately can not fit a 6800GT at $250+.

The budget might have room for a $130 6600GT (or even a 6800 vanilla) if I can find a MB that does not have the price premium associated with ASUS MBs. I understand they are the "most stable" but my Gigabyte boards have not had any instabilaties, I used to own a FIC- it too was always stable. I love the GB because all of it's features, it is very well marked (unlike ASUS. . .), and it is priced reasonably. I simply cant justify paying the extra $$$ for a "more stable" ASUS when other brands are equally stable. . .

L J

 

the only game that my 6600gt couldnt run w/ almost everything on high is F.E.A.R. While i prefer MSI, i've always heard good things about gigabyte, and they seem to perform pretty well.

 

If we are talking board ASUS and Gigabyte tend to be the most stable at the best of times.
Graphics wise, BFG/XFX/Gainward tbh

 

Have a look around for some reviews of the Asrock Dual. You'll be a little surprised i think.
The chipsets a little gem, the dual AGP/PCI-e is a great idea, AND you can run both at the same time for 4 monitor support.
The bios options are useless, however if you want to overclock I'm sure some hacked will be released (if they're not already)
I know people using this board, and for the price it seems a solid performer. Check out reviews of it too, its up there with the DFI NF4 in some tests.

Just 'cause its Asrock and its ULI don't count it out
It's an ideal upgrade/stop gap board imo, gets you onto 939 with a reasonably featured mobo, AGP AND PCI-e support, and with a little add in card you have M2 support as well.
Provdies a nice upgrade path from AXP/AGP all the way to PCI-e and M2 step by step...

 

I had no idea that board was so capable! Impressive.

 

I have a question about the front panel audio connectors, I looked through the manuals for the Asus A8N-E and Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra 9 and both front panel audio connectors have jumpers on them in what looks to be an AC 97 pin layout.

If these boards are like my current board, then I would have to physicaly move the front panel audio and replace/remove those jumpers to choose betweent eh front or rear audio connections. Is that how these will work?

L J

 

On pretty much all motherboards and cases, there should be a capability for a return channel, which means the audio goes into the front and back to the jumpers. Your case (and the motherboard) should have say "L CHANNEL" and "L CHANNEL RET" or similar. Every one that I've used has had the capability to output both front and rear simultaneously.

Edit: Viewing the A8N-E manual now; it's as I thought. The normal configuration is with BLINE_OUT_L jumpered to Line_out_L and the same for BLINE_OUT_R and Line_out_R. Shorting these two pairs of pins with the jumpers (this is how it is by default) allows audio to reach the rear. Therefore, if you connect your front case Audio L to the Line_out_L and Audio L Return to BLINE_OUT_L (or vice versa, depending on the functions of the pins), you will get both front and rear audio. If you don't connect the return, you will just get front audio. Hope this helps

Edit2: 666th post!

 

My case is a Coolermast Centurion 5, it has 3 connectors (while two and a bunch of pins), one for HD audio, one for AC 97, and a bunch of pins for AZAELA. When I pulled the jumpers off of my current board and plugged in the AC 97 front connector, I think I got no audio. . . I will have to test that again.

With that said, I think I will go with a Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9, it has all the features I want and some extra, it will be well marked, the PCB has a nice color ( I know that is so important in choosing a MB) and it is $2 less than the A8N-E with slightly less features. Still $10 more than I would really like to pay, but I see no boards that would fit what I want/need for $10 less. . . There are some that claim to fit what my needs for a lot less, but I'm not sure I really want to risk putting a Foxconn or other cheap board in my PC.

There will be an XP 3000+ ($146), Thermaltake PSU ($42.99) and an AOpen GT6600 ($139). The $400 budget (excluding shipping) has been exceeded by $35.99, but I'm sure worse things can and will happen later on in life.

Thanks for everyones adive!

L J