Alright, I for some time now have been looking around for a decent mobo and processor, which many have caught my eye, however I bring to you this topic as well. What would be the best motherboard, and processor in your views, no overclocking right now, so do keep that in mind, quality is good.
I've always liked Abit, but that's just a personal preference. As for processor, don't waste your money on an XP2100 when the new core is coming along shortly, if you need a chip now go for something like that XP1800. If you have money to burn, the P4 2.4ghz is the chip to go for.
well, i really need your budget but heres my views: you should really wait for the new AMD's but heres my views for present hardware: Motherboard: Abit KX7-333 RAID Socket A motherboard Processor: AMD Athlon XP2100+ or, if you want something a little less: Motherboard: Abit KR7A-133 Socket A motherboard Processor: AMD Athlon XP2000+ so, i basically recomend AMD and abit, heh. hope this helps... .icecube
lol, posted at basically the same time. and great minds think alike :dude: yea, if he "has" got money to burn, then the P4, and for the AMD's, he might as well get the latest. mighten he ? .icecube
the new chips should be out very soon and then you can either get the new amd chip or the xp chips will drop in price due to people going for thr new chip. Wait for a month or two and you will save a lot of money.
Haven't really looked at the Abit, however I have had my eye on this Gigabyte and really, for the processor, I am not totally sure, do they have a final release date on what I presume you are talking about is the hammer? If so, drool, I might save up for that.
don't get a gigabyte mobo get an abit or msi. MSI boards are very stable and i am not talking about the clawhammer or opteron as they are now called i am talking about the throughbred.
I've said it before and I'm sure I will again, Motherboard Preference is highly subjective! most people will give you a different view as to what is a great motherboard however only you can decide exactly what you want on it and what it's for. Nevertheless, boards from manufacturers such as Abit, Asus, Soltek, Iwill, Epox and Soyo all have great reputations and should be closely looked at in your hunt. I personally favour Soyo, but like I said, that is just my opinion. The budget area is again another issus, with the ECS K7S5A being a great AMD option here (but no overclocking). As for CPU, it is again a difficult choice and you have to decide exactly what you are going to be using the machine for! However, many people on these boards tend to favour AMD chips and I'm sure that an XP2100 or similar would suffice for most needs! Sorry that's a bit long!
Whats wrong with Gigabyte?? I just purchased a GP 7VRXP from Dabs (should be here on monday!) It was the best performer in the THG KT333 chipset roundup....a decent overclocker and has decent onboard RAID, sound, USB2 and NIC. Bargain @ £92
yea, everyone has there preferences... i prefer abit as i think there the best boards out there. although ive heard Soyo Dragons are slightly better, ive never used one. Jamie, how are the Soyo Dragons compared to the latest abit boards ? thanks, .icecube
IMO there is probably little between them, just personal preference. Having said that though, the Soyos do have a reputation for being pretty fast at the moment, they're certainly feature packed and you've got to dig those colours!
id say go for the new MSI, i did and it is great, kt333, promise RAID, USB 2.0 and overall it's red!!
Gigabyte are one of the greatest names in motherboards, and offer extremely solid products at very good prices. Traditionally they have not offered overclocking features, although that is much less the case these days. Abit are great boards also, more overclocking and performance oriented than gigabyte. Epox, Soyo, Iwill and MSI have only come on the scene very recently as widespread retail motherboard manufacturers, and do not have the experience of Gigabyte, Asus or Abit. Looking at the market now, and drawing from my own knowledge of CPU design and performance, there are two sensible choices right now. The first is to wait a couple of weeks, and get an AMD Thoroughbred AthlonXP and put it into a solid KT333 platform, such as the Abit AT7, Abit KX7-333 or Gigabyte GA-7VRXP. The other choice, which will cost you a lot more money and offer negligable performance increase, although likely to be somewhat more stable, is to get one of the new 533MHz FSB Pentium 4s, and a high-quality i845E motherboard, such as the Abit IT7, Abit BD7-II or Gigabyte GA-8IEXP.
I just got me a new MSI board. Its a beuty. K72-Turbo Limited Edition, red color pcb. Damn thats a nice board. Onboard sound, 1agp 5pci, not bad for $60 got me a 1.4 tbird to put in it
Nothing as such, but I do NOT like asus motherboards personally. My brother's A7V was an absolute nightmare, especially when compared to my KT7A, which is the same as the KT7 (except for the northbridge) which was the abit competitor to the A7V, and was a far superior board. Eventually the A7V just died, and it's now been replaced with an ECS K7S5A, which is a much better board.
yeah but this is where personal experience might mislead judgement... i had a bad experience with a KT7Raid and thus im currently running an Asus board...might go back to Abit though...or even gigabyte who are all three old players in the game... only thing gigabyte really buggered up was the dual bios...apart from that their cool....
This is true...none of them are perfect.... But ask someone who's been in PC hardware a long time for consumer boards, and the three names that come up are always Gigabyte, Abit and Asus. Of course, server/workstation boards are a different kettle of fish, and have always been dominated by Intel, Supermicro and Tyan.
