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Need a mainboard recommendation
mmurch01
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I currenly use an as-rock 939dual-sataII motherboard. If you are asking yourself, 'wtf is that?' you're not in the minority. This board I bought at the time because it has true agp and pci-e and I didn't want to buy a new video card at the time. It worked well for a while but I want something better.
I want the board to be compatible with my current hardware:
- 2 gigs dual channel pc3200 mem
- Nvidia 7800GT pci-e 16x (could go sli)
- sata and ide hdd's
- AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (939 pga)
- X-FI extreme gamer audio
- Windows Pissed-ah Home Prm
I don't want to spend much more than $100 on this board, although I doubt that's a problem. Any recommendations?
I appreciate all the help!!!
I want the board to be compatible with my current hardware:
- 2 gigs dual channel pc3200 mem
- Nvidia 7800GT pci-e 16x (could go sli)
- sata and ide hdd's
- AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (939 pga)
- X-FI extreme gamer audio
- Windows Pissed-ah Home Prm
I don't want to spend much more than $100 on this board, although I doubt that's a problem. Any recommendations?
I appreciate all the help!!!
mmurch01 on
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I suggest looking for a once-top-of-the-line used one, as they sometimes use efficient passive chipset cooling and might last longer. Plus, when it will become unsuitable for gaming, extra SATA ports can be useful for turning it into a home file server.
At night, the ice weasels come."
Can I use an AM2 motherboard with my 939 processor? (probably not)
Maybe it is more cost effective to get an AM2 mobo combo and some memory (maybe start with only a gig)?
AMD ATHLON 64 X2 3600+ (ADO3600DDBOX) ENERGY EFFICIENT RETAIL BOXED W/512KB X 2 CACHE 65NM 65W (BRISBANE)
FREE KINGSTON 128MB USB DRIVE
ASUS M2N-X
MWAVE 1GB DDR2 667
For $160...
Should I do this instead of just getting a new mobo?
No. If you're going to be upgrading your entire mobo/processor/memory, and you want to go with AMD (which I would, but I'm an AMD fanboi) you really should wait for Barcelona. It's AMD's response to Intel's Core 2 Duo (which is without a doubt the best x86 processor line on the market today), and it will likely ship third quarter 2007 (around July-August). No one really knows the real-world performance details about the new chip, but it some of the new tech-specs look pretty damn hot. Not the least of which is the fact that Barcelona will be the first quadcore chip that AMD ships.
I also don't know off the top of my head if Barcelona will be compatible with the current mobos on the market. If not, it doesn't make much sense to blow money on a mobo that will be outdated in two months if you are planning a full-on computron upgrade.
I also don't want to/can't spend a lot of money...so that complicates things...
That motherboard doesn't really look good.
If you add the cost of the second gig of RAM, I think for the same price you could get a decent (?) new s939 motherboard (or you might be able to snag a really nice used one) and a s939 X2 3800+ + cooler.
If you don't mind fiddling with the settings, I think you could overclock it to something like 2,4-2,6GHz, which isn't bad.
Although this way you won't be able to use the motherboard when the CPU becomes a bottleneck, you will still have a whole working system. While selling old parts is rarely profitable, a whole working system of this caliber could still be useful in the future eg.: for watching downloaded/streamed videos (only the legal kind, of course) on your TV, or even for encoding some media you want to rip to your future iPhone or whatever (might be slower than your main rig, but can do it 24/7 while you're free to game).
At night, the ice weasels come."
If so, this may be the board for me...!
Why do you say that?
PC3200 = DDR400
As for their "supported memory" list - I think that's just the brands they have tested.
I'm guessing that, if your memory works with a "cheapo" motherboard it will also work in the - most likely - better supported mobo.
I also don't recall ever reading about problems with DDR compatibility in s939 systems...
At night, the ice weasels come."
I also use a 939 ASROCK but it's slightly newer than yours.
I also have nothing but good things to say about MSI products, although ALL of the cords I got with my last MSI board were complete garbage and had to be replaced, the board has been strong.
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
It's a good board, you might be able to find it cheaper at an online retailer, of course if you sink money in this board right now you might not appreciate having to upgrade IT with everything else you have (minus video card) later when you want a new processor and ram.
It has served me well. The only problem is that it has not survived a VISTA upgrade. There is no driver support for vista from asrock with my mainboard. I emailed their support people to see if there is anything they can do but not surprisingly I haven't heard back (over a week since I contacted them).