Recommend me a Socket 939 Mobo ...


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...that:

1) Supports Dual-Channel RAM

2) Is a Socket 939

3) Has an AGP 8x slot

4) Isn't majorly expensive

I was thinking of the new ASRock but it has received some less than stellar reviews from customers at Newegg.

I'm basically looking for something that won't break the bank, will work with an AMD Athlon64 3200+ (non-x2 version), and my BFG 6800GT (AGP). I don't totally care about the RAM, since I'll wind up upgrading anyway, although dual-channel would be a plus either way. :p

So AFTER all the upgrading, my sys specs would be:

- [insert mobo here]

- AMD Athlon 64 3200+

- BFG GeForce 6800GT

- Antec SmartPower 350W

- 512MB of generic RAM (alright, I'll upgrade it when I have the money)

I'm also not sure if my 80GB HD will work, not because of the size but because it's so old (I'm not sure if it's a SATA, IDE, or what) so I'm probably just going to buy a new, and bigger one.

Edited by SadJoker
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All the PSU calcs that I've used have my entire system running at under 275W at 100% load. My Antec also has dual 12v rails (not knowing a whole lot about PSUs, I'm not sure if that makes it better).

EDIT:

The DFI I'm looking at:

http://us.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_product_sp...ID=3160&SITE=NA

I didn't see any mobos on MSI's website that were Socket 939 and supported AGP, though I'm sure they make 'em.

Edited by SadJoker

Ok, two things. Not sure what you meant about the nForce comment. Why shouldn't I buy mobos with nForce? What are the alternatives? I'm not getting a mobo with an ATI chip in it, if that's what you meant. I'm a solid supporter of nVidia.

And, can you explain the VIA-based boards and how they compare to others?

I had an MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum, with my AMD 64 3500, BFG 6800. It worked good enough. I had a faulty board though as two ram slots didn't work, and whenever I went to change my HT in the bios, my computer froze up.

I just got the ASRock Dual-SATA2 motherboard. I've heard *good* reviews about it. From tech sites, not newegg customers that are probably 15 year old fan boys. With both PCI-E, and AGP plus an expansion later for M2 core chips, what's not to like? I'll tell you if I have any issues. I just finished putting it in.

All the PSU calcs that I've used have my entire system running at under 275W at 100% load. My Antec also has dual 12v rails (not knowing a whole lot about PSUs, I'm not sure if that makes it better).

EDIT:

The DFI I'm looking at:

http://us.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_product_sp...ID=3160&SITE=NA

I didn't see any mobos on MSI's website that were Socket 939 and supported AGP, though I'm sure they make 'em.

I wouldn't count on this holding you up.

+3.3V@22A, +5V@21A, +12V1@10A, +12V2@15A, -12V@0.3A, +5VSB@2A

But I guess if you don't have a lot of HDs/CD/DVD drives, it'll hold up. That 6800GT draws a lot of amps, but so will the 3200+. Are you overclocking?

I was told by many people that unless you were going PCI at the time to go with the VIA K8T800 Pro boards as they work better with AGP and Nvidia based boards work better with the PCI-e & SLI boards...I have dealt with both Nvidia and ATI graphics and most now are very comparable just depends on your preference of maker. VIA chipset is not an ATI chipset.

I was a huge Nforce chipset lover with the old Socket A boards, and was told at the time since I was sticking with AGP to go with the K8T800 from several people which suggested the Nforce for the socket A.

The chipset will not affect which video (nvidia or ati) you go with. I was just told that the K8T800 Pro worked better for the AGP slots....

Someone Correct me if I am wrong PLEASE...I am just passing on information that was given to me when I last upgraded....

Well, the ASRock was cheap and looked really good, so I guess I'll take a chance. I didin't know about supportr for the M2 core, thanks for letting me know. :)

Btw, I only have one HD and one CD drive. I overclocked my graphics card and am prolly going to want to OC my CPU, so I may just wind up returning the Antec and getting a 400-500watter.

Wth? There are three version of the 3200+ at Newegg:

1) A Venice core http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819103535

2) A Winchester core http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819103502

3) Another Venice, exactly like (1) except with a different picture and model # http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819103602

Which one should I get?

Ummm, so should I go with the 1st or 3rd?

Yeah, I guess I didn't really answer your question, sorry. I'm not going to pretend I know which stepping is the "ultimate" as far as Venice cores go, but the later stepping probably is more efficient. Whether it's worth the extra $17 (why does it cost $2 more to ship it, Newegg?) I'm not sure.

Yeah, I guess I didn't really answer your question, sorry. I'm not going to pretend I know which stepping is the "ultimate" as far as Venice cores go, but the later stepping probably is more efficient. Whether it's worth the extra $17 (why does it cost $2 more to ship it, Newegg?) I'm not sure.

I thought the E6s didn't o/c as well as the E4s? Or maybe they fixed that.

I would go with the DFI LANPARTY UT nF3 Ultra-D motherboard. I gotta assume that this is the best nForce3 motherboard you can buy, being from DFI and all, and better still is that DFI introduced this board just recently. That means it is using the newest revision of the nForce3 chipset, so any problems that first-gen or later revisions had (if any) are probably fixed in the DFI version.

As for the VIA versus NVIDIA agrument, I would go with NVIDIA everytime. The only reason I chose my A8V Deluxe is because at the time there were no passively-cooled nForce3-based motherboards available (still not sure if there are any today). I'm kinda a quiet computer guy, so I didn't want to take a chance on having my chipset fan being the loudest component in my case.

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