Recommend a board...

[NxB]

I want to upgrade from my socket 939 athlon so that I can take advantage of sata 3.0 and cheap ddr2 ram. I need a board with 2 ide connectors, at least 4 memory slots and at least 4 sata ports. Firewire onboard would be nice. So would more than 2 pci slots. Socket am2 or am2+. What do you guys recommend? I don't want to pay more than $100 for the board.

[gg1978]

Re: Recommend a board...

What type of AM2 CPU do you intend on getting? I think you're wanting a Socket AM2 Nforce motherboard.. Or maybe an AM2 6100 or 6150 might be what you're looking for.. Anything after that will probably only have one IDE channel on it.. And that class of board will probably only take the dualcore variety of AMD chip, and older ones at that.. No 45nm goodness for you, and probably no support of 65nm Phenoms..


I'll keep an eye out though..

[gg1978]

Re: Recommend a board...

Here's one that might work for ya, it's a refurb though..

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?inv...I-S4-R&cat=MBB

Has everything you want, except it has 2 PCI slots..


I'd about recommend just picking up a 780G or 790 series board, and just buy an add-on ATA card to get another IDE channel.. That way you could get a Phenom II class chip, and get all the other goodies you want too.. More than 2 PCI slots is getting to be quite uncommon nowadays..

[NxB]

Re: Recommend a board...

I have an add in card but I need to run LOTS of drives. I've got at least 6 now and I want to buy another. Nforce chipsets tend to burn out from my experiences at home and work. Refurb doesn't matter, I'd even recap it if need be. Definitely want 2 cores+ since that is what I have now. Maybe should go with AM2+. The gigabyte is almost what I want, I don't need SLI. I only play a few games, mostly I do video editing and stuff like that. It has more PCIe slots so I can get more sata controllers and probably parallel.

[gg1978]

Re: Recommend a board...

How about this then??

AMD/ATI chipset, 5 SATA, 3 PCI, 4 DIMM slots. Lacks firewire though..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131381

I've got one, and it's a nice board..

I believe you can get an external SATA expander, and put the ESATA port to good use..

[gg1978]

Re: Recommend a board...

Here's another goodie, if you're looking for DDR3 support instead of DDR2..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128392

Slot configuration sucks a bit compared to the Asus, if you're going for PCI slots anyway..

[pfrcom]

Re: Recommend a board...

Both of those say one PATA connector

NxB wants 2 IDE (so do I)

[NxB]

Re: Recommend a board...

I have a ata100 card and a firewire card but they are PCI. I kinda wanted firewire so its either more PCI slots or onboard stuff. I might compromise and settle. I can't hook up all of my sata drives at once or use 3.0GB/s.

[gg1978]

Re: Recommend a board...

Well, unfortunatly, any chipset newer than the Nforce 4 or Geforce 6100/6150 integrated chipset will only have one ATA channel, either due to only have one integrated into the southbridge, or it is implemented via a PCIe x1 chip on the motherboard, as any Intel southbridges newer than ICH6 only has one or no ATA channel integrated in the case of ICH8 and up..


So if you want 45nm AMD or INtel chips, in Dual, Triple, or QUad cores, you have to either ditch some of your old hard drives/optical drives, or get an Add-on card for them.. Even in the 65nm period, both AMD and Intel were starting to eliminate PATA from the board. When SATA came out in 2003, i saw the writing on the wall for PATA..



NxB, how many drives of each type do you have??

[sofTest]

Re: Recommend a board...

A SATA to PATA converter/adapter costs around $5, and works reasonably well, in my experience. Many boards now got 6 SATA connectors, and adding another SATA controller is more future proof than PATA. The cabling gets easier also, even though the converter/adapter needs power.

[bgavin]

Re: Recommend a board...

PATA/IDE drives are becoming more scarce all the time.

Q: is there a reliable adapter to use SATA drives on older PATA desktop boards?

[gg1978]

Re: Recommend a board...

http://www.cooldrives.com/satoidecofor.html


Here ya go... Don't know how reliable this particular vendor is.. For my money, i'd just pick up a PCI SATA controller card at Newegg.. But i understand the situations where that wouldn't work.

[bgavin]

Re: Recommend a board...

How slick.
This is a very limited market, but an interesting idea. I hope he succeeds.

[NxB]

Re: Recommend a board...

There are sata 1.5 and 3.0 cards but they are too expensive. At least the 3.0 cards... I have 3 parallel drives and 4 Sata. I'm looking to buy a terabyte drive when I upgrade too.

[NxB]

Re: Recommend a board...

I've been looking all day and I'm still stuck. Seems like nothing comes with enough onboard stuff. I like the Athlon X2 7750 black, it seems like the cheapest way to go at only $60.

[acstech]

Re: Recommend a board...

I don't think you'll find a board with everything you're looking for.

You might take a look at this $90 Biostar. Ignore the 1 review; it's obvious it was written by someone paid by Asus.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138147

It's got 1x PATA, 3x PCI, no firewire (what does?), 4 memory slots, and 6 SATA ports. No onboard video, but I don't see that mentioned.

[NxB]

Re: Recommend a board...

I was looking at the same board except with on board video. I was going to chose between

The Biostar

and

Assus


I have to buy new ram and the CPU. A 4GB dual channel is $45 and the Athlon would be $60. I guess I could get a video card for $50 that trumps the HD 3200. It depends on how much cheaper I could get the headless biostar for.

[acstech]

Re: Recommend a board...

Well, the Biostar you linked has a newer / better / faster chipset than the Assus. Plus it's an SB750 board so you have the chance to unlock a Phenom II dual or triple core to quad core. To me, the choice would be obvious.

[NxB]

Re: Recommend a board...

Yep, too much staying up. I'm probably gonna stick with the X2 so far because its cheap. But AM3 leaves future upgrades. Like 1/2 the price of the phenoms. I'm just wondering if I should buy it or I should wait a month for prices to go down.

I could probably sell my current system and get 1/2 of it back.

[acstech]

Re: Recommend a board...

So you'd buy the motherboard, an Athlon X2 for it, etc, now, and get the Phenom later? Seems you'd be money ahead in the long run to just get the Phenom now. That way you won't have a processor sitting around after you buy the Phenom. Plus, you don't know how much longer AMD will make unlockable Phenom dual and triple cores.

I would get the motherboard, Phenom 2 dual core processor, and ram now. Use the integrated graphics for now. Then later you can add a video card. That way you're not paying for two of the same part (two CPU's.)