Hello all. I’ve seen a few tech questions here before, so I don’t believe that it is entirely inappropriate to ask this here. There may be more appropriate places, but I kind of like, trust and relate to the TM here more than anywhere else. If it is wrong for me to post this here, please accept my most humble, naïve apologies.
Anyway, I am building a system while salvaging a few parts from my old system (HD, CD/RW, monitor, etc.). I’ve done a good deal of reading on the net (motherboard.org, about.com, etc.) but have not come to any clear decision as to which motherboard to get. I am leaning towards the Abit BE6 - II, somewhat because I like the jumperless design, but mainly because someone from our IT department just picked one up for himself. But do I need to go that high end? Many of the BE6’s reviews say how good it is for overclocking, something I am not necessarily interested in doing. I’m going to drop in a P3 450 or 500 in it, a good handful of RAM, play a few games, work with a smallish database, a lot of word-processing and of course, the net. Though I am not really working with anything high-end (though who can tell what tomorrow will bring) I’d like to get something advanced enough to last a few years.
Any suggestions? Should I just go with the best priced, major brand board (that will work with the P3) I can get? Should I just make sure that it has a recent chipset and be done with it? Or is there a board that you’d like to recommend? Know of a source of recommendations? Thanks in advance.
Once in a while you can get shown the light
in the strangest of places
if you look at it right…
I’m using a Tekram board now. It was moderately priced and is reliable but doesn’t lend itself to overclocking, fixed multiplier. For hardware advice I go to http://www.tomshardware.com/
I haven’t put together a complete system in ages, so for me to give recommendations would be bad.
That said, one of the best resources I have found for hardware reviews and comparisons is at http://www.anandtech.com
They don’t list the Abit BE6 - II but list the Abit BE6 i440BX… They grade them like school grades and gave this one a B (check it out it’s a great resource.)
For what it’s worth, my old Abit motherboard (PX5 TX) survived my power supply failing. It fried up the RAM and processor but have not had a problem since then.
Hope this resource helps you make the right decision.
Check www.hardwarecentral.com They have great reviews and links to other reviews. They also have a similar message board in the Discussion section and you could post this question to people who are obsessed with this type of stuff. I would recommend the BE6-II to you though.
All the posts are right on the money. For what it’s worth, I used to build custom systems for home users, and I’ve used a lot of different boards. My advice would be to stick with a name brand, and make sure the board comes with thorough documentation and/or good online help.
I’ve used Asus boards with good success. Amptron also makes good ones, and they come with some of the best printed documentation I’ve seen. Right now, I’m using a Gigabyte GA-5AA Super Socket 7 board with an AMD K6III-400, and it do rock, but the board came with a fat manual that told me almost nothing.
Good luck!
I don’t know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free…
I have an IWill BD-100+, An Intel CU820, and an Asus P3-6 (I believe that is it’s designation, not at home, so can’t tell.) The Iwill is running my Linux Box, and the Asus is my win98 box, and both motherboards are very good for games and similar. The only problems I’ve had are:
IWill: The documentation for the AGP booster jumper was not very good, and until I figured out the problem, used to crash all the time on me.
ASUS: I have 5 PCI cards in my system, and had a lot of trouble getting it to properly allocate the IRQ’s for it. (SB live and Creative Dxr3 DVD need unshared IRQ’s.) But got that fixed and it runs like a dream now.
Intel: This one is sitting in its box, I had nothing but problems with it, and finally decided not to use it. It is fussy about RAM, USB didn’t work half the time, and I had enough.
So, I would say, go with ASUS or Iwill, both are good motherboards.
>>Being Chaotic Evil means never having to say your sorry…unless the other guy is bigger than you.<<
When I built my new system a few months back, I first tried using a MB manufactured by PCChips–huge mistake. Apparently I’m one of many people who have found their boards to be worthless.
ABit and Asus seem to be pretty decent. As for myself, I’m running an Azza PT5-VMD motherboard with an AMD K6-2 333 Mhz CPU. I’m pleased with it so far, but I may bump my processor up to a K6-3 450Mhz. Also, my motherboard is somewhat friendly to overclocking–not that I’d ever do that…
I don’t like integration of the sound and video, sometimes the boards don’t properly disable them when you want them too…
She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again.
If you want to upgrade your cards, it’s difficult to disable the built-ins. As fast as technology changes, I would rather have the option of popping in a new graphics card (personally I don’t have any games so sound doesn’t matter to me)without any hassles.
Unless you’re slapping together a cheapie for the kids or for a customer you don’t much like, stay away from the ‘all-in-one’ motherboards, with video, sound, modem, etc. on the board. If the ability to repair and/or upgrade your system means anything to you, these boards are generally a bad bet.
'Tis true, what’s been said about difficulty disabling the built-ons. Even worse, some boards don’t offer the option of disabling anything! And if you can’t disable what’s soldered onto the board, you can’t replace it or upgrade it!
Further, the ‘built-ons’ are typically of mediocre quality and features. Most ‘workhorse’ boards’ll give you a generic SB-compatible 16-bit sound system, a generic v.90 modem, and AGP video with 4 to 8 MB of ‘shared’ video RAM, meaning that the adapter ‘shares’ standard RAM with the rest of the system.
The obvious advantage to such a board is component compatibility and ease of setup. But the disadvantages, IMHO, far outweigh the advantages.
I don’t know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free…
