Looking for an A64 board... -URGENT-
I need to figure out what A64 board to buy by like Wednesday at 11am, because I need to get the system together before school starts
here's the deal:
My dad is looking to buy two new computers... my siblings are starting to play fairly graphically-intense games such as The Sims 2, and the older machines just aren't up to it anymore. The Athlon system will handle it (barely), but the P3 has a TNT2 in it or something, so yeah....
So now I'm looking for an A64 board and I have no idea what I'm doing. I haven't kept up on them because frankly, I haven't really cared... I told him he might want to wait for the NF4, but as long as whatever system I build or he buys now can handle games and stuff 18 months or 2 years down the road, he doesn't really have a problem just buying new systems when they need to be upgraded next time... the only upgrades he's really done to the two machines we've got now are to put a r9700 Pro in the Athlon when my brother's games wouldn't run on the GF2MX that was in it, and to put another 512MB of RAM in the P3... so upgradeability isn't a huge issue for him.
Obviously, it has to be stable. A. Because he'll get pissed if it's not and B. Because if it's not and I build it, guess who's fault it'll be? Exactly. So stability is important.
If I can get my hands on an ASUS A8N SLI board, I'll go with that unless you guys have a reason not to, but I don't think I'll be able to, and I doubt he wants to pay that kind of money for a board anyhow. So I was looking at the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum, but Newegg hasn't got them, no one around here has them, and if I build them, I'll need to do it before school starts, so I need the parts fairly soon.
Are there any other good boards out there? What are the best boards out there at the moment? Any boards I should avoid at all costs? And do you guys really think that S939 is that important in this case? I mean I know it's faster, but is it THAT much faster? There's a much better selection of S754 boards...
Oh, and overclockability isn't really a big deal.
One last thing. If you had to choose between only these boards, which one would you go with?: (these are the only boards the local place we buy a lot of the systems at work from has for the A64 at the moment, and if he decides he wants to have them build it, I'll need to choose one of these boards)
Asustek K8N-E Deluxe- $137.00 NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb Chipset, Socket 754
Asustek K8V SE Deluxe- $126.00 VIA K8T800 Chipset, Socket 754
Asustek A8V Deluxe- $138.00 VIA K8T800Pro + VT8237, Socket 939
Asustek SK8N- $190.00 Nvidia nForce3 Pro Chipset, Socket 940
here's the deal:
My dad is looking to buy two new computers... my siblings are starting to play fairly graphically-intense games such as The Sims 2, and the older machines just aren't up to it anymore. The Athlon system will handle it (barely), but the P3 has a TNT2 in it or something, so yeah....
So now I'm looking for an A64 board and I have no idea what I'm doing. I haven't kept up on them because frankly, I haven't really cared... I told him he might want to wait for the NF4, but as long as whatever system I build or he buys now can handle games and stuff 18 months or 2 years down the road, he doesn't really have a problem just buying new systems when they need to be upgraded next time... the only upgrades he's really done to the two machines we've got now are to put a r9700 Pro in the Athlon when my brother's games wouldn't run on the GF2MX that was in it, and to put another 512MB of RAM in the P3... so upgradeability isn't a huge issue for him.
Obviously, it has to be stable. A. Because he'll get pissed if it's not and B. Because if it's not and I build it, guess who's fault it'll be? Exactly. So stability is important.
If I can get my hands on an ASUS A8N SLI board, I'll go with that unless you guys have a reason not to, but I don't think I'll be able to, and I doubt he wants to pay that kind of money for a board anyhow. So I was looking at the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum, but Newegg hasn't got them, no one around here has them, and if I build them, I'll need to do it before school starts, so I need the parts fairly soon.
Are there any other good boards out there? What are the best boards out there at the moment? Any boards I should avoid at all costs? And do you guys really think that S939 is that important in this case? I mean I know it's faster, but is it THAT much faster? There's a much better selection of S754 boards...
Oh, and overclockability isn't really a big deal.One last thing. If you had to choose between only these boards, which one would you go with?: (these are the only boards the local place we buy a lot of the systems at work from has for the A64 at the moment, and if he decides he wants to have them build it, I'll need to choose one of these boards)
Asustek K8N-E Deluxe- $137.00 NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb Chipset, Socket 754
Asustek K8V SE Deluxe- $126.00 VIA K8T800 Chipset, Socket 754
Asustek A8V Deluxe- $138.00 VIA K8T800Pro + VT8237, Socket 939
Asustek SK8N- $190.00 Nvidia nForce3 Pro Chipset, Socket 940
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Comments
As for whether you buy S754 or s939, I'm not sure, in your partiicular situation, it's not as important as it usually is. You just need a machine quickly, that works & will play games and that it will last 18-24 months and wont need upgrading in the mean time. S754 will fit that bill. Sure, if you buy s939 now you'll be able to upgrade the cpu in 2 years time, but thats all you'll be able to upgrade unless you get a NF4 board. The dual channel memory controller of s939 is not that much faster than single channel and s754 cpu's have a higher clock speed to compensate. Clawhammer cpu's also have a larger cache too.
Where S939 is important is if you think you'll upgrade in the next 6-12 months.
Talked with my dad about the NF4 SLI board. He has no interest in getting it. He doesn't like going with bleeding edge technology, and he doesn't really want to spend the extra $100. So, it'll be either the MSI or a s754 board with an nVidia chipset.
I'm still not convinced that s939 is that much of an advantage in this case. The chance of a CPU upgrade in the future is effectively zero... How much slower are we talking about here? I thought s754 was only a few % slower than s939...
Pick what works financially with this machine as it isn't going to get upgraded in the near future. Socket 754 boards & chipsets have been around longer even though S939 maybe the "new hot" thing. This isn't going to be overclocked? Then use your noodle and get something rock solid stable. What you don't spent on "the latest, greatest" board.. you can spend on solid memory for it
Socket 754 is "technically" slower then Socket 939 but only overclockers & true enthuiasts would notice. A difference you won't see in real world performance.
Pick what is in stock, find a clawhammer(754) or a Winchester(939) if they have one and some GOOD memory (that is so important!) and you are set
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=20-146-219&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE
And is the Via chipset better than the nforce3?
(oh, and Shorty... I wasn't just thinking KT133... I was thinking KT133A, KT266... KT266A, KT333... KT400... KT600... etc.
KZ133, bad.
KT133, bad.
KT133A, good.
KT266, bad.
KT266A, great.
KT333, great.
KT400, decent.
KT600, poor.
And no, no chipset since the KT333 has been superior to an nVidia chipset. It's not that the new VIA chipsets have fundamental problems, it's just that they're slower than the competition for the same pricepoints, and that's a quandry I will not support monetarily in the computing world.
As for ram Corsair Value ram will work just fine as well & may save your dad a few bucks too. Spend the extra on video card.
If I was in your shoes right now I'd probably go with a S754 Via chipset board. In real world performance the difference wont be seen & it'll save money but provide the speed & stability desired.
I'd stay socket 939 Geeky, since it's looking more and more like the dual core A64's that will be coming out(at least initially) will be drop-ins on socket 939 boards and will initially be using ddr1 memory controllers like present.
Here are the two from Pixel:
System 1 (S754):
Case Antec SLK-3700BQE
Power Supply 350w, w/case
Motherboard ASUS K8V SE Deluxe
CPU AMD Athlon 64 3400+ s754
RAM Samsung 512MB PC3200 (x2)
Video Card PNY GeForce 6800GT (?)
Sound Card Integrated
Network Card Integrated
Hard Drive Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200GB SATA
CD-RW LiteOn 52/32/52 (Black)
DVD-RW LiteOn 16x dual-layer (Black)
Zip Drive Iomega Zip250 (Black)
Floppy Mitsumi 3.5" (Black)
CPU Heatsink Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu
CPU Fan Integrated w/heatsink
Case Fans Need to pick some up from SVC
IDE Cable 18" ATA-133 round dual-drive (silver) (x2)
Floppy Cable Single drive round 10" (silver)
Windows Windows XP Home
Office Office 2003 Small Business
System 2 (S939)
Same as above, except:
Motherboard: ASUS A8V Deluxe
CPU AMD Athlon 64 3500+
DIY Systems (parts from Newegg, Atacom, etc.)
System 1 (S754)
Same as the above systems except:
Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo Platinum
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3400+ (retail)
RAM Mushkin Basic series PC3200 512MB (x2)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce 6800 128MB (I know it's a gigabyte, but it's passively cooled, which is a major plus)
Zip: Iomega Zip750 (Black)
Floppy: Samsung 3.5" (Black)
CPU Heatsink: Thermalright XP-90
CPU Fan: Thermaltake 92mm Smart Fan w/LEDs
Case Fan: Thermaltake 120mm Smart Fan w/LEDs (x2)
System 2 (S939)
Same as DIY #1 except:
Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (retail) (hopefully a newer 90nm one, but I can't guarantee that as it's like $50 or $75 more than the 130nm one)
Thoughts?
6800
MSI or Epox
2X512mb of TCCD which will do 5,2,2,2 at 200 (timings helps a lot when the htt is at stock)
AMD 3200+ Newcastle
Killer setup that isn't that expensive.
Motherboards:
MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum ($139 shipped from Monarch Computer in GA)
Epox 9NDA3+ $126
Epox 9NDA3J $99 @ Newegg
Abit AV8 (K8T800 Pro Chipset) $111 @ Newegg
CPU S939 90nm - Monarch has Lower prices than Newegg and the Latest Stepping and manufacture weeks)
3200+ (10x 2.0ghz) - OEM: $179 - Retail: $216
3500+ (11x 2.2ghz) - OEM: $259 - Retail: $329
A S939 Newcastle is a safe choice also
Via vs. nVidia. Which one is going to be more stable/reliable?
Epox is out. I know too many people that have had issues with them. I won't touch them, at the very least not for other peoples' systems. I might buy one for myself, but not for someone else...
If you OCing the VIA K8T800 Pro chipset tops out around 260mhz Memory (HTT can go upwards of 270-300 if your lucky). The NF3-250GB or Ultra can do over 300mhz Mem and HTT depending on your CPU
At the end of the day you have to decide which you are more comfortable and which best suits you're needs. I think its fairly obvious that you're not going to get uniform opinion from any of us here.
Punkbuster enabled servers + ati graphics card gave the nforce3 chipset problems. i.e. terrible lag while playing online, myself and a quite a few others suffered with this. As i said earlier, I think ati's later drivers were supposed to this out
Since you seem to leaning towards it... Get the Abit AV8 S939 (K8T800 Pro) and a Newcastle (130nm) 3200+ or 3500+ S939 CPU
On my K8T800 Pro KV8 Pro the SATA ports showed up simply as Channel 5 & 6 on the main BIOS screen. No drivers needed - although I did load them (VIA 8237 SATA Raid & Normal SATA drivers)
Jimborae: What am I most comfortable with? The NF3 and a MSI or ASUS board.