Recommend me a socket a board please.

yaggayagga Havn't you heard? ... New
edited July 2005 in Hardware
What do you guys like in the socket a arena? mATX preferred, but definitely NOT neccessary. Cheaper is better than features/tiny performance increase. The board should be expected to work stable for a long long long time. Will not be overclocked, but the option might be nice to have, NOT neccessary. The one thing I might like is raid support, for PATA if possible, but I don't know if I need this if I would have to buy an expensive board to do it. Board will run a duron cpu or a mobile cpu.

Comments

  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited June 2005
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130477

    MSI K7N2GM2-LSR Socket A (Socket 462) NVIDIA nForce2 IGP Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retai

    Socket A
    mATX
    Onboard PATA RAID, SATA RAID, Sound, LAN, Sound, Video

    MSI is one manufacture that a lot people recommend for stability. It might have some OCing options, not sure. It pretty much has everything you asked for.
  • yaggayagga Havn't you heard? ... New
    edited June 2005
    Looks great. Just one more question, do you think there is much of a difference between 333ddr and 400ddr? If not this is the board I would like, but if I was to say I might get in some UT2004 or something possibly newer, would I notice any slowdown? This board might get a hand-me-down FX5600 if I get around to buying a faster card.

    I found 2 other boards from newegg, both msi too. One is ATX with no integrated video with 400ddr ($56). The other is mATX with no pata raid, but 400ddr ($51.50). For comparison the one you posted is $63 so price is negligable. I'm only looking into these other 2 because of the ddr400.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited June 2005
    Hmm I didnt even realize that. I saw that it was an nForce2 board and figured that it supported DDR400. I guess it doesnt since its the version with onboard video.

    RAM speed would most likely help UT2k4 IF you have a CPU that has a FSB of 200mhz. More than likely a better video card would help increase framerates if it was much of a problem. A video card can overcome DDR333's lose in performance for the most part. UT isnt that highly intensive of a game. I dont mean to say that the 5600 cant play it, my 8500LE played it just fine.

    Its just a matter of trade offs. The board I found met all the possible requirements including mATX and RAID but if you can do without one/either of those then you could go for either of the other 2 boards you mentioned. Just pick the one with the feaured you want if you have a CPU with a 200mhz FSB CPU. If you dont and you are not OCing then it wont really matter at all since your RAM and FSB will be at 333mhz.
  • AMDkidAMDkid
    edited July 2005
    The memory set only at DDR-333 spec shouldn't affect preformance too much. Lets use some simple math.
    Theoritical Cap. on dual channel DDR-333: 5.4 Gb/s
    Max Draw = 2.7 Gb/s (AMD Semptron) + 133 Mb/s (PCI) + Videocard(AGP)
    So how much can a AGP card access memory:
    well at AGP 8x its max mobo to board is 2 Gb/s up and 133 Mb/s down.
    In conclusion:
    Your memory will not hold back your video card. In fact, you still have memory bandwidth that is unused. Lets just say that is for SATA and ATA if separate from the PCI bus. You will not experience memory-caused lag as long as you have enough memory. The biggest burden will be the FSB if you are playing a new age game. Also note, it might be better to buy a cheaper nForce2 400 Ultra with a cheap videocard (20-40 USD) or better since it will not tax your memory total. Then you can get DDR 400 Memory and hunker down until building a newer mid-range box on AMD64 x2 with DDR2-667 comeing out end of this year into next year I believe.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited July 2005
    I rebuilt a machine for a friend with that board's kissing cousin, the K7N2 Delta 2 (full atx w/o onboard video though), using the PATA raid option with it. It was with a 266 fsb proc, so I don't know anything on how stable it is with a 333 fsb or 400 fsb proc, but it set up easy. It was a replacement for an old Iwill KK266-R mobo that finally bit the big one.

    Mwave.com has the board I used here for $54 plus shipping . I had to put both of the hard drives on one IDE channel, but the raid0 setup still worked decently fast.
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