New motherboard for a Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition

MJOMJO Denmark New
edited January 2009 in Hardware
Hi

I have finally come to the conclusion that the bios on my AN9 Fatal1ty is, well crippled.
However I do believe that the problems are associated with the uguru chip, and that cannot be swapped.

This evening I made a long overdue bios swap, I switched my chip with another chip Abit support had sent me. (Thank you Abit, and it is sad to see Abit going out of the motherboard business)

But the switch didn't help it behaving more or less like before.
That means that it will not exit the bios correctly when I have made changes in the softmenu or the memory timings.
Often the settings are not saved at all.

That means that everything is running at default, and with a Black Edition paired with some Corsair PC-8500 DDR2 that just isn't cutting the mustard it is to slooow. :mad:
Therefore I am looking for a replacement motherboard that can handle a decent OC and remain stable.

I have been looking at some Asus boards, but I am not much of an Asus guy.
And it appears that they do not have optical out on the onboard audio.
That is a requirement given the fact that I cannot afford a dedicated soundcard right now. (I am looking at some ehh... rather expensive ones. ;) )
Please help a desperate guy. :respect:

Note: I have considered moving to an intel platform, but right now that would be too expensive because I will need to change motherboard + cpu and maybe the memory.
The fiscal budget doesn't allow for such spending, this time of year. :wink:

EDIT: The Crosshair motherboard does have optical out, but I do not know, whether or not the "SupremeFX" is indeed any good.
I can only compare it to the Audiomax (powered by Realtek) on the AN9 and the Soundstorm on my trusty old NF7-S rev. 2.0. (Maybe I should have that board framed given the fact that Abit is closing down. It is one of the best motherboards I have ever used.)

Comments

  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    If you go with this MSI board:
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130191

    you'll be ready for the new Phenom II processors that are coming out soon. It should do everything you need.
  • bullzisniprbullzisnipr Topeka, KS
    edited December 2008
    His selection for Phenom II processors will be limited to the 940 and 920 since the rest require the AM3 slot. Good motherboard though..

    (if tom's is right) http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-phenom-naming,6612.html
  • reelbigfishreelbigfish Boston, MA Member
    edited December 2008
    At least with most new motherboards you can buy the AM2+ Phenom II's and use them. DDR3 doesn't offer much of an advantage yet. It is much like how the Athlon's kept people on DDR longer after DDR2 came out since there was no advantage to be had. Although this cycle might be quicker unless the Phenom II's perform very well, in which case it would extend the cycle of DDR2.
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited December 2008
    His selection for Phenom II processors will be limited to the 940 and 920 since the rest require the AM3 slot. Good motherboard though..

    (if tom's is right) http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-phenom-naming,6612.html

    That's not how it works bullzisnipr. AM3 processors are going to be backwards compatible with existing Socket AM2 and AM2+ motherboards. AMD chips have integrated memory controllers, and the AM3 processors will be able to handle DDR3 or DDR2.

    An AM2+ motherboard like I recommended will support MJO's existing processor and will give him the option to upgrade to a new AM2+ or AM3 chip when they're released next year. If you're looking for a board that can use legacy hardware (the old black edition chip) and retain future upgradability, the new AMD boards fit the bill nicely.

    AM2+s are looking good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b248iTbplag
  • MJOMJO Denmark New
    edited January 2009
    Well I did opt for the Asus board and I am fairly satisfied as of now.
    But I do have a few things I want to comment.

    The ASUS Q-Shield must be one of the most stupid inventions ever.
    Especially since it makes the backplate three times thicker than normal.
    Installing the motherboard included an hour long session of me trying to get it in place.
    That was not a pleasent experience I did succeed though, right before I was about to give up. ;)

    ASUS software is crappy as usual, the utillities they provide are poorly constructed. I was prepared for this, since I have an ASUS laptop with a similar crappy software suite.

    The BIOS is a little wierd allthough a lot more stable than my previous Abit board.
    There is a whopping amount of options but I cannot enable sli-memory optimizations, that results in a black screen. That is a known issue with the latest bios. Hope they will resolve this matter, but untill then memory settings are done by hand.

    And then the onboard sound, Supreme FX II, I don't think I have ever seen anything sucking that much before. ;)
    They should have focused on the hardware and drivers instead of fitting some blue light and shiny metal. :crazy:
    Crappy drivers and no encoding to DTS or Dolby Digital all the sites I looked at stated that the sound card was able to do this, but no. ASUS disabled it because it made the system unstable. Geez get real, and of course they did it silently which has angered several users)
    My previous two motherboards have had no problems doing this. (I still miss the nvidia Soundstorm :()

    That leads to my question.
    What sound card should I buy?
    I need it to be able to encode Dolby Digital or DTS, as I want to plug it into my home theater amplifier.

    I think I am going for the Auzentech Xi-Fi prelude, that seems to be able to do everything I want from a sound card.
    But does anyone have any experience or comments regarding this?
    Link:
    http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-fi_prelude.php
    Note: I am a bit picky regarding sound cards, I want something that sounds great. (unlike the present onboard sound) and it cannot be from Creative.
    The reason for this is that they do not provide sound output as an optical signal.
    Furthermore their drivers mmm... doesn't have the best track record.
    The sound card also has to be widely supported in games etc., and have functioning drivers.
    In the past I have had these soundcards:
    Gravis Ultrasound (big hunk of PCB great card, a shame that they stopped making sound cards and drivers for it.
    Creative SoundBlaster 16 PnP Good card with wonky drivers.
    Onboard Nvidia Soundstorm (great)
    Onboard SoundMAX (Realtek, not that bad actually quite decent)
    Supreme FX II (well it is c***)

    BTW: Apologies for the long post ;)
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