I need a reliable socket 939 board

[dreamliner77]

I am building a box for a friend that is completely non technical. I am using a AMD 64 3000+ (Venice).

The requirements:

rock steady stable
AGP
4 PCI
3 dimm slots
SATA
Preferably passive cooling on the northbridge (this will be a very quiet system)

I'm usually in love with the nforce platform, but it seems there aren't a lot nforce 3 250 boards left out there to choose from. I will go the Via route if it means stability, but got burned with VIA in the past.

I would like the board to be <$100 as I'm working on a budget.

And on a side note: I've often bought things refurb off of newegg and have never had a problems. Has anyone ever bought a mobo off newegg? If so, what did it actually come with for accesories? They say you will just get the board, some people have said you'll generally get everything, usually missing a driver cd or some crap.

 

[Sazar]

Why agp slot?

If he wants future upgradeability I would suggest going with pci-e.

MSI makes some good boards with passive cooling, likewise from some of the other guys as well. Can't go wrong with any of the big boys in the arena but pay close attention to layout/featureset.

 

[dreamliner77]

Because she doesn't want to invest in a new gfx card.

 

[zeke_mo]

why the 4 PCI slots? I can think of a few good boards but they dont have that many

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Manufactory=&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&description=939+agp&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=100&SubCategory=22&Submit=Property

Here we go :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128286

 

[Sazar]

Because she doesn't want to invest in a new gfx card.

Tell her she's artificially holding herself back by ensuring she is a generation behind. Its not worth it IMO.

 

[Son Goku]

hehe, my current board has 6, but then I didn't buy a board for less then $200

Depending on her budget concerns there might be a reason to stick with her current gfx card...but this does leave future upgrades a bit iffy... Depending on when she plans on another upgrade, it might make sense. Also depends what card she has now...

Not sure how good this board would be, and haven't used Gigabyte personall, but it fits the bill

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...P=OTC-pr1c3watch&ATT=Motherboards#DetailSpecs

- $77
- 5 PCI slots
- socket 939
- has serial as well as parallel ATA

Only thing is, that does look to be a fan on the north bridge, best I can make out...

 

[Admiral Michael]

Only thing is, that does look to be a fan on the north bridge, best I can make out...

Yep thats a fan, if you look at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Showi...IA+nForce3+250Gb+ATX+AMD+Motherboard+-+Retail

you can see wires comming from the chip's heatsink.

 

[dreamliner77]

Depending on her budget concerns there might be a reason to stick with her current gfx card...but this does leave future upgrades a bit iffy... Depending on when she plans on another upgrade, it might make sense. Also depends what card she has now...

Put it this way, her current machine (still in use) is a Pentium 166. I just want to build something inexpensive and stable. The only upgrades that will possibly be done are faster processor (one reason for 939 over 754), ram and/or hdd.

 

[Admiral Michael]

Will the AGP in the old system work in the new board (cant remember a 166 having AGP)?

 

[Tuffgong4]

still you could go the pci express route and get a x300 from ati for 50 dollars at newegg and it will be an upgrade probably from the graphics card she already has and be future proof because it has pci express...

buying an agp board right now is not a good idea unless you recently bought a high end graphics card that you NEED to save because of the investment.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102415

 

[dreamliner77]

No, but I have a gforce4 mx440 sitting around that will work.

This is all unless someone knows of a dirt, dirt cheap pci-express card.

 

[Admiral Michael]

No, but I have a gforce4 mx440 sitting around that will work.

This is all unless someone knows of a dirt, dirt cheap pci-express card.

Ah Gotcha.

 

[Tuffgong4]

No, but I have a gforce4 mx440 sitting around that will work.

This is all unless someone knows of a dirt, dirt cheap pci-express card.

^^^^^^^^^^ I just posted one...look at my post like 2 up

 

[dreamliner77]

hmmmm. I'm starting to be pulled to the pci-express side. DFI?

 

[Tuffgong4]

I love DFI but they are more for an enthusiast than anything. If you consider this purchase for an enthusiast go for it...otherwise there are cheaper yet very stable and well performing boards out there

 

[gonaads]

How about an Asus board.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131541

or the Deluxe board (I have two of these ATM and they work great).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131510

 

[Sazar]

hmmmm. I'm starting to be pulled to the pci-express side. DFI?

*evil laugh*

Eeeexxxccellleeennnttt !!!!11



Any of the products out there will work. The DFi ones are more finicky with mem because they are designed as one of the faster boards out there so read carefully about the type of memory it will take and support.

No point in getting a system and than purchasing a whole new set of mem just coz the old one would not work.

 

[mfarley]

I've never had but bad experiences with ASUS so I wont own an ASUS again. Crap customer service and two lemons they packaged as boards.

I've heard good about MSI and DFI Lan Party, but never used either.

So far I have owned 2 GIGABYTE boards and have had nothing but positive experiences with the boards and with the one time I've had to contact customer service. They were quick to respond and gave me a detailed description of the fix I needed. One thing to note though, they're website is next to garbage.

 

[Son Goku]

Well, if you want to go with PCI-E, here's a non-Asus

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130484#DetailSpecs

I does have a fan on the north bridge, though it does meet (or exceed) all the other criteria you laid out, but with PCI-E Oh, but the price is $126 from this vendor...

BTW, because you mentioned you liked Gigabyte, I looked for one that met the other criteria you mentioned, but with PCI-E, and didn't find one which specifically did...

 

[dreamliner77]

Tough call on whether to go PCI-Express or not. I doubt this machine will ever be upgraded, but if it is, I'd imagine only the cpu and mem.