Recommend a MoBo & PSU

After this im buying a new motherboard.

Any suggestions? Im looking at Nvidia 2 chipsets. Not intergrated graphics.

Also prob gonna have to have SATA, RAID, Firewire, GigaLAN, well everything really.

What ya reckon?

Asus?
Aopen?
Abit?
Gigabyte?


Oh yea, nearly forgot... a power supply too. Around 400W at most should be enough.

Only brand I'm familiar with is Q-Tec.

[ZrByte]

Originally Posted by John Doe

After this im buying a new motherboard.

Any suggestions? Im looking at Nvidia 2 chipsets. Not intergrated graphics.

Also prob gonna have to have SATA, RAID, Firewire, GigaLAN, well everything really.

What ya reckon?

Asus?
Aopen?
Abit?
Gigabyte?


Oh yea, nearly forgot... a power supply too. Around 400W at most should be enough.

Only brand I'm familiar with is Q-Tec.

Asus A7N8X Ultra Deluxe definatley.
Its one of the more expensive boards around but not the most expensive and well worth every penny IMO
Ebuyer £70.93 inc VAT
Aria £81.08


EDIT: As for PSU.. Something like this though it is a little pricey at £54.44

Asus - i must say i have been looking at that one

Antec - I'll have a look for some middle ground... $$$ /fret

[snuffs99]

The gigabyte K7-Triton 7N400 PRO 2 is the one for you m8. I have one and it is greeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttt. And yes it has everything including dual bios which comes in handy if you decide to flash.

EXC VAT £ 74.00 INC VAT £ 86.95

Introduction
GA-7N400 Pro2 is the supreme platform for latest AMD Athlon XP 400MHz FSB processor. Powered by the revolutionary NVIDIA nForceââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢2 Ultra 400 platform processors and industry cutting edge technology, this platform delivers new levels of performance and functionality for today¡à ƒÆ’ƒâ€šÃ‚¦s most demanded tasks. The nForceââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢2 platform processors not only carries the new generation architecture consisting of dual channel DDR controller and AGP8X graphics interface, but also integrates the innovative Dynamic adaptive speculative pre-processor (DASP) and Hyper-Transport Technology to boost the overall system performance. This platform provides full communication suite of Gigabit LAN connection, IEEE 1394, and USB2.0 interface for full range of connectivity. In addition, Serial ATA and IDE RAID provide superior input/output performance and data protection to the system. GA-7N400 Pro2 delivers an ideal platform with outstanding performance for home and office environment.

Support AMD AthlonTM XP 400MHz FSB processor
Powered by nForceââ€Ã⠀¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢2 platform processors, this platform supports the latest AMD AthlonTM XP processor to deliver higher levels of performance and productivity for today's most demanding tasks.

Dual Channel DDR400 memory architecture support
With the Dual Channel DDR400 memory architecture, this platform delivers high capacity of 3GB memory and high bandwidth up to 6.4GB/s to ensure greatest memory performance.

Superb bandwidth AGP 8X graphics interface
Featuring AGP 8x (AGP 3.0) the new generation VGA interface specification, this platform delivers enhanced graphics performance with high bandwidth up to 2.12GB/s. Allowing users to have a more realistic graphics experiences while gaming or movie watching.

IEEE1394 FireWire
The highly anticipated IEEE1394 interface enhances PC connectivity with consumer electronics audio/video (A/V) appliances, and storage peripherals

Serial ATA interface with RAID 0, 1 function
Serial ATA is the revolutionary ATA interface that provides scalable performance for IDE device. With up to 150MB/s data transfer rate, Serial ATA is faster than current Parallel ATA and delivers superior input/output performance. In addition, the Serial ATA interface is furnished with RAID 0,1 function for extra performace enhancement and data protection.

GigaRAID IDE RAID Controller
Supporting RAID (0, 1, 0+1), JBOD function and ATA133 interface, GigaRAID Controller delivers completely solution for storage interface to increase fault tolerance, improve data access performance and provides additional interface for more IDE devices.

Gigabit LAN Network Connection
The Gigabit network interface delivers a high speed LAN connection with data transfer rate up to 1000Mb/s, providing a new generation connectivity for the broadband era. Gigabit LAN is ideally for seamless internet connection such as streaming audio and video contents.

Through 6-channel audio output, users can experience the 3D surround sound without additional equipments. It fulfills the requirements for a variety of audio applications, such as MP3 or Audio CD playback, DVD movies and gaming thus delivering ideal platform for multimedia solution.

GIGABYTE Patent DualBIOSââ€à ƒâ€¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢
DualBIOSââ€à ƒâ€¦Ã‚¾Ãƒâ€šÃ‚¢ prevents BIOS from virus attacks to provide a double security thus assuring the PC stability.

ManufacturerGIGABYTE Model NumberSupported Operating SystemsWIN98SE, WIN2000, WINME, WINXPMin Recommended CPUSocket A for AMD AthlonXP / Athlon / Duron processor Form FactorATXChipSetNVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400Memory TypeDual Channel DDR400/ 333/ 266Max Memory3GBNo of Memory Slots4 184pin DIMM slots No of PCI Slots5No of AGP Slots1No of ISA Slots0No of Additional Slots0Supported Bus Frequency (MHz)400Onboard VideoNOOnboard LANYESOnboard SoundYESBIOS Type4M bit flash ROMMax Multiplier15CPUs Upto3200XP +No of IDE Ports4No of USB Ports4Hardware MonitoringYESFeaturesDual Channel DDR400, 2 x Serial ATA, ATA133 RAID, USB 2.0

[ZrByte]

Originally Posted by John Doe

Asus - i must say i have been looking at that one

Antec - I'll have a look for some middle ground... $$$ /fret

Dont go too cheap though, more expensive PSUs are designed so that when they blow out they dont take your mobo with them like your last one did

EDIT: I wont use Gigabyte anymore, far too many flaky motherboards. Though I used to think the same about ASUS and they certainly got thier act together, might be worth a try.

Originally Posted by ZrByte

Dont go too cheap though, more expensive PSUs are designed so that when they blow out they dont take your mobo with them like your last one did

I seriously dont think it was the PSU that went. There was no internal damage in the unit, nothing. It was VCC that burnt out and there are no tracks or anything on the mobo but that fan is THE DEVIL it went in about 2 monts and rattled ever since. Strangely enough it ran from VCC +5V! The PC worked fine - even after the smoke apart from the onboard lan which stopped. Honestly, all the evidence points to the Mobo.

If I was to get another Gigabyte i would use a passive northbridge cooler and the mobo would HAVE to be very good value for $.

Once bitten...

Dual Bios is good but lets face it, no one flashes that often.

[ZrByte]

Originally Posted by John Doe

I seriously dont think it was the PSU that went. There was no internal damage in the unit, nothing. It was VCC that burnt out and there are no tracks or anything on the mobo but that fan is THE DEVIL it went in about 2 monts and rattled ever since. Strangely enough it ran from VCC +5V! The PC worked fine - even after the smoke apart from the onboard lan which stopped. Honestly, all the evidence points to the Mobo.

If I was to get another Gigabyte i would use a passive northbridge cooler and the mobo would HAVE to be very good value for $.

Once bitten...

Dual Bios is good but lets face it, no one flashes that often.

The dual Bios also protects against a rare breed of Virus wich Reflashes your Bios to either destroy your machine or so it can re-implement itself even when you use the best virus scanners around, so it does have its uses

[Sociable]

Originally Posted by snuffs99

The gigabyte K7-Triton 7N400 PRO 2 is the one for you m8. I have one and it is greeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttt. And yes it has everything including dual bios which comes in handy if you decide to flash.

Yep would agree 100% with that recomendation. I fitted one of those for a friend just the other day and was able to get a great deal by buying a new case/psu, CPU, Ram and a few other "Bits n bobs" as a "package" which enabled him to sell his old PC after we completed the upgrade.

Net cost for the full upgrade, after selling on the revamped old system, was only £50 so everyone was happy with the deal and no waste as all original parts got reused.

Does anyone know who deals Chaintech boards? I was looking at the 7NJS Zenith - Accessorised up to the eyeballs.

[ZrByte]

Originally Posted by John Doe

Does anyone know who deals Chaintech boards? I was looking at the 7NJS Zenith - Accessorised up to the eyeballs.

Chaintech seem very rare over here in the uk, doesnt even seem to be any on Ebay

[DrAwesome]

Originally Posted by John Doe

Does anyone know who deals Chaintech boards? I was looking at the 7NJS Zenith - Accessorised up to the eyeballs.

You might find this website of interest

Originally Posted by DrAwesome

You might find this website of interest

I found it in an old copy of PCW, thanks though Doc.

[Steve H]

Q-tec ..stay away. If you dont, dont say you weren't warned

Asus & Abit are defiently reccomended mobo's.. the Nf7's-s is a great board.. can vouch for the A7N8X deluxe as well.

Wouldnt reccomend gigabyte at the mo, since I've RMA'd two boards last week, due to a faulty ATX connectors, and two of the dimm slots being faulty.

As for PSU's Antec are the way to go.

[Bifta]

I'd recommend the DFI Lanparty motherboard coupled with a decent Enermax PSU.

Enlight are also supposed to be quite good but after looking at respective web sites ANtec come out on top with similar pricing and 3 years warranty - not promoted by Enlight.