Upgrading Motherboard

[Spike]

I am looking for a good affordable motherboard. I have been looking at the GA-7NNXP but they have become hard to find and at the upper part of my price range. I also have been looking at the GA-7N400 PRO 2, but have seen mixed reviews on this board and didn't know if the people with problems were just being more vocal than the people without. I would really like my new board to have 4 IDE channels such as these two do, so I can ditch my PCI->Ide card and stop having to use on board audio. If any one could steer me in a direction or possibly give me any other ideas it would be greatly appreciated.

[KryoNexus]

Look at some of the Abit boards.

[siq]

I agree. Since I recently received mine, I've been all smiles.

[fstroupe]

Though I would love to tell you to look no further than the Abit NF7-S Ver 2, it has only 2 IDE ports, with capability of running 4 IDE drives.

It also has onboard SoundStorm 5.1 audio, that many people consider sounds as well as SB Audigy Platinum. (I wouldn't know, I use a recording sound card)

It DOES run dual channel RAM, though not advertised...


http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-166&depa=1

Describe your present setup for us to help you better.

[Spike]

My current set up is a Shuttle AK32A MoBo an AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (but a 3200+ is on the way) 512 MB of SDRAM (will upgrade w/ motherboard) 2) 100 GB WD Hdd's 4) 60 GB WD Hdd's 1) Internal ZIP 250 1) Internal 52x CD-ROM 1) External CD-RW ATI Radeon 9700 vid card (next upgrade) and a 550W PSU. I know, thats alot of hard drive space but I do alot of video & audio editing for my church, if I get more than a couple of projects going I have got close to maxing out my space. Hope this info will help.

[jester]

if you need that much space, ya might consider geting a 250g sata150 drive which will set you back $150 not to mention be quite a bit faster. Get the abit mobo and since youll have a new cpu, set up your old mobo and cpu as a file server if you end up needing some extra storage.

[KryoNexus]

if you need that much space, ya might consider geting a 250g sata150 drive which will set you back $150 not to mention be quite a bit faster. Get the abit mobo and since youll have a new cpu, set up your old mobo and cpu as a file server if you end up needing some extra storage.

i'd have to agree

[Bio-Hazard]

NF7-S is the way to go IMHO..........I've had mine for a while now with no problems at all. OC's well also................. :twisted:

[fstroupe]

Man, I bet that 512 RAM is a pain! :vomit:

[Spike]

Yup, I'll be going with a minimum 1G ddr 3200 W/ my new board. thus the reason for needing a more affordable MoBo. So does no-one out there like the Giga-byte options? They are the only MoBos I've found with 4 IDE channels. Is there some reason hwy everyone is seeming to pass them up?I'm not trying to be contrary, I just ask because until recently I was happy if the stoopid thing ran but now I'm actually going to try to get some decent performance out of it. Might even use it for a few games.

[jester]

Only mobos Ive used and trust are Abit, Asus and DFI

[undergroundtech]

Only mobos Ive used and trust are Abit, Asus and DFI

I only trust Asus, I've had an Abit board go bad after only 3 months, with crap capacitors.

[jester]

I wouldnt doubt that, Im runing 2 power supplies with my 500w powering JUST my mobo and yet I still get .5v-.75v fluxuations in my cpu not to mention that even at idle its always .25v under what I have it set. [smilie=angry5.gif] Then again I do have an older mobo from abit too.

I think the next mobo I do get will probly be a Asus.

[Bio-Hazard]

I had both Abit and Asus at the same time with the same nforce chip set and I always got better over clocks with my Abit board. I just sold my Asus board last week.................. :wink:

[playafly187]

i just recently bought the Gigabyte GA K8NS for my new A64 setup, and can say that I have had no problems with this (my first) Gigabyte board.

MSI is another brand that has worked well for me in the past.

Epox, on the other hand, is a different story...