I currently have an abit an8 sli fatal1ty motherboard and its being a real pain in the arse, so rma to fleabuyer is on the cards. I want to buy a replacement for the abit before I return this, as I cant really afford to be without a motherboard for weeks, so what do people recommended.
my requirements are, has to work with high end components (Dual core opteron, Ballistix ram etc), SATA 2 300, lots of USB/Firewire/ 100mbit Lan, be stable and thats about it.
Im not really a games player, so dont actually NEED or particularly want SLI, if theres a decent board without SLI that would probably be the one for me ( I use Ati cards anyway)
probably some lan party thing would be ideal, but Im not sure of the differences between the various boards these days
The Asus A8N range is pretty awesome, though not sure if its SATA2 (could look at my manual, but that would be too much effort). The new ones use a heatpipe instead of a fan for the chipset so are silent (I replaced my chipset fan with a Zalman cooler).
In all respects, its been a great motherboard for me. (I also am using ATI but found it difficult to get a good 939 board without SLi)
Goblin
Asus Premium A8N is the one with the heat pipe, quality product imho. I swapped the Deluxe for the Premium to get away from the 9000rpm chipset fan. If 3GB/s SATA is SATA2 it has that.
http://uk.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=0&model=539&modelmenu=1
I would recommend DFI LanParty UT nF4 SLI-D PCI-E very good stable board http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=604023 :-)
Gigabyte K8n-sli or Pro (firewire) version Nforce4
Tis dirt cheap and has everything you asked for :)
I can recommend them for good stability, bit of tweaking. I use em everyday.
Quote from: GoblinThe Asus A8N range is pretty awesome, though not sure if its SATA2 (could look at my manual, but that would be too much effort). The new ones use a heatpipe instead of a fan for the chipset so are silent (I replaced my chipset fan with a Zalman cooler).
In all respects, its been a great motherboard for me. (I also am using ATI but found it difficult to get a good 939 board without SLi)
Goblin
I agree with Goblin.
No complaints with my ASUS board here. That or DFI tbh.
*chcukle* i used to get panned for my liking of Asus and Gigabyte boards, but TBH over time ive found them to be prety damned stable, with the exception of the early Gigabyte KT600 series boards. they blew and sucked with gusto.
Asus have got there act together lately, but DFI is still the Daddy by far.
Gigabyte I still wouldnt touch with a barge pole tbh :P
well it seems the quirks I dont like on the abit boards, are actually faults with my board, rather than general design flaws. So assuming ebuyer send me a working replacement, Ill keep this one. Im going to be buying a cheapie asrock to just tide me over while the RMA grinds through the process. Thanks for the input, and good to know that Asus is back in the game, Ive had many good, and one not so good, Asus boards in the past.
Quote from: ShaunAsus have got there act together lately, but DFI is still the Daddy by far.
Gigabyte I still wouldnt touch with a barge pole tbh :P
not really had much of a problem except the early KT600 series boards. Ive replaced all 5 that i used. I moved over to Asus A7V880s for Socket A as soon as they surfaced, and they would appear to be absolutely rock solid. Gigabyte boards however dont OC very well at all. They tend to fry when you try OCing them. Gigabyte also tend to be one of the better laid out board though. MSI i rate alongside ECS/PC-Chips stuff from personal experience, while Asrock is just a cheap version of Asus anyway.
I admit, in the past Giga(sh*te) boards have been quite disappointing but...
That particular gigabyte board i mentioned is very stable.
Not for the tweaker, but decent enough for a gamer, with plenty of extras.