What's a good motherboard?

sys0p · Post by **sys0p** » Mon May 02, 2005 5:24 pm

I'm looking at upgrading my comp for a new new one, but I don't know what motherboards are good.. My last one was an abit, and it's given me some trouble, so I want to avoid them..

Which is the best board out of these:

Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-087-AS)

Er, I can't find the other board right now, so if someone who isn't soapboy or riddla can recommend a better one then it's all good.

But is that board any good? I'm putting a BFG oc 6800gt in it, and I'll probably get a second one when the price comes down.. I'm getting a AMD3200 cpu with the new venice core.. Is this a decent pc by todays standards or do I need something better?

Cheers nergins

Post by **DiscoDave** » Mon May 02, 2005 6:06 pm

I've heard some really good things about the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe over here. If i was upgrading I would buy that board with confidence.

The 6800GT is an awesome card, and two would team up very will with the board you've researched.

Out of curiousity, can you afford anything better than the 3200+ venice? At stock frequencies and voltages, the Venice core isn't too much of a improvement from the Newcastle etc. Though they do make awesome overclockers, aparrently.

sys0p · Post by **sys0p** » Mon May 02, 2005 6:14 pm

Cool, I'll get that mobo and card then. Yeah I could get something a little more expensive if I wanted.. What do you recommend?

sys0p · Post by **sys0p** » Mon May 02, 2005 6:18 pm

Oh yeah, one more question.. At the moment, I've got a dual display with a 21 inch sony trinitron, and a 19 inch no-name monitor, but both of them are on the way out. I want to get a couple of LCD's, but 21 inch ones are way overpriced.. Do you think I'd notice the loss of size if I just got two 19 inch lcd's? I've noticed lcd's always seema bit bigger when you see them in the shops compared to the same size crts

Post by **DiscoDave** » Mon May 02, 2005 6:28 pm

sys0p wrote:Cool, I'll get that mobo and card then. Yeah I could get something a little more expensive if I wanted.. What do you recommend?

Well with the minimal price difference i'd probably stay with the venice cores, just get the best you're willing to dish out. I'm not sure where you're from, but check out the prices for each upgrade ie, 3200+, 3500+, 3700+ etc, and find out which is the best bang for your buck, at one point the price from one model to the one higher will be much higher than the ones below. If you get me..

sys0p wrote:Oh yeah, one more question.. At the moment, I've got a dual display with a 21 inch sony trinitron, and a 19 inch no-name monitor, but both of them are on the way out. I want to get a couple of LCD's, but 21 inch ones are way overpriced.. Do you think I'd notice the loss of size if I just got two 19 inch lcd's? I've noticed lcd's always seema bit bigger when you see them in the shops compared to the same size crts

Well, i've personaly never have used a dual screen setup, so hopfully someone whos had a bit more experience than me can answer later, but if you're comparing something like 2 x 21" to 2 x 19" then i dont think it would matter too much, unless you use them from a distance, ie to watch movies.

Post by **Tormentius** » Mon May 02, 2005 6:47 pm

sys0p wrote:Oh yeah, one more question.. At the moment, I've got a dual display with a 21 inch sony trinitron, and a 19 inch no-name monitor, but both of them are on the way out. I want to get a couple of LCD's, but 21 inch ones are way overpriced.. Do you think I'd notice the loss of size if I just got two 19 inch lcd's? I've noticed lcd's always seema bit bigger when you see them in the shops compared to the same size crts

Samsung has some decently priced 19" LCDs. I don't think you'll notice a big difference to be honest from the one 21" you have now.

Post by **Tormentius** » Mon May 02, 2005 6:48 pm

sys0p wrote:
Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-087-AS)

I've heard nothing but good reviews on this board.

sys0p · Post by **sys0p** » Mon May 02, 2005 7:08 pm

Cheers Dave and Tormentius, I just ordered everyithing, except I fucked the LCD off and ordered two new 21 inch CRT's instead. Cheers for the help

Soz riddla, but one piece of advice from you and soapboy creams his pants. And vice-versa

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon May 02, 2005 7:29 pm

ASUS :icon14:

Post by **Kills On Site** » Mon May 02, 2005 8:19 pm

Just curious, what was your previous ABit board?

Post by **Psyche911** » Mon May 02, 2005 9:06 pm

The A8N-SLi Deluxe is going to be replaced by the A8N-SLi Premium.

I'm not sure what the changes will be, but I'd reconsider buying anything that's about to be replaced with an updated version of the same product. It'll cost a lot though.

If I myself had money to upgrade now, I'd still wait. I think SLi is ludicrous. The amount of power two 6800GTs use up and the amount of heat they give off is just stupid. And with a lesser card like the 6600GT, it still uses about 75% as much power and is rarely any better than a single 6800GT which costs the same as the two cards combined.

Unless they start producing graphics cards targeted at low power consumtion & heat output in order to add GPUs, and overall increase in performance, I will always buy a more powerful single GPU.

sys0p · Post by **sys0p** » Mon May 02, 2005 11:40 pm

I'm not mega worried about heat or power, you can always buy bigger coolers and power supplies. I'm only putting one in at the moment, anyway.

Last question, I think:

I've got a Pentium 2.4c ht at the moment, is changing to a 3200+ going to give me a performance increase or decrease?

Post by **Psyche911** » Mon May 02, 2005 11:47 pm

In games:
Large increase.

In other areas it's back & forth.

sys0p · Post by **sys0p** » Mon May 02, 2005 11:50 pm

What about the general speed of windows? That's all I really use a pc for

Post by **Quebeth** » Tue May 03, 2005 12:02 am

It won't really increase it that much. Remember Windows is still in 2d mode.

Post by **SOAPboy** » Tue May 03, 2005 12:03 am

sys0p wrote:What about the general speed of windows? That's all I really use a pc for

Boot times will be faster..

Stuff might be a little more snapy, like menus, and saving large documents..

overall tho, unless you are a huge multitasker, you might not see to much of a difference..

Post by **Psyche911** » Tue May 03, 2005 12:32 am

I have a 2.4C now + 9800 Pro, and it's more than enough for general Windows. Hell, it's still good for lots of games. I wouldn't upgrade if that's all you care about.

SLi for web browsing, woohoo! lol

Post by **SOAPboy** » Tue May 03, 2005 12:33 am

Psyche911 wrote:
SLi for web browsing, woohoo! lol

el oh el

sys0p · Post by **sys0p** » Tue May 03, 2005 12:47 am

Psyche911 wrote:I have a 2.4C now + 9800 Pro, and it's more than enough for general Windows. Hell, it's still good for lots of games. I wouldn't upgrade if that's all you care about.

SLi for web browsing, woohoo! lol

I use Photoshop quite a lot, plus I play a popular games as and when they're released. The reason I need to upgrade is because my computer is broken. The favourites bar on IE is visible on the screen even when IE is closed due to burn in. Occasionally(once a week), my motherboard will let of an alarm that won't stop without a reboot. It sounds like a fire engine, and it does it for no reason. Upon reboot, the computer fails to start because the power supply is fucked. I have to make at least 5 attempts before I get the *beep* that indicates POST. I've lost the side panel to the case, which is just as well, since I have 3 hard drives hanging out of the side of it because they won't fit with the other 4 already in there. Everything is filthy, and I'm also running a geforce4.

Honestly, my computer is a fucking joke.

Also, I can afford it, so I don't want to buy a generic machine just because i won't use a powerful one to it's full potential 24 hours a day.

Edit: I just found LCD's at a reasonable price, so I cancelled the other order and ordered 2 Dell 2005fpw's. Got them both for under £900, which is a steal considering just one of a different brand cost more.

here's a picture:

Post by **SOAPboy** » Tue May 03, 2005 12:52 am

sys0p wrote:
Psyche911 wrote:I have a 2.4C now + 9800 Pro, and it's more than enough for general Windows. Hell, it's still good for lots of games. I wouldn't upgrade if that's all you care about.

SLi for web browsing, woohoo! lol
I use Photoshop quite a lot, plus I play a popular games as and when they're released. The reason I need to upgrade is because my computer is broken. The favourites bar on IE is visible on the screen even when IE is closed due to burn in. Occasionally(once a week), my motherboard will let of an alarm that won't stop without a reboot. It sounds like a fire engine, and it does it for no reason. Upon reboot, the computer fails to start because the power supply is fucked. I have to make at least 5 attempts before I get the *beep* that indicates POST. I've lost the side panel to the case, which is just as well, since I have 3 hard drives hanging out of the side of it because they won't fit. with the other 4 already in there. Everything is filthy, and I'm also running a geforce4.

Honestly, my computer is a fucking joke.

Also, I can afford it, so I don't want to buy a generic machine just because i won't use a powerful one to it's full potential 24 hours a day.

ill take the old parts.. lmfao

Post by **Psyche911** » Tue May 03, 2005 12:55 am

yeah, sys0p. we were having a thread about that monitor in GD just the other day. I wish I could afford just one. :\

And seven hard drives? Holy shit...I just have one installed right now. lol

sys0p · Post by **sys0p** » Tue May 03, 2005 12:59 am

Yeah tell me about it, they're not big drives, either.. I'm just lazy and I've accumulated them over the years and never bothered transferring the shit I have.. I think they total about 400gb

Yeah, the prices for that monitor were pretty steep everywhere I looked, but this one site has them in stock and they're £433, which is half what I was going to pay at the other sites..

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Tue May 03, 2005 2:32 am

You'll be happy with the ASUS, it's an awesome board. I hope you bought it retail box, because it comes with every cable and extra you'll ever need. I just recently built myself and a buddy PCs with the AN8-SLI Deluxe, AMD 64 4000+, BFG 6800 256 Ultra and 1gig of Corsair PC4400 DDR RAM. Let me tell you, these PCs just laugh at everything you throw at them. I've also got a Samsung 213T LCD monitor and it has also been great. I've had it for almost 2 years. I drag it back and forth to LAN parties and it still works like a champ. Perfect display, not one dead pixel.

Next week I'm building a PC for another friend that has the AN8-SLI Deluxe, AMD FX55, BFG 6800 256 Ultra, 2gigs of Corsair PC4400 DDR RAM and (2) 10,000 RPM SATA drives in RAID 0. I'm interested to see what that pig will do.

Post by **Tormentius** » Tue May 03, 2005 6:22 am

sys0p wrote:What about the general speed of windows? That's all I really use a pc for

An Intel chip with hyperthreading is better for general computer use IMO. Much more nimble feeling when multitasking. And before I get rushed by fanboys I use an Intel system at work and an AMD64 at home. The above has been my personal experience.

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Tue May 03, 2005 11:22 am

I'd have to agree. My P4 3GHz seemed faster clicking around in windows and even loading some games....

What's a good motherboard?

What's a good motherboard?

Re: What's a good motherboard?