What would you buy? (MOBO/CPU)

[oh]

I am trying to decide between AMD and Pentium and after that the
following:

AMD:
1) FIC K8-800T K8T800 / VT8237 + Athlon 64 2800 or 3000 CPU
2) ECS - 755-A2 + ATHLON 64 2800+ or 3400 or 3400+ CPU
3) Gigabyte GA-K8VM800 + ATHLON 64 2800+ or 3000+ CPU
4) Chaintech SK8T800 + ATHLON 64 3400+ CPU
5) TidalWave W32 + Athlon 64 3400+ CPU
6) Biostar K8VGA-M + AMD ATHLON 64 3400+ CPU
7) Gigabyte GA-K8NS + Athlon 64 3400+ CPU
8) MSI - K8N Neo + Athlon 64 3400+ CPU

or PENTIUM:
1) ?ASRock? P4VT8 + Pentium 4 3.2GHz 1MB Cache Prescott W/HEATSINK
2) ASUS P4P800S + Pentium 4 3.2GHz Prescott
3) ECS PM800-M2 + Pentium 4 3.2GHz Prescott
4) SOYO P4VTE+ Pentium 4 3.2GHz Prescott
5) ?ASRock? 775I65G+Pentium 4 540 3.2GHz CPU
6) Abit AS8 LGA775 + Pentium 4 540 3.2GHz CPU
7) Gigabyte GA-8IPE775-G8 + Pentium 4 540 3.2GHz CPU
8) ECS 915P-A ( 915PA ) + Pentium 4 540 3.2GHz CPU

or?????

Help will be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[George]

I am trying to decide between AMD and Pentium and after that the
following:

not bad, you narrowed it down to only 16 choices...

 

[oh]

not bad, you narrowed it down to only 16 choices...

Yah I Know,,,,I just thought one or two would jump out at someone as
either something to avoid or something to jump for.

Thanks anyway.

 

[Chuck]

7) Gigabyte GA-K8NS + Athlon 64 3400+ CPU

From personal experience, never had a problem with two Gigabyte mb's.

I have no prejudice, but I can't see paying more for something if I can get
it for less with the same, or better, results and performance. AMD. Why
would anyone buy Intel?

 

[Noozer]

Yah I Know,,,,I just thought one or two would jump out at someone as
either something to avoid or something to jump for.

Without seeing the rest of the thread, I'd look for the following in a
mainboard...

- Socket 939 AMD64 compatible
- NON Via chipset
- Onboard gigabit NIC
- Onboard 6+ channel sound
- Sata onboard
- Firewire onboard
- USB 2

....and the nice to have's...

- PCIe slots
- Onboard nVidia video + AGP slot (so board can be reused later as server,
etc.)

I'd avoid ASRock and MSI and look at Asus or ECS (depending out how much
cash you have available)

 

[oh]

Without seeing the rest of the thread, I'd look for the following in a
mainboard...

- Socket 939 AMD64 compatible
- NON Via chipset
- Onboard gigabit NIC
- Onboard 6+ channel sound
- Sata onboard
- Firewire onboard
- USB 2

...and the nice to have's...

- PCIe slots
- Onboard nVidia video + AGP slot (so board can be reused later as server,
etc.)

I'd avoid ASRock and MSI and look at Asus or ECS (depending out how much
cash you have available)

Thanks

You don't like VIA?

 

[kony]

I am trying to decide between AMD and Pentium and after that the
following:

AMD:
1) FIC K8-800T K8T800 / VT8237 + Athlon 64 2800 or 3000 CPU
2) ECS - 755-A2 + ATHLON 64 2800+ or 3400 or 3400+ CPU
3) Gigabyte GA-K8VM800 + ATHLON 64 2800+ or 3000+ CPU
4) Chaintech SK8T800 + ATHLON 64 3400+ CPU
5) TidalWave W32 + Athlon 64 3400+ CPU
6) Biostar K8VGA-M + AMD ATHLON 64 3400+ CPU
7) Gigabyte GA-K8NS + Athlon 64 3400+ CPU
8) MSI - K8N Neo + Athlon 64 3400+ CPU

or PENTIUM:
1) ?ASRock? P4VT8 + Pentium 4 3.2GHz 1MB Cache Prescott W/HEATSINK
2) ASUS P4P800S + Pentium 4 3.2GHz Prescott
3) ECS PM800-M2 + Pentium 4 3.2GHz Prescott
4) SOYO P4VTE+ Pentium 4 3.2GHz Prescott
5) ?ASRock? 775I65G+Pentium 4 540 3.2GHz CPU
6) Abit AS8 LGA775 + Pentium 4 540 3.2GHz CPU
7) Gigabyte GA-8IPE775-G8 + Pentium 4 540 3.2GHz CPU
8) ECS 915P-A ( 915PA ) + Pentium 4 540 3.2GHz CPU

K8N Neo combo

or?????

Choose an nForce4 combo instead from abit, gigabyte, asus or
msi.

 

[Noozer]

Without seeing the rest of the thread, I'd look for the following in a

Thanks

You don't like VIA?

VIA is buggy, regardless of what anyone says. Just avoid the headache
whenever possible.

MSI makes an OK board, but for the price I find that the omit a lot of
features that you can find on cheaper and better boards.

 

[Jon Danniken]

Choose an nForce4 combo instead from abit, gigabyte, asus, or
msi.

Yep.

Jon

 

[oh]

Yep.

Jon

OK guys.

I appreciate the advice. As you can guess I was at least in part
fishing for info. Nothing beats experience.

Anyway, I'll have to research nforce a little to see what nforce4
offers over nforce3 that might be advantageous for me,

Thanks again,

 

[YanquiDawg]

Nforce4 will have PCI-e slots and ?updated? SATA. Most everything else will be
similar to the
Nforce 3-250gb.Depending on price and manufacturer.

OK guys.

 

[JK]

Go with a 90nm socket 939 Athlon 64.

 

[oh]

Go with a 90nm socket 939 Athlon 64.

What do you think of:

Abit AV8 VIA K8T800 Pro/ VT8237 chipset Socket 939 DDR 400 PC3200
Gigabyte LAN Audio 1 AGP 8x/4x 5 PCI ATX IEEE 1394 with cpu - AMD
ATHLON 64 3500+ 90nm 512k with cpu heatsink & fan Combo Kit

for $391.90 @ www.bzboyz.com ????

Someone warned against VIA though

Thanks

 

[oh]

Go with a 90nm socket 939 Athlon 64.

What do you think of:

ABIT AV8 VIA K8T800 Pro/ VT8237 chipset Socket 939 DDR 400 PC3200
Gigabyte LAN Audio 1 AGP 8x/4x 5 PCI ATX IEEE 1394 with cpu - AMD
ATHLON 64 3500+ 90nm 512k with cpu heatsink & fan Combo Kit

for $391.90 @ www.bzboyz.com

as opposed to:

ASUS K8N-E Deluxe NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb Chipset Socket 754 AMD Athlon
64 & Sempron DDR400 PC3200 AGP8X 5PCI 8-channel Realtek Audio GB-LAN
IEEE 1394 ATX with cpu -AMD ATHLON 64 3200+ with cpu heatsink & fan
with 256MB PC3200 Memory w/1Yr Warranty

for $374.00 @ www.bzboyz.com

Note the Asus has 256M PC3200 Memory


????

Someone warned against VIA though

Thanks

 

[what]

Without seeing the rest of the thread, I'd look for the following in a
mainboard...

- Socket 939 AMD64 compatible
- NON Via chipset
- Onboard gigabit NIC
- Onboard 6+ channel sound
- Sata onboard
- Firewire onboard
- USB 2

...and the nice to have's...

- PCIe slots
- Onboard nVidia video + AGP slot (so board can be reused later as server,
etc.)

I'd avoid ASRock and MSI and look at Asus or ECS (depending out how much
cash you have available)

Thanks

You don't like VIA?

 

[Chuck]

for $391.90 @ www.bzboyz.com

I would check www.resellerratings.com before I bought anything from them.

This company is definitely a scam. Low prices on pricewatch grab your
attention but you'll be sorry if you buy ANYTHING from them. I, like many
others, had the absolute worst experience with this "company" trying to buy
a mobo/cpu combo.

If you'd like to hear my horror story, I'd be glad to post it. You've been
warned.....

 

[oh]

I would check www.resellerratings.com before I bought anything from them.

This company is definitely a scam. Low prices on pricewatch grab your
attention but you'll be sorry if you buy ANYTHING from them. I, like many
others, had the absolute worst experience with this "company" trying to buy
a mobo/cpu combo.

If you'd like to hear my horror story, I'd be glad to post it. You've been
warned.....

Thanks for the warning. I visited www.resellerratings.com and was
startled by the bad experiences noted there. I certainly will trash
my research regarding MOBOs etc at BZBOYZ.

Looking elsewhere, what do you think of www.partspc.com?
I called them (voice), but could not understand the person on the
other end.

 

[Chuck]

If you'd like to hear my horror story, I'd be glad to post it. You've

Thanks for the warning. I visited www.resellerratings.com and was
startled by the bad experiences noted there. I certainly will trash
my research regarding MOBOs etc at BZBOYZ.

Looking elsewhere, what do you think of www.partspc.com?
I called them (voice), but could not understand the person on the
other end.

I'm sure there are people here who do much more online buying than I do. My
experience last year with bzboyz was absolutely incredible. I found them on
pricewatch, but didn't know about resellerratings at the time. Wasted 3
months, but got my money credited back through my credit card company. I
learned that it's worth it to pay slightly higher, if any at all in the long
run, and deal with a company that delivers as promised.

I ended up going with www.monarchcomputer.com I had a very good experience
with them and was very satisfied with my mobo/cpu purchase. From what I
hear, you can never go wrong with www.newegg.com either.

I don't have "extra" cash, but saving the hassles and getting exactly what
you want, when you want it is worth a few bucks IMHO. Pricewatch is useless
to me because of vendors like bzboyz. Bait and switch, scammers, paying
add'l for "pre-tested" combos that don't work at all and then wanting to
charge you fees to "re-test" it, after having to incur expense to send it
back. I think they have one defective part that they keep sending out over
and over again. The horror stories on www.resellerratings.com are just too
identical and the same story as mine 18 months ago. I don't understand how
an outfit like this is still around. All I can do is spread the word about
my experience and let the buyers beware.

 

[oh]

I'm sure there are people here who do much more online buying than I do. My
experience last year with bzboyz was absolutely incredible. I found them on
pricewatch, but didn't know about resellerratings at the time. Wasted 3
months, but got my money credited back through my credit card company. I
learned that it's worth it to pay slightly higher, if any at all in the long
run, and deal with a company that delivers as promised.

I ended up going with www.monarchcomputer.com I had a very good experience
with them and was very satisfied with my mobo/cpu purchase. From what I
hear, you can never go wrong with www.newegg.com either.

I don't have "extra" cash, but saving the hassles and getting exactly what
you want, when you want it is worth a few bucks IMHO. Pricewatch is useless
to me because of vendors like bzboyz. Bait and switch, scammers, paying
add'l for "pre-tested" combos that don't work at all and then wanting to
charge you fees to "re-test" it, after having to incur expense to send it
back. I think they have one defective part that they keep sending out over
and over again. The horror stories on www.resellerratings.com are just too
identical and the same story as mine 18 months ago. I don't understand how
an outfit like this is still around. All I can do is spread the word about
my experience and let the buyers beware.

Thanks for info. I agree with all that you are saying in regard to
pricewatch. I have encountered much bait-and-switch and disguised
discounting/rebating.

I have been looking at www.monarchcomputer.com
They seem okay so far. I intend to take a look at newegg too.

 

[JT]

"I'd avoid ASRock and MSI and look at Asus or ECS (depending out how much
cash you have available)
"

On the contrary, MSI has earned a reputation as being one of the most
reliable and stable motherboards around, I've owned a couple and I would
choose it over most of the others on the list with the exception of maybe an
ABit mobo