Best Sub $100 Motherboard

  • Thread starter Thread starter BrightStar
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BrightStar

I am building a machine for my brother mostly for internet surfing,
some word processing, no gaming, no heavy duty graphics.

I am seeking the most dependable, FAST motherboard with proven specs
for under $100.

I do not want the latest greatest experimental, I just want something
trouble free and FAST. I am thinking Intel 2.4 GH CPU, onboard sound,
sub $99 vid card, Win 2000 Professional, 512 mb memory, 80 gb HD,
ethernet, possibly wifi, firewire would be nice.

Are there things to look for and to avoid? For instance, I know some
memory works faster for the buck. I have an 8 year old machine with a
state of the art (for the time) ASUS motherboard that until a few
years ago had taken me through all sorts of light and heavy duty tasks
without trouble. Any dependable companies out there now? Any
companies to avoid? Any chipsets, component manufacturers to avoid?

a link to a good website that lays these issues out would be
sufficient. I just need some direction without having to read an
encyclopedia worth of text.

need cheap speed and dependability.

Thanks,
Brightstar65
 
BrightStar said:
I am building a machine for my brother mostly for internet surfing,
some word processing, no gaming, no heavy duty graphics.
Click to expand...
I am seeking the most dependable, FAST motherboard with proven specs
for under $100.
Click to expand...

In that case you should get an Athlon XP processor. You can get an Athlon
XP3000+ for around $95, and a decent motherboard for it for around
$60.Great bang for the buck. An Athlon XP3000+ beats a Pentium 4 3.2 ghz
at Business Winstone 2004.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2065&p=6

I do not want the latest greatest experimental, I just want something
trouble free and FAST. I am thinking Intel 2.4 GH CPU, onboard sound,
sub $99 vid card, Win 2000 Professional, 512 mb memory, 80 gb HD,
ethernet, possibly wifi, firewire would be nice.

Are there things to look for and to avoid?
Click to expand...

Since you want great value, you should use an AMD processor.
For instance, I know some
memory works faster for the buck. I have an 8 year old machine with a
state of the art (for the time) ASUS motherboard that until a few
years ago had taken me through all sorts of light and heavy duty tasks
without trouble. Any dependable companies out there now? Any
companies to avoid? Any chipsets, component manufacturers to avoid?

a link to a good website that lays these issues out would be
sufficient. I just need some direction without having to read an
encyclopedia worth of text.

need cheap speed and dependability.
Click to expand...

It sounds like you need an AMD system.
 
JAD said:
WILL you STFU ALREADY YOU FREAKING SALESMAN he said dependable and
fast not just fast
Click to expand...

An Athlon XP system will be dependable when it uses a good motherboard,
good ram, and a good power supply. One can get an Asus A7N8X-X motherboard
for around $60.
 
JK said:
In that case you should get an Athlon XP processor. You can get an Athlon
XP3000+ for around $95,
Click to expand...

Huh? Newegg wants $160 for that in a retail box. Where can you get it
for $95?

Oh, I see ... you are talking about the AMD employees discount.
 
Since you said "no gaming", I would suggest a mini-ATX motherboard with
on-graphics and sound. A Biostar M7NCG with an AMD 2800+ (333MHz) is 148.50
at MWave. That, coupled with 512 MB of quality memory (2X256MB for dual
channel capability) gets you a fast, reliable and inexpensive machine.

I'm running two of these (with the AMD 2500+) for my kids (including a 5 yr
old- how's that for a test of reliability). I haven't had a moments problem
with either. A mini-ATX board will fit in a standard ATX case. There is a
AGP slot available if you want to upgrade the graphics - though the GeForce
4 MMX runs mild games like "The Simms" just fine. The major difference with
the miniATX is you get 3 PCI slots instead of 5. Add your 30 dollar firewire
card and you still have two left.

Ethernet is also onboard. Crucial makes dependable memory at a reasonable
price.

Good Luck,
Fitz
 
Fitz said:
Since you said "no gaming", I would suggest a mini-ATX motherboard with
on-graphics and sound. A Biostar M7NCG with an AMD 2800+ (333MHz) is 148.50
at MWave.
Click to expand...

I couldn't find it.
 
www.mwave.com
Click "Catalog" then highlight "Motherboards", select Motherboard and CPU
bundles from the dropdown box and then select Biostar - scroll down. The
M7NCG will be listed, with the 3200+ as the default processor. Change the
processor to a 2800+ (I chose it because it is the price jump point), and
select "Buy"...it will give you the total of 148.50.
 
www.mwave.com
Click "Catalog" then highlight "Motherboards", select Motherboard and CPU
bundles from the dropdown box and then select Biostar - scroll down. The
M7NCG will be listed, with the 3200+ as the default processor. Change the
processor to a 2800+ (I chose it because it is the price jump point), and
select "Buy"...it will give you the total of 148.50.
Click to expand...

$68 shipped BIOSTAR "M7NCG 400" :
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-138-234&depa=0

$87 shipped 2400+ mobile:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-439&depa=0

Those are an unreal combination. Run 3400+ right out of the box. Very
stable/cool.
 
On 23 Sep 2004 19:32:38 -0700, (e-mail address removed) (BrightStar)
wrote:

---- trim
Are there things to look for and to avoid? For instance, I know some
memory works faster for the buck. I have an 8 year old machine with a
state of the art (for the time) ASUS motherboard that until a few
years ago had taken me through all sorts of light and heavy duty tasks
without trouble. Any dependable companies out there now? Any
companies to avoid? Any chipsets, component manufacturers to avoid?

a link to a good website that lays these issues out would be
sufficient. I just need some direction without having to read an
encyclopedia worth of text.

need cheap speed and dependability.

Thanks,
Brightstar65
Click to expand...


The BIOS is what really makes the difference between motherboards.
Unfortunately there are so many MB's and tests don't tell you how much
the BIOS allows you to optimize the speed of the chipset. It isn't the
BIOS brand - AMI, Award or Phoenix, it's the detain the MB maker puts
into the BIOS. You have to pretty much go by word of mouth and
manufacturer's reputation.

Otherwise I have found the SIS chipsets to be less compatible than
VIA. Then it's just a matter of the bus speed of the chipset and
number of ports on the board. Look for 8+ USB ports.
 
BrightStar said:
I am building a machine for my brother mostly for internet surfing,
some word processing, no gaming, no heavy duty graphics.

I am seeking the most dependable, FAST motherboard with proven specs
for under $100.

I do not want the latest greatest experimental, I just want something
trouble free and FAST. I am thinking Intel 2.4 GH CPU, onboard sound,
sub $99 vid card, Win 2000 Professional, 512 mb memory, 80 gb HD,
ethernet, possibly wifi, firewire would be nice.
Click to expand...

Holy cheeerist, I think this is the longest thread I've seen where nobody
has bothered to even READ the OP.

Try an AOpen AX4C Max (not the MAX II, which is twice as much). Should be
about $75, and you won't get better quality at any price. -Dave

http://usa.aopen.com/Products/MB/AX4CMax.htm
 
BrightStar said:
I am building a machine for my brother mostly for internet surfing,
some word processing, no gaming, no heavy duty graphics.
Click to expand...

What do you have now? Why isn't it giving you what you want. It doesn't
take a lot of power to surf the internet and do word processing.
I am seeking the most dependable, FAST motherboard with proven specs
for under $100.
Click to expand...

That leaves about a hundred motherboards in the running...

I do not want the latest greatest experimental, I just want something
trouble free and FAST. I am thinking Intel 2.4 GH CPU, onboard sound,
sub $99 vid card, Win 2000 Professional, 512 mb memory, 80 gb HD,
ethernet, possibly wifi, firewire would be nice.
Click to expand...

Probably the best motherboard I can think of to meet those specs is the
Asus P4P800-E Deluxe, but it's $114 @ www.zipzoomfly.com. If you can
spare the extra $14, you're there. This board is one of the all-time
great power/performance/stability/feature boards for the price on the
Intel side. I bought one for my brother last Christmas and it's just an
absolute great buy. It's the only one close to your price range that
I'll recommend, since the others I have no experience with.
Are there things to look for and to avoid? For instance, I know some
memory works faster for the buck. I have an 8 year old machine with a
state of the art (for the time) ASUS motherboard that until a few
years ago had taken me through all sorts of light and heavy duty tasks
without trouble. Any dependable companies out there now? Any
companies to avoid? Any chipsets, component manufacturers to avoid?
Click to expand...

Asus is still as rock-solid as ever. MSI is a good company, too. I run a
Gigabyte motherboard and am happy with it. My other computer has a Soyo
motherboard, and I haven't had it long enough to truely evaluate it. It
seems pretty good, and is my first forray into the AMD side.
a link to a good website that lays these issues out would be
sufficient. I just need some direction without having to read an
encyclopedia worth of text.

need cheap speed and dependability.
Click to expand...

Sometimes, spending just a couple of extra bucks is more than worth it...
 
JK said:
An Athlon XP system will be dependable when it uses a good motherboard,
good ram, and a good power supply. One can get an Asus A7N8X-X motherboard
for around $60.
Click to expand...

I completely agree. I'm just starting to build AMD systems, and I built
a really fast system with 512MB of DDR400 memory, Athlon XP 2800+,
Maxtor 160GB SATA HDD, and scavenged the DVD, CD-R/RW, Zip250, and
GeForce FX5200 card from my old system for about $400. That was a steal
for a nice fast machine.
 
Ruel said:
I completely agree. I'm just starting to build AMD systems, and I built
a really fast system with 512MB of DDR400 memory, Athlon XP 2800+,
Maxtor 160GB SATA HDD, and scavenged the DVD, CD-R/RW, Zip250, and
GeForce FX5200 card from my old system for about $400. That was a steal
for a nice fast machine.
Click to expand...

Hmmm ... wonder why you didn't get an Athlon 64. And you are a SuSE
guy---you could have tried the 64-bit system? Maybe it's not stable
yet? 64-bit is promoted pretty stongly on their website ...
 
An Athlon XP system will be dependable when it uses a good motherboard,
good ram, and a good power supply. One can get an Asus A7N8X-X motherboard
for around $60.
Click to expand...

There has not been any,"Dependability" issues between AMD and Intel
CPUs since both their inceptions.Remove this from the equation and
move on.



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Free Windows/PC help,
http://www.geocities.com/sheppola/trouble.html
remove obvious to reply
email (e-mail address removed)
Free songs to download and,"BURN" :O)
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/8/nomessiahsmusic.htm
 
Matt said:
Hmmm ... wonder why you didn't get an Athlon 64. And you are a SuSE
guy---you could have tried the 64-bit system? Maybe it's not stable
yet? 64-bit is promoted pretty stongly on their website ...
Click to expand...

No, it's not the stability part, but the availability of stuff for it.
Many apps are still 32 bit like FlashPlayer. I'm waiting for a little
while until it matures a little bit more. Besides, I don't think I could
have gotten by quite so cheap with 64 bit.

I'm waiting until the dual core Socket 939 boards and processors come
out, and get affordable enough and my XP machine will go that route. By
then, XP-64 should be released. Since it's my gaming machine, I'm
willing to spend more on it. Linux does my other tasks, so it doesn't
need such cutting edge hardware anyway. That XP machine actually rocks
in Linux!

BTW, I've recently switched to Mandrake, though I'm having some troubles
with the lack of support nVidia has for the KT600 chipset and Mandrake
doesn't like me to switch to the OSS driver, as it switches it back to
the nVidia driver for me. The nVidia problem plagues both SuSE and
Mandrake. I'm working on a solution (it's part of the joy of running
Linux). I would really like to see better OEM support for Linux...
Anyway, Mandrake runs faster, but overall, I like SuSE better. I may
switch back in the near future, after SuSE 9.2 is released. Maybe, I'll
just install them both.
 
Shep© said:
There has not been any,"Dependability" issues between AMD and Intel
CPUs since both their inceptions.Remove this from the equation and
move on.
Click to expand...

Not in the CPU's but the chipsets. Via chipsets had an awful problem
with onboard sound just a couple of years ago. I think most of that has
been solved, but who knows?

Other than that, you're right. All my future systems will be AMD.
 
Ruel said:
BTW, I've recently switched to Mandrake, though I'm having some troubles
with the lack of support nVidia has for the KT600 chipset and Mandrake
doesn't like me to switch to the OSS driver, as it switches it back to
the nVidia driver for me. The nVidia problem plagues both SuSE and
Mandrake.
Click to expand...

I don't see what nVidia has or should have to do with KT600. I'm
running the Soyo KT600 Dragon Ultra Platinum Edition ($15 AR) with an
nVidia FX5200 AGP card, nvidia OpenGL driver, and Fedora Core 2.
Everything works great, with easy setup, except that the onboard sound
was choppy, so I dropped in a separate sound card.
 
Matt said:
Hmmm ... wonder why you didn't get an Athlon 64. And you are a SuSE
guy---you could have tried the 64-bit system? Maybe it's not stable
yet? 64-bit is promoted pretty stongly on their website ...
Click to expand...

An Athlon 64 is good for those who run games, Photoshop, CAD, or
other demanding applications. For those who only run business
software or who are on a very tight budget, an Athlon XP is good.
An Athlon XP2800+ at around $75 is a good value. An Athlon 64 2800+
is around $140, and a motherboard for it is around $25 more than one for
an Athlon XP.
 
Matt said:
I don't see what nVidia has or should have to do with KT600. I'm
running the Soyo KT600 Dragon Ultra Platinum Edition ($15 AR) with an
nVidia FX5200 AGP card, nvidia OpenGL driver, and Fedora Core 2.
Everything works great, with easy setup, except that the onboard sound
was choppy, so I dropped in a separate sound card.
Click to expand...

Nvidia uses the NVAGP kernel module that has no support for the KT600
chipset when you install their driver. They recommend that you use the
AGPGART kernel module, instead. This is the only conclusion I've come to
, and I'm going to attempt to build my own kernel for the first time and
set it up that way and find out. I just haven't gotten around to it, yet.

This is from the nVidia ReadMe:

The following AGP chipsets are supported by NVIDIA's AGP; for all other
chipsets it is recommended that you use the AGPGART module.

<snip>

o AMD 8151 ("Lokar")
o VIA 8371
o VIA 82C694X
o VIA KT133
o VIA KT266
o VIA KT400
o VIA P4M266
o VIA P4M266A
o VIA P4X400
o RCC CNB20LE

<snip>
 
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