The best cheap motherboards in my opinion are....

[wildone]

I just cannot get over the performance of the cheap mb made by Shuttle.I have bought 8 in the last 6 months and havent had any probs so far (knocks on wood) .The only thing I have really heard of being a problem was the fan on the north bridge of the motherboard dying or coming off.I do love the features of the motherboard and the stability and for the price its just awesome.

AK31 rev 3 74.00 U.S.

Ak35 GTR is 105.00 and has everything the ak31 has but includes Raid and 5.1 positional sound ,not to bad.

wildone

 

[floppybootstomp]

ECS

If you're talking el-cheapo motherboards a good one is the ECS K7S5A. Has onboard AC97 sound; takes DDR RAM and is happy with all flavours of XP Athlon CPU's.

All that for a little under fifty squids inc. VAT.

I recently built a system using one of those for a friend and I do believe Mucks has one It really was very good. And fast.

Only drawback - no overclocking facilities But if you're after a good stable board and aren't bothered with overclocking, this is a goodie.

And Mucks, if you're reading this: I read a thread over at Mods4me where a ECSK7S5A user was having problems with his Thunderbird 1.4 until he updated the BIOS. Other Forum members reported that their boards were happy with the XP CPU's.

There's a thing eh?

 

[wildone]

Re: ECS

Originally posted by floppybootstomp

If you're talking el-cheapo motherboards a good one is the ECS K7S5A. Has onboard AC97 sound; takes DDR RAM and is happy with all flavours of XP Athlon CPU's.

All that for a little under fifty squids inc. VAT.

I recently built a system using one of those for a friend and I do believe Mucks has one It really was very good. And fast.

Only drawback - no overclocking facilities But if you're after a good stable board and aren't bothered with overclocking, this is a goodie.

And Mucks, if you're reading this: I read a thread over at Mods4me where a ECSK7S5A user was having problems with his Thunderbird 1.4 until he updated the BIOS. Other Forum members reported that their boards were happy with the XP CPU's.

DOH ,sorry I meant to include these boards I swear ,also I have built a few systems based on them,but if you want overclocking features there is a bios you can flash to that board to give them to you *****HINT MUCKS ***** heheheehe

wildone

 

[floppybootstomp]

o/c bios

Really? Now that sounds interesting. Wouldn't care to point a finger in the general direction of that BIOS would you?

And Mucks overclock? Hmm, more chance of the Sun coming out at midnight methinks

 

[wildone]

OK ,I came across it a couple of weeks ago ,when I find it I will post it here for you.

wildone

 

[muckshifter]

Is this private, or can I join in.

Yep, the 1500+ XP on the ECS K7S5A is doing rather nicly & the 1.3 TBird has been going great guns. Now I need a KVM to keep me happy.

I think I did DL the BIOS update for the K7S5A board but at the moment it aint broke ... so I aint fixing it. :crazy:

 

[Fontburn]

I've got a Soltek motherboard. This little beast cost me about £65. The board is rock soild and looks cool (sad I know) also has one feature which set it apart from the rest. The red storm overclocking feature. In the bios you select to overclock and the chip goes of testing each setting until the system falls over. It restarts itself at a couple of setting below the unstable setting. I would recommend this board to anyone. the fact i've bought 4 of these now says i'm happy.

 

[Fontburn]

btw the board is a soltek SL-75DRV2

sorry missed that out

 

[Ian]

Yeah, I have a soltek motherboard too - a very good performer (I'm using the red storm overclocking feature too)

The same motherboard as you actually! (Just seen the next post!)

 

[wildone]

Originally posted by Ian Cunningham
Yeah, I have a soltek motherboard too - a very good performer (I'm using the red storm overclocking feature too)

The same motherboard as you actually! (Just seen the next post!)

So Ian ,How does it overclock?
:brow: :brow: :brow:

wildone

 

[Ian]

Well...

I've got a Duron 750 @ 1000Mhz at the moment, but my computer sounds like a 747 with a huge Heatsink/Fan

I'm hoping to get a better CPU soon enough, and a lot more ram

 

[wildone]

I have 2 delta 38's in my PC ,you cant even talk on the phone in here LOL ,so I know where you are coming from ,I am thinking of going to water just for the peace and quiet.

wildone

 

[Eric Portelance]

Since the motherboard is a very important part of a system, I always tend to go for the best. It's the little things that make the difference, too. I've been a big fan of Asus for a while now, and will continue to buy Asus boards. Next up, the A7V333-Raid.

 

[Ian]

Asus are one of my favs, as are Abit/Soltek/AOpen - all seem good performers

 

[Eric Portelance]

Don't forget Epox.

 

[wildone]

Originally posted by Eric Portelance
Don't forget Epox.

We said (cheap) , Epox boards are great but usually arent on the cheap side .

wildone

 

[Quadophile]

I have the Asus and also like the Soltek boards.

I seem to always have problems with Intel boards they actually suck. CC820,VC820 and now the stupid 845BG. Changing it to something better.

Any suggestion for a 478 pin DDR mobo?

 

[ChAoS Overlord]

Re: ECS

Originally posted by floppybootstomp
If you're talking el-cheapo motherboards a good one is the ECS K7S5A. Has onboard AC97 sound; takes DDR RAM and is happy with all flavours of XP Athlon CPU's.

All that for a little under fifty squids inc. VAT.

I recently built a system using one of those for a friend and I do believe Mucks has one It really was very good. And fast.

Only drawback - no overclocking facilities :sad: But if you're after a good stable board and aren't bothered with overclocking, this is a goodie.

And Mucks, if you're reading this: I read a thread over at Mods4me where a ECSK7S5A user was having problems with his Thunderbird 1.4 until he updated the BIOS. Other Forum members reported that their boards were happy with the XP CPU's.

There's a thing eh?

I agree completely, they offer some spiffy nice support, even athlon xp's up to 2200+. Also there is a hacked bios which allows you to do some (mild) overclocking. It is an extremely nice mainboard if you don't want to spend a lot of money, and it is also the manufacturer of the mainboards used by for example compaq.

 

[muckshifter]

Yes indeed 'Mucks' does have one ... and I give my "Customers" a chance to/for an easy 'Upgrade'.

I build computers, shit (oops, I should edit that ) I've been doing it for over 25 year now (dam I feel OLD) ... give me £600 and you WILL get a computer that will do Today’s Tasks easily ... and ECS has become my 'entry model' ...

... Why? ... Well I can easily 'upgrade' you from a Duron 1gig 256/133 to a 2gig AMD XP with 3gig DDR memory ... with little fuss. Other manufacturers PEASE note.

Now if you want to pay a little extra …. For an MSI ……….. email me.

 

[wildone]

Originally posted by muckshifter
Yes indeed 'Mucks' does have one ... and I give my "Customers" a chance to/for an easy 'Upgrade'.

I build computers, shit (oops, I should edit that ) I've been doing it for over 25 year now (dam I feel OLD) ... give me £600 and you WILL get a computer that will do Today’s Tasks easily ... and ECS has become my 'entry model' ...

... Why? ... Well I can easily 'upgrade' you from a Duron 1gig 256/133 to a 2gig AMD XP with 3gig DDR memory ... with little fuss. Other manufacturers PEASE note.

Now if you want to pay a little extra …. For an MSI ……….. email me.

And Mucks (here it comes)
You know there is an overclocking bios for those boards
and you maybe can turn a 1 gig Duron into a 1.5 gig duron ,anytime you wanna overclock that thing ,just email me

wildone