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A good 939 Mobo
- Thread starter The_Bob
- Start date
i have yet to have problems with my Asus A8V-Deluxe. It has the K8T800 Pro chipset and AGP. It's around 135 i think and runs like a champ. Everyone seems to like the MSI boards but I've heard a lot more problems with those than with Asus, but i'm just extremely biased after owning one.
Well I recently moved to a MSI k8n neo2 platinum 939 board.
While I was a little shaky to go with msi, (former Tyan user)
it has been remarkebly stable and fast. I havent had a single problem yet.
Most ppl who complain about these boards are usually trying to overclock the
he$$ out of them. And while having a huge e-p@nis is great, I'm more from the
line that I want the system to work everyday stable, with no problems.
While I was a little shaky to go with msi, (former Tyan user)
it has been remarkebly stable and fast. I havent had a single problem yet.
Most ppl who complain about these boards are usually trying to overclock the
he$$ out of them. And while having a huge e-p@nis is great, I'm more from the
line that I want the system to work everyday stable, with no problems.
I also have an MSI.
The early issues from what I can tell were resolved with bios updates. I am as the former post states overclocking the he$$ out of it and still have no stability issues.
I think the ASUS or MSI would be excellent choices. I am not a huge fan of Gigabyte as I had a couple GA-7VAXP ultra boards that gave me problems and I never overclocked with my XP2000 system. YMMV as you will find that different people have different experiences and that will always influence the recommendations they give.
The early issues from what I can tell were resolved with bios updates. I am as the former post states overclocking the he$$ out of it and still have no stability issues.
I think the ASUS or MSI would be excellent choices. I am not a huge fan of Gigabyte as I had a couple GA-7VAXP ultra boards that gave me problems and I never overclocked with my XP2000 system. YMMV as you will find that different people have different experiences and that will always influence the recommendations they give.
Captain Colonoscopy
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2004
- Messages
- 3,861
EPoX 9NDA3J has been a great board for me so far. Stable with a 255MHz FSB. I've had both EPoX and MSI and mobos and never had stability problems with either brand.
I have had, in order
1- Epox 9NDA3J - Got it from Mwave for 93.50$ + shipping. Board got here DOA, returned for full refund. Never got it running.
2- Asus A8V Deluxe - Needed a machine bad and unable to wait for Mwave RMA, i want to Tiger Direct in Miami and bought the Asus A8V Deluxe. This was revision 2 so the PCI locks were functional. I did have ALOT of problems with games and 3d appz. I thought it was the AGP driver since the new 4.55 drivers DO NOT include VIA agp drivers. Therefore you are stuck using Microsofts (dated 7-21-2001). Another thing was that I was not ABLE to overclock this chip as much as I am now and still being stable. Overall the Asus was a great board. I just didnt like the VIA driver problems. Alot of people seem to having good luck, but I was not one of those people. So i returned it to Tiger 2 weeks later after my 3rd board. The positive is that its handles memory alot better. Of course this is not visible unless you running benchmarks. Another thing thats faster (again in benchmarks) is the VIA on board SATA controller. I noticed I did get higher PCmark scores cause of the HD scores being high. Also, the only gaming benchmark that was top, was Aquamark. Asus scored higher on Video adpater score, but Lower in CPU score. With my MSI its lower Video score and higher CPU score. 3dmark05 was dropped about 300-400 points on average.
3- MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum - I got this to replace my Asus. I really should of went with this board 1st. I jumped on the Nforce bandwagon when they first came out and it was awesome. For me, this is my 3rd MSI board I have owned and there just keep getting better. The board is nice black color, which goes perfect with my Black case =). The performance is about on par with the Asus. There were things that did strike me as odd. I do not like the placement of the CPU or Ram. The CPU sits right above my video card, right where the core of my Video card is. Being that I have a 6800, it heats up my CPU fast. The ram slots seem to be kewl in the begining, until you install a heatsink and fan (depending on size of HSF) then you are confronted with a weird angle to insert ram into the first slot. Not only that, but, the colors for the DC is messed up....um why would they make the DC slots different colors? Doesnt make sense, but ok. Some positive things is this has a MUCH BETTER BIOS then the A8V. A8V had alot of extra ram settings, but it wasnt something you would know off the bat, once I read about it and played around with it, it did more harm than good. The board is stable at a higher overclock than my Asus. I wasnt even coming close to hitting 2160 with stability. I thought it was my ram, chip, everything. I knew that this chip could go 2.1, but it was killing me even to hit that. I would get WEIRD Bsod, IE errors....etc etc. I popped in my MSI and boom, booted at 2205. This wasnt really stable to me, but did get into windows. I wasnt even able to boot at all at anything higher then 242 on my Asus. Maybe has something to due with the way MSI handles memory over the Asus. Might be the meaning of the difference in overclocking.
All in all, if i had to do it all over again, MSI all the way. Nforce drivers are much better to me than Via. I thought I would give VIA a chance again, since they seem to be having good reviews on their chipsets. I owned a Via boards back in the day when they were really the only choice. I gave them a shot, but still say Nforce is a better overall chipset.
1- Epox 9NDA3J - Got it from Mwave for 93.50$ + shipping. Board got here DOA, returned for full refund. Never got it running.
2- Asus A8V Deluxe - Needed a machine bad and unable to wait for Mwave RMA, i want to Tiger Direct in Miami and bought the Asus A8V Deluxe. This was revision 2 so the PCI locks were functional. I did have ALOT of problems with games and 3d appz. I thought it was the AGP driver since the new 4.55 drivers DO NOT include VIA agp drivers. Therefore you are stuck using Microsofts (dated 7-21-2001). Another thing was that I was not ABLE to overclock this chip as much as I am now and still being stable. Overall the Asus was a great board. I just didnt like the VIA driver problems. Alot of people seem to having good luck, but I was not one of those people. So i returned it to Tiger 2 weeks later after my 3rd board. The positive is that its handles memory alot better. Of course this is not visible unless you running benchmarks. Another thing thats faster (again in benchmarks) is the VIA on board SATA controller. I noticed I did get higher PCmark scores cause of the HD scores being high. Also, the only gaming benchmark that was top, was Aquamark. Asus scored higher on Video adpater score, but Lower in CPU score. With my MSI its lower Video score and higher CPU score. 3dmark05 was dropped about 300-400 points on average.
3- MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum - I got this to replace my Asus. I really should of went with this board 1st. I jumped on the Nforce bandwagon when they first came out and it was awesome. For me, this is my 3rd MSI board I have owned and there just keep getting better. The board is nice black color, which goes perfect with my Black case =). The performance is about on par with the Asus. There were things that did strike me as odd. I do not like the placement of the CPU or Ram. The CPU sits right above my video card, right where the core of my Video card is. Being that I have a 6800, it heats up my CPU fast. The ram slots seem to be kewl in the begining, until you install a heatsink and fan (depending on size of HSF) then you are confronted with a weird angle to insert ram into the first slot. Not only that, but, the colors for the DC is messed up....um why would they make the DC slots different colors? Doesnt make sense, but ok. Some positive things is this has a MUCH BETTER BIOS then the A8V. A8V had alot of extra ram settings, but it wasnt something you would know off the bat, once I read about it and played around with it, it did more harm than good. The board is stable at a higher overclock than my Asus. I wasnt even coming close to hitting 2160 with stability. I thought it was my ram, chip, everything. I knew that this chip could go 2.1, but it was killing me even to hit that. I would get WEIRD Bsod, IE errors....etc etc. I popped in my MSI and boom, booted at 2205. This wasnt really stable to me, but did get into windows. I wasnt even able to boot at all at anything higher then 242 on my Asus. Maybe has something to due with the way MSI handles memory over the Asus. Might be the meaning of the difference in overclocking.
All in all, if i had to do it all over again, MSI all the way. Nforce drivers are much better to me than Via. I thought I would give VIA a chance again, since they seem to be having good reviews on their chipsets. I owned a Via boards back in the day when they were really the only choice. I gave them a shot, but still say Nforce is a better overall chipset.
I've always liked MSI, but some problems definitely exists in past few years...
Stability is quite good, when it works - works just fine, but... I noticed many people around me with, so called, "capacitor leakage" problems, when some of capacitors (often 1000mF) leak all over the board (rarely explode) and make mobo totally dead. Even if it continues to live, system stability is much lower than before. Sometimes, it acts like memory's failed - apps crashes, system restarts, cannot recognize storage etc.
I've fixed about five or six pcs (I can't remember precisely), by replacing all defect capacitors, and all problems were gone.
Have anybody seen this problem already?
MOBOs are not very new (MSI K7T/Turbo, Pro2A and KT4V). It's true that all of them are old, but how can I now what is quality of new ones?
Sorry for my bad english, I'm not from USA.
Greetings to all
Stability is quite good, when it works - works just fine, but... I noticed many people around me with, so called, "capacitor leakage" problems, when some of capacitors (often 1000mF) leak all over the board (rarely explode) and make mobo totally dead. Even if it continues to live, system stability is much lower than before. Sometimes, it acts like memory's failed - apps crashes, system restarts, cannot recognize storage etc.
I've fixed about five or six pcs (I can't remember precisely), by replacing all defect capacitors, and all problems were gone.
Have anybody seen this problem already?
MOBOs are not very new (MSI K7T/Turbo, Pro2A and KT4V). It's true that all of them are old, but how can I now what is quality of new ones?
Sorry for my bad english, I'm not from USA.
Greetings to all
skinegibbs
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2004
- Messages
- 447
I love my Neo2 Platinum
a1rocketpilot
n00b
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2005
- Messages
- 30
Anyone know anything about the Abit Fatal1ty AN8 board? From the specs and given how good the Fatal1ty-AA8XE was, it seems to be a kick-ass board. Any comments?
pilotman2004
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2004
- Messages
- 221
I wouldn't go with the Fatal1ty as much as the regular AN8 or AN8-3rd Eye. The whole fatal1ty treatment (OTES, etc...) is pretty cool, but I'd much rather save the money and pick up a regular AN8. I'm kinda biased towards Abit, I have had nothing but good luck with their boards. So my opinion would be to pick up a regular AN8 or AN8 3rd Eye if you want the snazzy clock lookin thingy. Then again, it seems like there are people who have had crap for luck with companys that others have had nothing but success, so its more of just a personal preference. I'd rock the AN8...
epox ep-9nda3j, cost me 99$ got mine running 290mhz fsb. lots of voltage options, more than i need. 5 empty pci slots (onboard 7.1surround sound, onchip gigabit ethernet, onboard hardware firewall, onchip sata raid. What more do you want for 99$? Why are you so difficult to please? Why can't u just buy the motherboard and be over with it all!? It fits a thermalright xp-90 without having to bend caps. lots of bios options in general. did i mention its 99$?