Which mobod to get...

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commissioneranthony

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I posted up this thread in the "The Unofficial List of Good mATX Motherboards (Overclocking and Not)" and felt that it was out of place. I moved it here in hope of a better responce.
Ok, so as for skt 939... I'm stuck between several motherboards. they are:
-Asus A8N-VM CSM http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?mo...15&l3=210&l4=0
-Gigabyte GA-K8N51PVMT-9-RH http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/M...ProductID=2293
-Gigabyte GA-K8N51PVMT-9 http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/M...ProductID=1938
-Gigabyte GA-K8N51GMF-9 http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/M...ProductID=1939
-Gigabyte GA-K8N51GMF-9-RH http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/M...ProductID=2294

I can't figure out which one to buy. I need a mobod that has 4 sata 3gb, 4 pc 3200 slots, ide 100/133, parallel port, usb 2.0 and firewire 400/800, 10/100/1000 eath, dual core support, support for opteron cpu's and dual core opteron cpu's.
Problem is that the asus board is the only one that supports dual core opteron's, but is plagued with problems: overclocking restrictions, improper cooling, not full digital audio, not full dvi port, DOA, hd errors. What I want to know is if anyone who has one of these gigabyte mobods has got any dual core opterons to work in the board. I mean the asus has practically the same components as the gigabyte's, but the gigabyte mobods can't run all the same opteron cpu's that the asus board can.

Also, is the asus board a good choice? I've read several reviews, and it seems ok, but has problems. I think these were fixed in later revisions and bios fixes. can someone fill me in?

yes I know skt 939 is old, but I'm upgrading my kitchen pc from skt A, and I don't like the Am2 platform.
 
Do you already have a Socket 939 processor?

Have you checked out the AMD motherboards or AMD CPU forums here?

What don't you like about the AM2 platform? (Why aren't you considering an Intel build?)
 
No desktop board will officially support Opterons, thanks to AMD. Opterons are server chips, so while they are the same exact hardware as AthlonX2's, you still won't find official support on a desktop board. The best mATX OC'ing board for s939 that I've found was the Foxconn GeForce 6150K8MA-8EKRS mATX board. It took my X2 3800+ to 2.6Ghz. :) I'll probably sell it soon. :p
 
Skt 939 is a well established platform, since it has already been outdated. It doesn't use ddr2 memory, and takes advantage of the old reliable pc 3200 memory which I already have, as well as my 3500+ athlon64. I just need a pc that can go on the internet, handle an antivirus program and print homework. my socket a system can't really do that. socket am2 has too many issues and revisions to worry about, I'd rather use skt 939. And yes, there are 939 motherboards that take full advantage of opteron cpu's, the asus one I listed above does for sure, and the clevo 939 mobod definately does since it runs an opteron 185 just fine.
I just wanted to know if the gigabyte mobods I listed would work with opteron cpu's.
I have heard of the foxconn mobod, but I'd rather have a gigabyte or asus mobod.

I would have built a skt 775 computer, but my first pc that my parents got my brothers and I was an AMD and the upgraded one should be an AMD as well.
I'm building a skt 775 system for myself after november, but I to upgrade my family/kitchen pc first.
 
Right... all nForce boards that support Athlon X2 will work with an Opteron equivalent, but they don't "officially" support it because of AMD's separation of server and desktop. They can list "official" support now, especially since the socket has been EOL for a while, but back when it was current, no motherboard officially supported it. So again, ANY board that supports AthlonX2 should unofficially support an equivalent Opteron.

I used the Asus CSM board you listed, but it didn't OC as well as my Foxconn. I never tried any of the Gigabyte boards, nor did I hear/read much about them back when s939 was hot -- mainly the Asus and Foxconn boards were hot for mATX OC'ers.

If you're buying all s939 parts, aside from RAM, you may be able to get equivalent LGA775 or AM2 parts that either outperform or perform the same as the 939 parts, for the same amount of money or even less. AM2 has been out for well over a two years now, and just about all problems with them have been resolved, btw. It sounds like you've been reading articles from 2005/2006. :confused:

List out the parts you plan on getting and their respective prices, if you want to make sure you're getting the most performance for your dollar. But again, to answer your question, if the board supports an AthlonX2, it'll support an Opteron equivalent.
 
The reason I'm going with skt 939 is that I can always find parts from discarded pc's with 939 hatrdware, so I can upgrade if say I find a athlon 64 3800+ cpu, etc. I have 4gb or crucial pc 3200 ram, a 3500+ cpu, a 80gb seagate, a psu, a arctic cooling heatsink, cd drives and dvd drives, I just need a reliable 939 mobod. I'm not really interested in oc'ing the mobod since I need a super reliable pc. I can't deal with the machine dieing on me the day before a school work assignment is due. I would consider am2, but I've already found one 939 machine, and chances are there is a higher probability of other people discarding their 939 systems later on. I don't like to spend money when I don't need to, that's why i didn't go with am2.
 
Well if you already have everything else, then thats obvious. :p But the same can be said for AM2 and 775 parts, as far as being able to find used stuff on the cheap. ;)
 
Well I decided to go AM2 anyway. I have all the parts for a full 939 or am2 system, and since there's a lack of reliable 939 mobods availale, I'm going skt am2. Any suggestions for a reliable am2/am2+ matx mobod? It needs to support phenom quad cored and my old 4200+ x2. I'm not sure what core the x2 is though...
 
That mobod is very nice, but I think a nvidia chipset would fare me better, since usb and sata throughput is significantly higher. I'm thinking of the geforce 8200/8300. However, the Asus M3N78-EM (http://asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=2319&l1=3&l2=149&l3=676&l4=0), with the geforce 8300 chipset, isn't available yet anywhere. I guess I'll have to settle with the 8200 chipset. The 8300 chipset differes only in clock speed anyways :(. I base my info on the usb and sata differences on these two articles:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/15256/11
http://techreport.com/articles.x/14993/10

I couldn't find any other articles, except for the 780g article on anandtech, which I also read.

However, I don't know how the geforce 8300 chipset fares with am2 compatibility.:( I doubt my AM2 4200+ x2 would work.

Also, there seems to be a problem with pc2 8500 (1066 ram) with the 8200/8300 chip. Here's a link to an asus page about it:
http://support.asus.com/faq/faq.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=M3N78-EM

Is this a problem with the amd chips as well? is there any am2+ mobod that doesn't have this issue?
 
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