Which board should I get?

nikste1922uk · 20 Feb 2006 at 13:51

Hi guys,

I am new to this forum, heard this is where its at!

My question is what is the best socket 939 motherboard?

Reading an artical at tomshardware the ASUS A8N32 SLI Deluxe is the best, can you verify whether this is correct.

Thanks

nikste1922uk

King_Boru · 20 Feb 2006 at 14:00

DFI SLI DR or Crossfire would be the way to go if overclocking. The Asus is a good clocker too. For stability then the MSI RD480 or Epox boards.

nikste1922uk · 20 Feb 2006 at 14:08

You are joking,

I just got rid of one of them, biggest load of junk I have ever purchased.

I had a Sapphire PURE Crossfire Advantage A9RD480.

So many bugs, the worst was one that effected the system booting, if you change the memory settings to manual, without even making any changes to the clock speed and timings etc, it would not boot, and it would stay like this until you shorted the CMOS jumper.

Every forum, or place I have read about these boards with ATI chipsets on people have been reporting strange problems.

Go to sapphire's website and check out there forums, this board was supposed to be the best they have got at he moment and is is a disaster.

Honestly don't touch them with a barge pole, ATI has a lot of bugs to iron out of there Crossfire Chipsets, SLI is a much more mature technology.

lemonkettaz · 20 Feb 2006 at 15:47

yeh, ive recently had a strange problem, the memory wont run any faster than 166mhz.. or the computer locks up

i think the ATI chipsets have a bit to go before being truly classed as the nvidia chipset rival

maybe the new asus board with the r580? chipset crossfire will see an improvement ?

but i think nvidia chipset boards are more proven at the moment

King_Boru · 20 Feb 2006 at 18:14

nikste1922uk said:
You are joking,

I just got rid of one of them, biggest load of junk I have ever purchased.

I had a Sapphire PURE Crossfire Advantage A9RD480.

So many bugs, the worst was one that effected the system booting, if you change the memory settings to manual, without even making any changes to the clock speed and timings etc, it would not boot, and it would stay like this until you shorted the CMOS jumper.

Every forum, or place I have read about these boards with ATI chipsets on people have been reporting strange problems.

Go to sapphire's website and check out there forums, this board was supposed to be the best they have got at he moment and is is a disaster.

Honestly don't touch them with a barge pole, ATI has a lot of bugs to iron out of there Crossfire Chipsets, SLI is a much more mature technology.

Mmm,.... I mentioned DFI, nothing about Sapphire. Read it properly

Behemoth · 20 Feb 2006 at 20:19

lemonkettaz said:
yeh, ive recently had a strange problem, the memory wont run any faster than 166mhz.. or the computer locks up

i think the ATI chipsets have a bit to go before being truly classed as the nvidia chipset rival

maybe the new asus board with the r580? chipset crossfire will see an improvement ?

but i think nvidia chipset boards are more proven at the moment

Same problem with the Asrock 939 board, so got a Gygabyte instead, much better board, system is much more stable as a result of it, so I'm happy

But yeah the DFI boards are good, never owned one myself but my cousin has and he says it's the best board he's had.

mattup · 20 Feb 2006 at 23:48

I have had many ASUS boards over the years. I dabbled with DFI and others but would only recommend ASUS without reservation. Rock steady, good build quality and performance.

If you are going to tweak the hell out of the board the Asus may not be your first choice...Simple but effective Asus all the way.

Matt

Ladforce · 21 Feb 2006 at 00:48

the asus A8N premium is faster than the A8N32 i believe by a fair margin.

Big.Wayne · 21 Feb 2006 at 01:24

Ladforce said:
the asus A8N premium is faster than the A8N32 i believe by a fair margin.

Dunno about that, but I think the Premium deserves to be at the top of anyones pick list.

I bought one and its works very well, now my friend has bought one and that also works very well.

nikste1922uk said:
My question is what is the best socket 939 motherboard?

Reading an artical at tomshardware the ASUS A8N32 SLI Deluxe is the best, can you verify whether this is correct

Don't ask what board is the best, because there is no correct answer, what you mean to ask is which board do people like or think is good.

Everyone will give you a different opinion. ignore the opinions of people that only read review sites. their clueless. Pay close attention to what the owners of a motherboard have to say because they have had some experience, but bear in mind that for every person screaming and shouting about how carp a product is, there is probably thousands of people happily using the same product, just they dont post here at the forums. People are too quick to blame product X as being faulty, when in fact they have just built the system badly. .

Lastly newer does not mean better, especially when it comes to chipsets. Motherboards take some time to become a stable platform, have good drivers produced for it and BIOS upgrades etc.

At this point in time I would recommend a *mature* nForce-4 platform if you want an easy life.

Ladforce · 21 Feb 2006 at 01:43

Big.Wayne said:
Dunno about that, but I think the Premium deserves to be at the top of anyones pick list.

I bought one and its works very well, now my friend has bought one and that also works very well.

Don't ask what board is the best, because there is no correct answer, what you mean to ask is which board do people like or think is good.

Everyone will give you a different opinion. ignore the opinions of people that only read review sites. their clueless. Pay close attention to what the owners of a motherboard have to say because they have had some experience, but bear in mind that for every person screaming and shouting about how carp a product is, there is probably thousands of people happily using the same product, just they dont post here at the forums. People are too quick to blame product X as being faulty, when in fact they have just built the system badly. .

Lastly newer does not mean better, especially when it comes to chipsets. Motherboards take some time to become a stable platform, have good drivers produced for it and BIOS upgrades etc.

At this point in time I would recommend a *mature* nForce-4 platform if you want an easy life.

good post. i shouldnt jump to conclusions based on web reviews.