Buy new M/B today or wait for...??

[FastHotRod]

Hey everyone...

I think I am more confused than ever. I just went looking for a new M/B to replace my system and was looking at the Soyo Dragon Ultra Platnium hoo-doggie and thought I found what I wanted...

... but then read about the new ASUS A7N8X Deluxe and got thinking that was a better way to go with the NForce and all... dang. Any suggestions?

I mainly do a lot of gaming, have all of my old machines setup on a network to frag with friends... (just keep upgrading parts and then having enough to re-build the old machines again.... geeze this hobby is expensive! )

Maybe this question was asked in a different post, but if you wanted the VERY BEST m/b for an AMD cpu... what would it be? Is there something I should wait on that will be released in the next 3 months or so?

Thanks for any help/suggestions.

Fast Hot Rod

[xjjeep96]

well my personal favorite is the new Abit AT7 maxx 2, I just bought one with a new 2400xp. It's a KILLER board. My next board will support the new clawhammer chip.

[Barak_P]

Yeah the new boards coming out should support the 333 fsb for the clawhammer and such, I might want to wait for that, but its up to you. I have the soyo kt333 plat and I love it but the kt400 is also a nice addition if you want to go with serial ata as well.

have fun is the most important thing and do alot of research.

Barak

[Etruscan]

You know, it is kind of like trying to pick a winner in beauty contest. But I'd look for something that:

1. runs all the programs I use.

2. has USB2

3. has firewire

4. supports the lastest CPUs

5. supports serial ATA ide interface

Thats looking pretty close to the Asus nForce2 you mentioned isn't it? I personally don't think that the absolutely fastest board is necessarily the best board at this point. New platforms are on the way for new Barton and Hammer CPUs. The new platforms are going to be a lot faster than anything current. They are going to make anything running on current CPUs look obsolete based solely on speed. However, there aren't really any programs that are a challenge for current CPUs anyway. With a good video card they can handle anything written right now. Therefore, it is my view, that the board that has the features listed above will last the longest, if it is tailored to your needs.

[MDS]

The Asus A7N8X Deluxe and is cool is out but newegg is out of stock and they jus had them 2 days ago, they run $153 shipped I also like the Soyo Dragon Ultra Platnium is a nice board also. I also like the Gigabyte 7VAXP Ultra which supports upto 3gig of DDR2700 ram, raid,firewire,USB 2.0, 6 channel sound.

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

Yeah the new boards coming out should support the 333 fsb for the clawhammer and such,

I don't think the athlon 64 is gonna run on any MB out there yet, actually I'm positive of that (athlon 64 is clawhammer)

From the looks of it the Nvidia board (asus) is the fastest board on the market.

[d1sc g0lf3r]

You pretty much just have to pick a point and jump in and buy.

I am purchasing the A7N8X myself next week for several reasons:

1. A couple of reviews I read:
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Mzk0
http://www.tomshardware.com/mainboar...111/index.html

2. I plan to put an AMD XP 2100+ in this board which is only 266FSB but later on, when say a AMD XP 2800+ drops down to a price I can afford I can pop it in and know that my MoBo will support the 333FSB it will be running at.

3. It also has AGP 8x support which is future upgradability for my Video Card later on down the road.

4. It has Serial ATA if I want to change over in the future.

5. Firewire and USB 2.0

6. Raid

The question you should ask yourself is does it have the features you want and does it have room for future growth. The more mileage you get out of the board the better IMO

[FastHotRod]

Thanks for all the input!

I was looking at each board for those very reasons... expandability, future growth, etc... I currently do not have a need for Firewire, but USB 2 would be a nice addition. (But who know's what toy I'll buy with the need for Firewire... thanks for the insight!)

I am currently running an ABIT KT7-RAID with a 1 gig T-Bird o/c a little... but it's time to upgrade. I just didn't want to buy today when I could have waited a couple of months for the latest and greatest to catch me with my pants down. (Like it did when I got the KT7, and not the KT7A! Board has been ROCK solid, tho... so I am happy with it!)

I have never been a fan of the m/b with all the onboard stuff due to config problems, but it looks like the problems are a thing of the past?!?!

Looking at the AMD XP2600, 2700, or 2800 with a 333mhz fsb is the direction I wanted to go... the Dragon supports this, right? I saw an average o/c on the NForce boards of about 185mhz without problems... what is the success rate on the Dragon? Is there any m/b that I am leaving out of the thought process?

Looking at NewEgg (AWESOME deals in the past!) I found the Dragon w/AMD XP2700, 512megs Crucial Micron ram, Thermalright SLK-800, Vantec Tornado fan, and some Arctic Silver for right about $700 shipped. Sound like a good way to go, or what?

Thanks again for the help, everyone!

Fast Hot Rod

p.s. Thanks for the links, d1sc g0lf3r! Good reads about the need for the XMS CL2 ram. Dual DDR... hummmm...