Help choosing motherboard....

[RAR]

Have a motherboard that got fried in the infamous power outage. It was an ECS with 266A chipset. It has a 1.4 Athlon processor. Here are my choices for a replacement:

ECS K7S5A PRO USB 2.0 SiS® 735 SOCKET A MOTHERBOARD $47.00
Asus A7N266-VM NVIDIA nFORCE 220 Chipset 266/200MHz FSB Motherboard Micro ATX- Retail $63.99
MSI Motherboard for Socket A (462) Athlon Processors. Model# KT2 Combo-L - RETAIL $49

Any suggestions, opinions, etc. are greatly appreciated. The only stipulation is that it has to be under $65. Thanks in advance.

[daveleau]

Well, with the first board, you wouldn't have to buy new memory. It is a decent performer for the price and is very stable. It is not much of an overclocker unless you get the special bios for it. The Asus is higher, but you get no more RAM slots and you;d have to buy new RAM immediately if you are using SDRAM. The MSI has a nice setup too and it could very well be the best performer based on the chipsets. The KT266A was one of the best chipsets until the KT400 and NForce chipsets came out.

I'd probably go with the MSI, but it is a close call between it and the ECS. Both are good boards. The Asus has a decent chipset, but it is not to be confused with the NForce 2 chipset that is so popular. The other two boards have more RAM choices (the MSI 2GB of RAM and SD and DDR support while the ECS has 1GB and SD/DDR support) and more expansion slots. The chipsets are all good decent budget choices and good manufacturers. I've set up both systems and my current system runs ont he ECS that you mentioned.

So, to make a long story short: go with the MSI.

GO WINGS!

[RAR]

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't sure about the nForce chipset so I'm glad you cleared that up. I also have a ECS K7S5A (the original one) and I've been pretty pleased with it. The memory that I have is 2 x 256mb of PC2100. I guess I have to decide which chipset I want; the sis735 or the via 266a. Unless there is a board with the Nforce 2 chipset for around the same price....

BTW - Is the nforce chipset on that board very stable, and what is the difference between the nforce and the nforce 2?

[stroyal]

Googlegear.com Has Asus A7n8x-x for 83.99 free shipping.
Not sure why it is so cheep for an nforce2 board
They have the a7n8x for 94.99. It looks like the same board without LAN and 400 MHZ bus. I don't get it.

[woodbutcher]

daveleau, nice job on the mini review.

RAR, the only other thing I might suggest is looking at the refurbs at Newegg.
I've picked up a dozen or so boards from there without any issues (knocking on wood).
They have had the nforce 2 NF-7 refurbed for $47.00, the NF-7s for $59.00 and the Asus A7N8X Deluxe for $69.00, all with free shipping.
Yes, you are "taking a chance" but it would be a good way to stretch your dollars and pick up a higher end board.

WB

[Toddly]

I have bought 3 Shuttle boards in the past couple of years and they have been great. Not overclockers but neither are the ones you have mentioned. At Newegg they have 2 under 65.00 and 1 at 71.00. They feature the KT333 chipsets. I just bought a MN31N N-Force 2 from them and this little board has a whole bunch of nice stuff but it is 84.00. Here they are.

[RAR]

Thanks WB and Tod, I was actually looking at the Shuttle boards and they look pretty good. The refurbs have some good deals too. There are just too many choices!

[zepper]

I have an MSI KM2M Combo L which is pretty much the same as the KT2, but with onboard video and mATX form factor. I really enjoy the thing. See my review in the User Reviews section here on TIMO. For some reason it is one of the most viewed reviews here so you can just go to the bottom of the UR page and click on the pic...
.bh.