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Posted by Tiger-Heli on 5, 2001 at 8:25 AM:

In Reply to: Choosing the right Mobo? posted by KeithD on 5, 2001 at 6:45 AM:

: Prices range from around 60 bucks to well over 200 for motherboard alone. But does low price generally equal slower performance or is that more to do with chipset, memory, etc.?

Generally, chipset, memory, and to a lesser extent BIOS and PCB layout affect performance. Price differences are usually caused by such things as ATA33/66/100/133 support, USB 2.0 support, additional included USB cables, on-board RAID controllers, Better (6-channel sometimes) on-board sound, etc.

Also, integrated video lowers the price, but usually doesn't include an AGP slot. Generally, I would stay away from integrated vid.

: What features should I look for? 266FSB, DDR capable,

ATA100, USB 2.0 is nice (USB could be added by a $30 card later, but you lose a slot). 6 PCI slots are nice unless you NEED an ISA slot. The KT266A (note the "A") chipset is the best rated chipset right now.

: Anybody having any luck with onboard sound? As in, should I get that or just use a sound card?

Most boards come with on-board sound now. You could try it and upgrade if the sound is not what you want. One caveat: VIA tends to have problems with SB Live Soundcards. Others generally work well.

: If the board uses DDR memory, can I still use the PC133 I already have until I can get some DDR or do I just need to get the DDR with it?

Not unless the board has both DDR and DIMM slots (a few do) but 256M of PC2100 DDR is under $50.00 right now, so I wouldn't go out of my way to support PC133.

: I am not looking for which board to buy, but what features to look for so I can make my own decision.

Here are some important features that most users don't even consider:

Stability of the board.
Overclocking features (increased voltage, FSB speed increments) (if desired)
How frequently are BIOS upgrades issued? What are they fixing? Are the latest BIOS versions the same on the US and foreign (home) websites of the mobo manufacturer?
How well written is the documentation and is it available on-line?
Is there a fan on the northbridge chipset? (probably preferable for cooling issues, although I wouldn't choose/eliminate a board SOLELY because of this)
Are IRQ's manually assignable to each PCI slot?

Athlon processors require fans for cooling and I am a freak about system noise (and don't overclock). For this reason, I would recommend the Alpha PAL 8045 cooler with a PAPST 80mm fan. See recent www.anandtech.com review. However, this heatsink requires mounting holes around the CPU socket and a lot of space (no capacitors near the CPU socket), so this becomes a factor.

www.plycon.com has a partial list of mobo's that do/don't work with this heatsink.

: Anyone have any suggestions about where I can look that is NOT just one of those "This board is great, but some of these others suck" hardware review?

www.anandtech.com and www.tomshardware.com both have articles on chipset design and features as well as board reviews and comparisons.

I'm sure I left out some important things that someone else will pick up. And then again, the things that I look for might not be important to you, and that's what matters.

Good Luck!!!


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