754 matx roundup

[Maverick1]

First thing is first Hello everybody, I aim pretty sure I have another account on here but can't remember the password or anything. soooo... The obvious I need some responses URGENTLY because I can NOT find Nor can I recall any information regarding the mATX mainboard review comparison that was done a few months back for socket 754 mainboards. Those of you that USE different brands of mATX mainboards I would also like to hear from you and your opinions of the specific mainboard you have, that includes your assessments for performance ect. PLEASE help me because I'm on a HUGE misson here for a few friends and relatives too. I never have liked mini/micro atx boards because of the fact that some won't shut off their onboard videocard and need to have a bios update in order to do this. However the machines I am planning for my family are some machines for my Dad's Cabling buisness, they need to be vista ready and capable of upgrading to windows vista when it comes out. My uncles machine at the shop basicly Died within the last 3 days and I am sure it was due to NOT keeping the machine clean inside.

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND: AMD socket 754 mATX boards including ASUS, MSI, DFI are the KEY boards I am looking at. but ALL information will be VERY helpful. I wish to persuade my uncle and father to purchase these upgrades within the next week for at least 3 of the PC's in the office. it might only be 2, and even so Case options are limited because People are buying lots of 20 of all the good lower cost mainboards. I was looking at the DFI 250-al as a NON Matx solution but they only have 1 or 2 boards where I purchase my items from. Please no suggestions on where to shop unless it's a link containing USEFUL information about the mainboard itself.
Please try to limit RADEON connected mainboard submissions as ATI is now dead and will be turned into something else by AMD. NO more drivers except the last set that is currently in development are scheduled to be released for ATI cards. If someone wishes to CORRECT me about this then fine, but please do NOT flame me. I am only looking for information and feedback regarding the topic. ALSO regarding video card format, AGP is preferable because the machines probably won't require anything more than an AGP Slot for video this is also to keep costs down while also building a fast effective PC for a buisness environment, also they MUST use win9x because they can NOT afford at this time to upgrade to the newest version of buisness works unless I find out otherwise then the MSI K8M800-Ce is most likely out of the question.

Thanks Much,

Maverick

 

[Maverick1]

ADMIN, Please delete this post since nobody seems to want to help me! 31 views and nothing. this was regarding the 754 matx review that was on anand a while back that is not available anymore.

 

[Zap]

Nobody replied because the way you worded stuff kind of puts off people - you want suggestions but then you come off as being very picky, demanding and/or limited in your choices. Even if that wasn't your intention, that's how your post "sounded/read" to me, and perhaps to others.

The other thing is that this is an enthusiast forum. People here are enthusiasts. They don't get paid for posting "answers" (except for compensated viral marketers like Rollo :roll: ) and they don't work for the site. Being "enthusiasts" the people here tend to favor products marketed and proven as "enthusiast." That means ATX motherboards that are overclockable.

To use an analogy, what you are doing is going to a Porsche club and asking for suggestions on Korean econobox cars (which I've heard are decent, but last I checked not as exciting as a Porsche).

Since I try not to make totally useless posts, here are all the mATX socket 754 boards I've ever used...

Biostar VIA K8M800 chipset (forgot model) did not work too well and had glitches. Granted this was when socket 754 first came out and these were initial revision PCB and BIOS, but six out of six boards I went through had the same issue, basically graphical glitches and lockups. Swapped out boards for one of the following and problem went away using all the same parts so I know it was the boards.

Gigabyte VIA K8M800 chipset (forgot model) worked as advertised. Nothing exciting. Has AGP slot and onboard video (disables automatically when AGP card used).

Asus SiS 760GX (something like that, forgot model) worked as advertised, just like Gigabyte board. I would tend to favor the SiS chipset over VIA because though there's nothing wrong with either chipset, some of the board makers seem to cut too many corners with the VIA chipset to make a cheaper board that ends up not working well - not the fault of the chipset. Anyways, this is just a hunch and I have no substance to back up that statement.

Biostar Geforce6100-M7 - just to give Biostar another chance. This board is actually pretty nice. The only one I used worked exactly as advertised, plus has some overclocking capabilities. The onboard video is Nvidia Geforce 6100, which is not too shabby as far as onboard video goes, plus it has a PCI-E 16X slot for upgrades.

Biostar Tforce6100 - same thing as previous board, but on steroids! It features better overclocking (what I would definately consider "enthusiast"), better capacitors and is overall my top choice board for socket 754 at this time, regardless of ATX or mATX. These cost about $70 but I think that's money well spent.

Only "catch" is that the Nvidia chipsets only have drivers for Windows 2000 and newer.

Another option may be to catch a special on Newegg/Fry's/Outpost. They've been doing Sempron or Athlon 64 socket 754 specials for $99 or less - that's for motherboard AND CPU, using one of a couple of Nforce 3 chipset boards. Nforce 3 does have Win9X drivers. Catch is that you'll have to get an AGP video card, but you can probably turn one up for about $30-50 that would outperform any IGP besides Nvidia.

Anyways, welcome (again?) to the forums. Don't take us for granted here and don't expect too much. Just kick back and enjoy.

 

[Zap]

I forgot to add...

Another option if you aren't recycling RAM and do end up upgrading the operating system is socket AM2. Biostar makes the Tforce6100-AM2 board - yup, basically like their socket 754 and 939 versions of the same board/chipset, but in socket AM2. All these Geforce 6100 chipset "Tforce" boards are excellent IMO. With socket AM2 you can use cheap Semprons (starting at under $50) plus get advantages of cheaper RAM (DDR2) and dual channel operation for faster overall performance and faster integrated graphics performance. Win-win-win.

For cheap operating systems, check out the Office Depot deal going on for an after coupon and after rebate price of $10 plus tax for Windows XP.

Hot Deals thread

 

[Maverick1]

Thanks Zap appreciate the help. :S I typed that quite late I believe anyways.. I do understand about enthusiasts, and Understand the fact that the constraints are tough. Buisnessworks is a very old program and quite expensive to upgrade. I'll call and find out more if I can today, I am sorry it took me so long to respond as I had my computer tied up with attempting to convert some streamed video but it was taking too long on my other HD. I'm quite the computer enthusiast myself and Love assembling computers. I've discovered a fairly cheap alternative with a vidcard but am also looking at the matx boards. gf6200 agp vidcards will do them quite nicely without sacrificing anything. I'm looking at the alternative now. Maybe I'll post pics of my rig on anandtech one of these days.