Torn between these two motherboards

[Tullphan]

One is the Biostar TForce 550 which has been recommended as a budget AM2 motherboard.
The other is the Biostar TForce 570SLI.
I'm not interested (at this time) in SLI, but both of the boards are the same price after rebate.
Here's a comparison.
I can't find alot of difference except more SATA ports & an audio chipset that is Vista-approved.
Comments?

 

[Acidbath31]

tullphan,
well the tforce 570 board is the newer chipset. youll probally get better support for the 550 because its been around longer though!! i have no personal expierence with these boards but from what i can see in the specs the 570 has a better audio chipset, 570 has a fatter rebate (if you really think your gonna fill it out!!!), 570 is SLI so at least you have the option, the 570 is a little bigger all the way around,but only by half a inch on both sides if that matters to ya, the 570 also has more 3.0 sata ports for raid setups. i would say go with the 570 cause it has everything the 550 has ,but updated newer versions and the option of sli!!! sli is a great technology, i love it!!!! LOL you may want to look into the ECS 570-SLI board cause it runs at about the same price and ive personally built a couple for customers and i have to say it was setup real well and it gave me almost no trouble after i set it up. i havent gotten a complaint yet from the people that i built them for. anything you need to know about that board i can tell ya, but with these biostar boards your on your own. good luck to ya though with whatever you decide and keep us informed!! --------------------------------------- ACID -------------------------------------------

 

[Tullphan]

How many people here have had bad luck purchasing "open box" motherboards through Newegg?

 

[Acidbath31]

tullphan,
if your thinking of getting a open box 6xx chipset i wouldnt risk it. its probally a RMA from someone else that couldnt get it to work and killed it. an open box 570 or 590 chipset might be a good deal cause those chipsets are pretty reliable so i wouldnt be too worried about those. newegg is pretty good about giving you something that works and if it doesnt theyll at least work with ya. ive only purchased open box harddrives and cases from them and the stuff was great. a motherboard is a whole other bag of tricks so i guess its a 50/50 chance there. willing to roll the dice?!!??!?!?!?? ------ ACID -------------

 

[Tullphan]

This is the board I was pondering over...basically the same price as the other 2.
I like the layout better & the heatpipe cooling for the chipset is pretty cool too.

 

[Acidbath31]

those are nice boards. the only thing i dont like about them are how close the SB chip is to the pc/pci-e slots. if you have a vid card in there all that heat from the SB chip is right there under it, and thats bad if your running one of these super hot 8800's. hopefully that heatpipe is a top performer. i guess for $79.00 you really cant go wrong though for a am2 socket. its very closely modeled to the P5N-E SLI board. the M2N seems a little neater though. ------------------------------------ ACID --------------------------------------

 

[Tullphan]

I don't really like the layout of the Biostar boards either w/the 24 pin connector in the middle of the board.