My head hurts, I need advice

[Staz]

OK I had planned on building a new computer back right after christmas. I had promissed my grandson that he could have my computer after I built a new one. But most of you will know that I am a deep sea diver, I work offshore, and I have no set schedual.

I had the system that I was going to build all figured out. Chaintech 7NJL1 mobo, 512mb Corsair XMS3500, TBred B 2100+ (undecided on the waterblock)

But then work decided not to cooperate and everything shut down for a while and the was no work to be had. My funds for a new computer went to things like the mortage and food and electricity. Now work has been hot and heavy for the last 6 weeks and I have the cash for a new system.

So I start to ask around on what components to get. I get all kinds of conflicting advice.

What I need in a MoBo:
Definatly going to be an nForce 2 board
thru the motherboard mounting holes
adjustments in bios for overclocking beyond 200FSB (duh)
5.1 channle sound onboard
onboard 10/100 LAN
don't want to pay more than $130 shipped.

What I don't need in a MoBo:
Don't need raid of any sort or SATA support
Don't need firewire
can't think of anything else right now.

What would be nice in a MoBo
uses the MCP-T southbridge and utilizes the nForce APU for sound processing
FSB incriments of 1mhz above 220FSB
automatically unlooks XP cpu (not nessasary but nice)

I have a max budget for RAM of $200 but would like to pay closer to $150
I want the best FSB I can get with the best memory timing of course, but the ability to RMA the RAM if it doesn't perform at advertised specs is more important. Oh yeah, 512mb.

CPU will most likely be an Athlon XP 1700+ 0308 or newer

Also if anyone has any recomendations for a water block that can run with or with out a TEC I am open to sugestions.

When you make recomendations please back them up either with personal experiance or links to reviews.

I will be leaving for a five day job in about an hour so I will get back to this thread then.

Thnx Greatly in advance
Maurice

BTW
The Soltek is out
Chaintech is still in the running but looking to see if anything better is out there.
Abit looks good but I haven't read enuf to decide yet
ASUS is out
Leadtek looks to have some of the feature but I just stumbled acroos it and havent found and reviews.
I have heard talk of Epox 8RGA+ and 8RDA3+ but haven't looked into them yet

[SteveI]

From what you are saying, it sounds like (if you think Epox) you don't need the rga+ or rda3+. For Epox, the old RDA+ will suit you fine, and is much cheaper now that it isn't top dog... The Abit NV7 is a good choice as well. I don't know what both uses, but they both offer 5.1, and both have lan.

One downside I've been hearing is that the bios corruption is not limited to a single mfgr, but appear to be occurring with all mobos utilizing the nf2 chipset. Just something to be prepared for.

Newegg has a pretty good track record with RMAs... I've never had a problem returning things there. A new etailer on the scene is excaliberpc.com. They don't have a lot of reviews, but what exists, seems good. Also, they offer a kit to swap bios's... just for nf2 mobos.

[dod]

I dont know too much about the other manufacturers but the 8RDA+ is doing me well. 200 FSB at 5-2-2-2 Corsair Ram. I dont have 5.1 speakers, just 2.1 and the sound is good enough for my needs. The lan works fine.

Also got a 1700+ but its 0302. Even though its stable just now at 2305MHz. The ones youre looking at are better.

I've just put in an ocpc block. Mine doesnt have the TEC option but they also do one which does. Initial results are pretty impressive. Heres a couple of reviews

http://www.overclockers.com/articles683/

http://www.hexus.net/review.php?review=470&page=2

[Áedán]

Originally posted by SteveI
One downside I've been hearing is that the bios corruption is not limited to a single mfgr, but appear to be occurring with all mobos utilizing the nf2 chipset. Just something to be prepared for.

The BIOS corruption shouldn't occur any longer, due to a workaround published as an application note by nVidia. The problem was that the BIOS wrote some settings back to the FLASH. As everyone knows, FLASHing whilst overclocked is a bad bad bad idea.

Now, the boards fall back to failsafe settings before they try to write the new settings into the FLASH, then jump back to the user settings afterwards.

So, the corruption issue affected all nForce2 based boards.

Áedán

[CaesaR]

"I am a deep sea diver, I work offshore, and I have no set schedual. "


And im an astronaut.....

j/k