Opinions on Motherboard

[xlr8pc]

In the past I've always used giga-byte and asus boards. I've had zero problems with these boards but was wondering if a different brand would give me better performance. I'm about to put together a computer for someone with the following parts:

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)
HITACHI Deskstar 80GB SATA 3.0Gb/s

Any suggestions on motherboard brand and model would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[SERprise]

sounds like it's going to be an awesome rig, those Hitachi Sk80 drives are actually one of the best performers when you factor in bang for buck. Last I knew they were only like $50-55 shipped at ajump, I never actually knew anybody running a solo one(usually used in raid since the price is so low 2 or 4 can be had at a reasonable price), I run 4 of them in a raid 0

just a little preview of my benchmark, in case that "someone" you are building it for might be interested. Ever since I did the 4 drive raid 0 setup, I now load BF2 maps with 6-8 seconds before the 15 second wait time to start the map ends so I always get prime choice when it comes to vehicles. I know reviews online go both ways about whether there is a performance increase or not, but in my case with a Biostar SLI board, 6800GS, 2GB(2x1gb) PQI Turbo, and an old school A64 3000+ Venice it made all the difference in the world. As for motherboard I assume you are getting an NF4 board right?? From what I have heard the DFI's are one of the best for overclocking, but they come at a steep price, and they are ugly(IMO). If the case has a side window and he is like me and not into all the flashy looks, it wouldn't be the best option. All NF4 boards pretty much perform the same with the memory controllers built in to the cpu's so it really shouldn't matter too much. If he is worried about the price, I personally own the Biostar N4SLI and it works great. Biostar has had a bad rep with their memory controllers so typically they aren't the best choice, but in this case with it being an NF4 board, it doesn't matter since it is eleminated by the A64 one thing to keep in mind though, is that even with the latest bios update, the N4SLI doesn't have too many overclock options, it DOES have plenty for the typical overclocker though. Hopefully others can comment on the other brands. My roomate has a Chaintech non SLI board and it is a solid board, but I can't comment on overclocking options because I never checked the bios, and he doesn't overclock, both of those are inexpensive solutions though, they'll kinda help with the hit being taken by the ram and cpu costs. One more suggestion, I have heard that the XMS doesn't like to run at cas2 on NF4 boards for some reason. Maybe you should look at getting another brand if you haven't already purchased it? The PQI Turbo is less expensive, and it does run cas2, just another thing to consider, save $ and get more bang