[JC Denton]

This morning, a power surge put the final nail in my motherboard's coffin, exploding one of the main transistors and rendering my mobo so much scrap silicon wafer.  Thankfully, the CPU (Athlon XP, by the way), memory, and peripheral cards survived, so at least on that vector I can breathe easy.

I need a replacement.  And as I've been a bit out of the loop with regards to core hardware, perhaps you could give a bit of sound advice on a replacement.  Namely, which brands to look out for, what chipsets do and don't work, etc..

Oh, and if anyone's got a trick to keeping those pesky surges from blasting through, I'm all ears.

[Grey Wolf]

Let's see.....
Methods of Prevention:
1. New surge protector.
2. Battery backup.

Motherboards:
1. MSI K7N2 Delta-ILSR (nForce 2 Ultra 400)
2. Asus A7N8X-E (nForce 2 Ultra 400)
3. MSI KT6V-LSR (VIA KT600)
4. Asus A7N8X-X (nForce 2 400)

Any of the 4. Top two are more expensive, but more feature heavy. Second two are cheaper, and should be sufficient for most purposes. Personally, I prefer the MSIs, but up to you.

[JC Denton]

Yeah, I see a lot of nForce-based boards there.  The unfortunate predecessor mounted a KT400, which I was quite happy with.  Might give the nForce2 boards a lookover, though, as I've heard plenty good about the chipset.

*Targets the Asus boards for closer scan...*

[übermetroid]

Originally posted by Grey Wolf 2009
4. Asus A7N8X-X (nForce 2 400)

Thats what I got.  Pretty good.  Runs fast and no problems (yet).

[Taristin]

Make that the deluxe, and it's the one I have. Works like a dream, and supports everything.

[Admiral LSD]

I have an EPoX 8RDA+, also an nForce2 board, which has been a solid performer for the entire year or so I've owned it. Unfortunately, I don't think they make it anymore which is a pity as it's still one of the better nForce2 boards out there.

[ChronoReverse]

You could also try the DFI series.  Ultra400 for a midrange board and Lanparty II for the top-end.

DFI may have come from nowhere, but they seem to be making great boards.

[übermetroid]

what about nforce 3 boards?

[diamondgeezer]

The Asus A7N8X-X ****ed me over. The board is flat incompatable with SoundBlaster gameports (Asus/Creative confirms) and it kept ****ing with my joystick when I USBed it. Oh, and the BIOs had issues with the CPU clockage. I forgte what else was wrong with it, but I got so pissed off I replaced it the with the KT version for great justice

[Grey Wolf]

I prefer VIA chipsets myself, so I'd suggest the MSI board based on the KT600. That's just me, though, so I listed the nForce-based boards too.

ubermetroid: The NF3 boards are for Athlon 64 processors. Out of them, the NF3 150 boards are quite horrible, but the NF3 250 are quite nice.

[Admiral LSD]

If I were going to build a new system tomorrow an nF3 250Gb board would be where'd I'd start.

[übermetroid]

What would a sub 3000$ system look like?

[redsniper]

The only advice I can give is:
Asus 0wnz j00

[Splinter]

Originally posted by ubermetroid
what about nforce 3 boards?

for atahlon mobos I have only ever seen the NF3 and the KT800 on their 64bit mobos.

ATM Im running a Gigabyte 7N400 Pro 2 Socket A / FSB 400 / A&GB L&R / ATX Motherboard

http://www.gigabyte.com/computer_parts/motherboards/Gigabyte_7N400_Pro_2_Motherboard.asp

I couldnt ask for any more... well i could but i would be asking for more of these babys... I have only ever delt with gigabyte so far holding up perfectly no quirks at all yet. even on the older one I have.

you ask what to look out for? jsut look for any name brand really (gigabyte, asus, msi, abit) gather some data on ones in your price range an compare em. prices preformence reviews... jsut stick to the brand names thats the only major thing. :thepimp: