Best bargain board

[blakerwry]

What do you guys think is the best bargain motherboard available right now? what about in 6 months?


I'm wondering what people think constitutes a "bargain" board... price, features, upgradability, etc... and what motherboards fit that definition.


Personally, I have thought for a few months that the AK32A is the best bargain baord out.

When I look at the AK32 I see upgradability to CPU's that are currently not behind the price curve... I see all the features that are neccessary in a mobo and none that aren't.. and I see reliablity, a solidness that is required for a bargain board.

It offers upto T-bred 2600+ CPU upgradability, 2 sticks of PC2100 CAS 2 DDR SDRAM (ECC or non) or 2 sticks of CAS2 PC133.. has the basic 4 USB1.1 ports, ATA 100 with >128GB drive support... and also offers stereo sound via the southbridge. It's nothing amazing.. but it's a good solid basic board with a low price tag of ~$50-$60

I would, however, liked to have seen an integrated 10/100 NIC in this board.


In 6 months, I would have to say that integrated graphics and sound are becoming more important in a bargain board.. as well as USB2.0... So I'd have to say that I expect something along the lines of the Epox 8RGA to become a good bargain board. An Nforce2 or kt400a chipset board seems like the best bet.


So, what are your opinions on good bargain boards?

 

[Mercutio]

The AK32A is missing USB2. I'm willing to forgive this at the moment, since I can buy USB2 cards for $6, locally (VIA chipset, plain-packed in a static bag, four external, 2 internal interfaces), but I really want to provide that feature with my builds.
It is a good board, other than that.

 

[blakerwry]

The AK32A is missing USB2. I'm willing to forgive this at the moment, since I can buy USB2 cards for $6, locally (VIA chipset, plain-packed in a static bag, four external, 2 internal interfaces), but I really want to provide that feature with my builds.
It is a good board, other than that.

Yes, I agree that USB2 is becoming more important.. and like you I can forgive it now... simply because most people looking for a bargain computer are probably using USB1 devices like printer, scanner, or maybe a digital camera... but probably dont have an external hard drive or DV camera where it would be almost neccessary to have USB2/firewire.

And if they were to need it in the future they can always buy a cheap (<$20) card to get the functionality.

 

[Jake the Dog]

I agree the AK32A is a bargain to be had. AU$90 here in Oz (currently US$54)

as for new-beaut mobo's, the Soltek Sl-75FRN-L is terrific value imho. with an nForce2 chipset w/dual channel memory of course, USB2, LAN & onboard sound, it can be had for AU$165 here in Oz (currently US$98)

 

[Jake the Dog]

(currently US$98)

should read ( currently US$98 )

 

[Buck]

By the way, nice system specifications in your signature dogman. How do you like that Sony burner?

 

[blakerwry]

I agree the AK32A is a bargain to be had. AU$90 here in Oz (currently US$54)

as for new-beaut mobo's, the Soltek Sl-75FRN-L is terrific value imho. with an nForce2 chipset w/dual channel memory of course, USB2, LAN & onboard sound, it can be had for AU$165 here in Oz (currently US$98)

I'm thinking that the 8RGA+ will be a better board... with a price tag of ~$135 right now it has dual monitor Nforce2 IGP support and includes the Nforce2 MCP-T southbridge (unlike the soltek)... which provides hardware sound and firewire(2 things lacking on the soltek). The Epox also has passive north and southbridge coolers, unlike the soltek.

The only thing missing is S-ATA support...


One thing that I find interesting is that epox is going to release th EP-8RDA3+ and 8RGA3+ mobos... each of which are supposed to include S-ATA and 3x firewire... but cureously enough is supposed to use a C-media audio proccessor instead of the integrated Nforce2 unit.

 

[CougTek]

Three things I don't like about the Soltek SL-75FRN-L :

• Yellow
  dual-phase VRM
  Doesn't use the MCP-T

However, it seems to be the most optimised nForce2 board when used at default frequency.

If I were to build a FAH farm, I would probably use that board since the systems would a) need to be very fast and optimized and b)wouldn't hold critical data, so a system failure wouldn't be a drama.

Together with the Microstar nForce2 (for which I absolutely don't care to learn the model name), it's the cheapest (in term of $$) nForce2 implementation. IMO, it is a better value than the also-dual-phase-VRM Asus A7N8X. But value and Asus rarely go together.

 

[e_dawg]

Shuttle AK32? Isn't this a VIA chipset board? Ugh. Southbridges from hell.

 

[blakerwry]

It uses the 8233 southbridge, which as far as I'm concerned works fine.. There have been some complaints about it not acepting PCI bus parking, but that has been fixed in the 8235 southbridge available on kt400 boards.

For a budget board that's what you get. (Acceptable performance, but not outstanding)

 

[e_dawg]

So there are some VIA chipsets where the southbridges don't suck? Finally. It's about time.

I would recommend the Asus A7N266-VM nForce 220D chipset board instead. It is a fully integrated solution -- onboard GF2MX, 5.1 audio, and 10/100 LAN. Excellent southbridge and rock-solid nVidia drivers. A VIA chipset board's southbridge and drivers? Good luck...

 

[blakerwry]

So there are some VIA chipsets where the southbridges don't suck? Finally. It's about time.

I would recommend the Asus A7N266-VM nForce 220D chipset board instead. It is a fully integrated solution -- onboard GF2MX, 5.1 audio, and 10/100 LAN. Excellent southbridge and rock-solid nVidia drivers. A VIA chipset board's southbridge and drivers? Good luck...

The AMD assured version on newegg does look good, however it seems alot of people have driver problems in win9x.. not sure if this has been corrected yet or not. Looks like a solid board, several newegg comments like "Built 5, 10, etc systems w/ this board and had no problems."

But $70 for a microATX is a little more than I expected, but still I think this is a good bargain board. With onboard video and LAN it takes care of what the ak32 misses.

 

[Tea]

Several nice ones around in the bargain department at present - and I don't count Nforce II boards as "bargain" stuff. Not yet, anyway.

ASUS A7N266. Nforce 1, all-in-one. Not convinced about the drivers yet, but at $AU102 ex, hard to go past.

Gigabyte 7DXE. AMD 761. Not the last word in performance, but solid Gigabyte quality for around $AU93 ex.

Epox 8K9AI. KT-400, Usual goodies (USB 2, LAN, etc.) no frills, no fuss, about $AU145 ex.

Albatron KX-400 8XV Pro. Very similar to the Epox above. $AU135 ex for a Barton board. Early days but seems to go well. Could these guys be the new Soltek?