Re: Can someone please recommend a motherboard?

billysardell@xxxxxxxx wrote:
I really appreciate the advice Paul, thanks. I forgot to mention
that I don't use the machine for gaming at all so a DX10 card is not
needed . I have an ATI 9800 Pro with 256 megs that is plenty fast
enough for what I do. If I buy either new or used what is the fastest
cpu/motherboard combo that would work with all of my components? I want
the highest clock speed etc, thank you.


You'd go for an S939 motherboard (because you can get dual core
processors with that). The A8V Deluxe would be an example of an
AGP motherboard, that takes an S939 processor and DDR RAM.

http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=238&l1=3&l2=15&l3=68&l4=0

The supported CPU list is here.

http://support.asus.com/cpusupport/cpu_support_right_master.aspx?type=1&name=A8V%20Deluxe&SLanguage=en-us&cache=1

The Opteron 185 (dual core) is roughly equivalent to the FX60. The FX60
is the only FX family processor that is dual core (although AMD's info is
not very careful to state it is dual core). The odd numbered FX processors,
like FX53, FX55, FX57 are single core. So an FX60 at 2.6GHz dual core,
or an Opteron 185, would give you more or less the same, top end, processor.
An AMD clock speed of 2.6GHz, would be roughly equivalent to an Intel P4
at 3.9GHz.

On some other brands of motherboards, I believe you can also find
motherboards that mix Nforce3 (AGP) with S939. I found these by
selecting S939 and Nforce3 Ultra on the following search engine.
A few more searches with the other Nforce3 variants, may dig up even
more models to research.

http://www.motherboards.org/mobot/index.html

Part Number Manufacturer Chipset Form Factor
EP-9NDA3+ Epox nForce3 Ultra ATX
EP-9NDA3J Epox nForce3 Ultra ATX
GA-K8NS Pro-939 Gigabyte nForce3 Ultra ATX
GA-K8NS Ultra-939 Gigabyte nForce3 Ultra ATX
GA-K8NS-939 Gigabyte nForce3 Ultra ATX
GA-K8NSNXP-939 Gigabyte nForce3 Ultra ATX
K8N Neo2 Platinum (MS-7025) MSI nForce3 Ultra ATX
K8N Neo2-F (MS-7025) MSI nForce3 Ultra ATX
KTMNF3-Ultra FIC nForce3 Ultra microATX
LANPARTY UT nF3 ULTRA-D DFI nForce3 Ultra ATX
NF3 ULTRA-DAGF DFI nForce3 Ultra ATX
NF3UK8MA-RS Foxconn nForce3 Ultra microATX

You'd have to check the CPU Support page of the respective motherboard
manufacturers, to see what processors those boards support. The BIOS
has to be updated, to get support for the latest processors. For example,
maybe the Opterons wouldn't be supported on all of them.

Doing these searches, is a lot easier when the products are still
available at retail. My memory isn't good enough to remember all
the good boards. I hope you understand that.

I found another S939/AGP here, but it only has room for two sticks
of RAM. A8V-MX.

http://www.gearxs.com/gearxs/product_info.php?cPath=75_166&products_id=5582
http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=743&l1=3&l2=15&l3=224&l4=0

With your current collection of RAM, the best configurations with S939 are
two sticks or four sticks. Those configurations run in dual channel mode.
If you use three sticks, that runs in virtual single channel mode (with
a Revision E processor - something you can check by using the OPN and looking
up the processor on www.amdcompare.com). You could buy a fourth stick of RAM,
to make a four stick configuration.

S939 will run two sticks at DDR400 Command Rate 1T. With four sticks, motherboards
will slow down the memory a bit. Some motherboards won't budge from DDR333 rate,
when four sticks are detected. The rest of them, would allow manual adjustment
to DDR333 Command Rate 1T or DDR400 Command Rate 2T. So four sticks represents
a more heavily loaded bus, and the end result is maybe a 6% drop in application
performance. If I had an S939 board, I'd aim for a 2x1GB memory configuration,
simply because then I'd be getting the best from the memory. Using three sticks,
will slow it down a lot more than 6%. Could be closer to 16% slower, if I had to
guess. So for best tuning, 2x1GB is tops, 4x1GB would be second best, and 3x1GB
would be dragging up the rear. 1x1GB would actually be a bit faster than 3x1GB,
because the 1x1GB could run at DDR400 Command Rate 1T. The 3x1GB on S939, would
need one of the slower speed options, and would also run single channel instead
of dual channel.

HTH,
Paul




Paul <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Paul wrote:
billysardell@xxxxxxxx wrote:
I would like a motherboard and the fastest AMD chip that would
work in my full size ATX case and also be able to use the
three sticks of Kingston PC3200 1gb. If the board supports
and AGP videocard that would be great. Anybody have ideas
for me please? TIA

OK, I found an AM2 socket motherboard with AGP, so there are some.
So buy this, get an AM2 processor, and replace your RAM with some
DDR2 sticks. With this, you get to keep your AGP card.

MSI K9MM-V AM2 VIA K8M800 Micro ATX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130064

Paul

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