lets talk motherboards.

[mookie]

ok, i've decided to get the XP2800+ CPU, matched originally with an ABIT NF-7S mobo, and i was wondering, is that the best choice? are there any other mobos that would be better suited to that chip?

it has to be dual chan DDR, and take that cpu(333fsb). Other than that i'm easy.
i'd prefer 3000 USB ports but its not essential. no need for firewire, ive got a PCI card. sata isnt big deal either. raid would be nice so i can hook up another 4 devices instead of getting a PCI controller card.
as far as chipsets go, i'd like to stay away from VIA if poss, heard tooo many stories :/

 

[Deadmanwalking]

Epox 8RDA3+ nForce2 or Epox 8RDA+ nForce2

Asus A7N8X Deluxe nForce2

Any of those 3 are good choices, all nForce2 chipsets and 6 usb 2.0 ports each

 

[throdgrain]

Ive got an AOpen AK79D-400 Max, it has some excellent features and is up to 400 mhz, allowing for an upgrade later on. Check it out

 

[kameleon]

I'd go for the asus A7N8X Deluxe nForce2 board, I built a system around one the other day and they are truly sweet. It supports dual channel (twinbank) ddr ram has support for 400 mhz FSB (make sure you get board revision 2) dual lan onboard 6 channel sound spdif output 6 (count em, 6 ) usb2 ports firewire 8x agp pro slot, serial ATA raid and all the bells and whistles you will ever need.

 

[mookie]

i like bells and whistles

 

[xane]

I upgraded to the Asus A7N8X Deluxe a few weeks back, still running my little old 1.3Ghz Palmino Athlon and PC2100 RAM (although I have now upgraded that to PC2700).

A very feature rich mobo, plus the inbuilt soundcard is not your usual AC97 crap, it really is a fantastic noise, equal to any Soundblaster IMO.

 

[mookie]

a quick update on this, in the end i went for the gigabyte ga-7vt600 1394, which basically contradicts everything i requested. SATA, VIA chipset, no dual chan memory good board for the price tho, paid 65 quid from scan. ended up filling up all 3 ram slots too whilst it was cheap(ish) going fom 256mb to 1.5gb was quite a jump heh

the SATA raid will be nice, awaiting delivery of 2 maxtor 80gb 8mb sata drives from aria. Anyone got any handy tips when it comes to setting up sata raid?

 

[vofflujarnid]

Originally posted by mookie
i'd prefer 3000 USB ports but its not essential.

I'm sorry to say that windows only supports up to 127 usb devices

But on the serious note, Gigabyte's motherboards are pretty good I think, so you made a good choice in my oppinion

And i'm also glad that you wen't for SATA compatible motherboard and that you ordered x2 SATA hard drives.

Sorry, but I don't have any tips on how to set up a SATA Raid

 

[mookie]

i'm very plesed with the USB solution on the Gigabyte board actually, 4 on board, 2 more via an on-board header with the backing plate supplied (top marks gigabyte!) and another 2 in the front of my lian-li pc61, giving 8 in total, i was impressed

heh those SATA drives, i missed the delivery on friday so now i got to wait till monday to play

 

[wyrd_fish]

why not wait fir the nForce 3 later this year???

 

[throdgrain]

Or the nforce 4 the next year, or the nforce5 the following year?
Answer is fairly obvious ofcourse, but still ..

 

[Sawtooth]

Chaintech Zenith nforce2 (if you have an audigy 1/2 card as its onboard sound is the only drawback) Other than that the board really flies and is very rich feacture wise.