which mobo?

[Andrew Pratt]

Ok I'm going to be building another PC soon and giving mum my "old" one...Its going to be based on an athlon that much I know. Likely a 1.2 or 1.3 chip. So which affordable motherboard would you recomned? I don't need raid support but would like to be able to over clock it if I feel the need for speed

[P-Dub]

Check out Tom's Hardware Guide review of 14 MBs

One of the front runners is the Soltek SL-75DRV2. You can find this over at Net Link for $153.68.

If you go through Bing's site, it goes down to $149.98.




Paul

There are three kinds of people in this world; those that can count, and those that can't.

[Andrew Pratt]

thanks paul thats one that I'd seen on Toms site...good suggestion.

[Bing Fung]

Good call Paul! That's an excellent board for the price and it's based on the new Via 266A chip set. It also is extremely fast and stable.

A friend of mine just bought this board as well.

Thanks for the press :W , Andrew you can save $8.31 by using my site link.




Bing

[SiliGoose]

I'm currently running the Soltek and it's been great. The install wasn't as smooth as I had hoped but the new Via 4-in-1's fix that.

The best part of this board is it's stability. It beats my previous Abit KG7-RAID and Gigabyte GA-7VTX by a large margin in terms of stability.

The KT266A chipset is noticably faster than AMD's 761 (KG7) and Via's previous KT266 (Gigabyte). I'm getting better overclocking results too! Best of all, it was only $99 -and it's purple!

Take a look at the Shuttle AK35GTR ($120), Soyo K7V DRAGON+ ($145), and EPOX EP-8KHA+ ($99). They're all good boards (though the Epox had some issues in the early runs).

If you're not frightened off my Abit yet their KR7A ($150) is the best overclocker of the current KT266A bunch (despite what Tom's Hardware says).

Happy shopping,




-Sili

[Bing Fung]

Sili, if your Soltek is purple then it must be the SOLTEK SL-75DRV4 "PURPLE RAY". That board supports ATA 133, and I think is a Kickass board for $175. The SL-75DRV2 is standard yellow from what I have seen.

I'm considering the "Purple Ray" over the KR7A-RAID. However I would have to get a separate RAID controller for the Solteck. I'm playing the waiting game....




Bing

[Andrew Pratt]

Bing for some reason I can't get onto your website?

[Bing Fung]

Humm

Seems to be working for me...

Try Here




Bing

[SiliGoose]

Bing,

The SL-75DRV2 also comes in a "purple ray" version. It just so happens that the SL-75DRV4 is available only in purple.

ATA133 support is the only difference between the two and since I don't have any ATA133 drives I didn't go that route. -next time




-Sili

[Andrew Pratt]

Bing that link times out for me It will be a week or two before I order the parts but I fully intend to order them through your link if possible. Its to bad newegg doesn't ship to us since there's some great deals on that site ...even with our bottom dwelling loonie.