Whats important for motherboards??

[computer_kid1]

Can someone tell me what the important things are for buying motherboads please??

I am building a new PC for video editing and brousing the web.

What do i need to look for?

I used to know but im not sure about the new nforce 2 chipsets and dual ram. all those kinds of things.

So if you could explain these latest things for me please.

Cheers

[Rob R.]

Most importantly, you have to buy one with the correct socket so your processor will fit on it. Second most important is the chipset. Third is the form factor (do you need a lot of PCI slots? Will it fit your case?).

There are other things to consider like if you are going to use PATA or SATA HDD's. Do you want nice onboard 5.1 sound, do you want to run a RAID array, etc.

Do you have any more specific questions than this?

[scottluebke2003]

Let's start here: What CPU are you planning on using in this system?

[jjinno]

Even easier question should be, what are you going to do with the system that the MB is for?

[RamonGTP]

Originally posted by jjinno
Even easier question should be, what are you going to do with the system that the MB is for?

So easy in-fact that he already answered that question in his original post... Read the second line down.

[computer_kid1]

I am buying a

AMD XP 2600+
Western Digital Cavier SE 80Gb 7200rpm 8mb Cache Hard Drive
Crucial 512 DDR400 PC3200 CL=3 Memory Module

i only need three pci slots and i am using a standard midi tower

sorry for the lack of info.
hope that helps

is there anything else you need to know

[Rob R.]

If you're into recommendations, I would go with an nForce2 board. Here are 3 that you might consider:

MSI K7N2 delta 2 platinum
Abit NF7-S
Asus A7N8X deluxe

[computer_kid1]

i am buying from www.ebuyer.com

could you show me more specific motherboads.
sorry i dont know much about mobos. ( i understand most other things but dont know the latest on mobos.)


the deluxe gave me this (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=1855945368&action=UFNQcm9kdWN0U2VhcmNoUmVzdWx0cw%3D%3D&cat_uid=14&subcat_uid=265)

the nf7-s gave me al these (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=1855982909&action=UFNQcm9kdWN0U2VhcmNoUmVzdWx0cw%3D%3D&cat_uid=14&subcat_uid=265)

and i couldnt find the msi board

one other point, is it the K7 boards that i need for my xp2600+

[MJCfromCT]

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=1856619225&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=58198

Yes, you will need a socket A motherboad for an Athlon XP processor. I'm using the board in this link here, only had one problem with it in 6 months, and the company I bought it from was very speedy in sending me a new one.

[computer_kid1]

is there a board that i can cheeper than that i am looking for nearer 40-50 £.

It is a PC that i a selling to someone so the cheeper the more money that i make :D

but i still want it to be a quality motherboard.

it definatly needs to have onboard sound, (firewire would be usefull, as they want to do digital video stuff).

[MJCfromCT]

...for the extra 1.05 the Asus board falls in your range :)

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=1856752736&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=63401

Thats the NF7-S board...you could get the NF7-S2 mobo, which is a few bucks cheaper, but its not as great of a motherboard.

[computer_kid1]

its £60 including VAT

[computer_kid1]

im looking for more this price

here (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=1856911969&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=64797)

is that a good board

[RamonGTP]

That board will do the job, but its not nearly as good as the NF7-S posted earlier. Its absed on the KT600 chipset which is a little slower than the nForce2, the NF7 will also overclock better/easier. And if you're going to be using the onboard sound, the NF7-S onboard is a lot better than the KV7.

[Rob R.]

If the computer is not for you and you just want a good and inexpensive board, go for a KT600. It will allow you to run that PC3200 memory and offer the other options your looking for.

[computer_kid1]

cheers i will buy that board

[computer_kid1]

I have my ABIT KV7 mobo. It seems fine. It included all the cables needed apart from a audio cable which I have plenty spair.

I am trying to sort out the BIOS currently. It was sent out with BIOS ver 1.6. They now have 1.7 which has the support of Seprons. I have Sepron for this system so I need to flash the BIOS.

This will be the first time I have flashed a BIOS, I have never needed to do one before. The only trouble is that the file which is on ABIT's site is supposed to be self extracting.

I know how to flash a BIOS (read up on it). But does anyone know why the file wont extract.

Can someone try extracting the file for me please so I know whether it is just my PC or not

the file is located here

http://www2.abit.com.tw/page/uk/download/download_detail.php?pFILE_TYPE=Bios&pMAIN_TYPE=Motherboard&pTITLE_ON_SCREEN=KV7&pSOCKET_TYPE=Socket+A

Windows say that it isnt a valid Win 32 application

Note: I am using win 98

[bubbalou32]

The .exe file is probably a DOS file - that's why you can't extract it in Windows.