Ok which AM2 mobo should i get??? other suggestions.

[Rabbitrunner51]

Already made up my mind as to the other parts, and since this is the one thing that should be looked at first in upgrading or a new build, I have done much research on this kind of board, and only found a couple i think got enough good reviews, and are about all i need at this point. I do not need alot of the extras, such as six sata, or other,but want a fulln featured stable board with a good bios, config. I do not tend to overclock.

The first one is the Asus, which i am aware of ( my first good baord i owned ), and is full featured and has the Nvidia chipset 570,which is a good norm for these.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168131310





The other is the unknown to me DFI board, which got rave reviews from every single reviewer. No cons at all.... is this a good board to get??

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136019

[Happy Joe]

I believe that either would suffice, but the large number of returned Asus boards in the link would make me wary
I went with a inexpensive Biostar mobo since my conversion to AM2 is an interim step and the (next/future) quad upgrade will probably be AM2+ (there were no fully compliant AM2+ boards available as of 2 weeks ago).
The upgrade from my o/c'ed San Diego to a 6000 X2 was an improvement.
Enjoy!

[BipolarBill]

I will answer this as I answer all "which mobo" questions.

Get a name brand board that has the features you need *and* has solid capacitors. Solids are all metal on the outside and smaller than the liquid sort which have plastic wrappers.

All modern motherboards are pretty much equal and well made - at least the ones with brands you recognize. Features are most important these days.

[Train]

OPEN BOX, does that mea they return are refurbished?

I have to go with Bipolar Bill on this and do read the reviews on the particular mobo.

Example: A couple models of the ASUS boards may not be all that good from the problems I have seen posted.

[Rabbitrunner51]

I guess its been too long since i posted this.., but i already ordered my parts a couple of days ago. LOL

Opted for the 'Gigabyte GA-M57-S4 SLI Nvidia nForce 570 motherboard. veryy similar if not better loaded than the Abit board.
Whichever i chose would have been a different maker than Asus... for this platform.

The board is nice.. , has gotten mostly real good reviews by users, dual bios, some stating the bios has many options to tweak etc..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128014 (actaully orded it from Microwave instead.. )

I got the X2 5600 for that and some real good Crutial Ballistix memory

[pandaz4]

Oh there was nothing wrong with your ASRock was there? A little late to this party, but I am going to try this MSI (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130138) and I will use a 6400+ Blackie I have 2 X 2 Adata PC6400 coming too. I am not sure If I will buy 3800 series for Crossfire or us my X1900's (One a Crossfire and the other a XT) I had just built the Warden a abit KN9 SLI with a X1650 XT and a 5000+ Blackie. That was my first AM2 build and it is at 3.2 (200 X 16) and 33 degrees. I know the 6400+ is not likely to overclock as well but that's okay.

[Rabbitrunner51]

No.., other then i needed a more current upgrade. Working out real nice so far. I like the load times and better FPS allaround in games.. One thing i notice is when i exit games it takes a half sec. to go to desktop, and thats nice.

Orignally i was opting for the KN9 board, but this board is so far very stable and very nice... it has SLI ( 2 PCIE slots ) , Gigabyte lan. and five Sata connectors. One thing i don't like with these newer boards is the one IDE slot. Had alot of trouble with my second HD, but found out I believe that one is a bad drive. Also, even though i haven't messed with it, it also has programable bios, which means one can set multiple bios if needed. Using my 'Audigy sound card, but i guess the onboard is great... uses latest Realtek onboard audio.. ( 8.1 channel sound )

It was all about price with me, otherwise with a bit more monies i would have gotten a C2D 6750 maybe and switched ot that platform.. I bet that 6400 is fast as snot..LOL This x2 5600 is fast enough. All my temps are below 30 degrees.. around 26 or so at an avg.
Got a nice Sata 2 drive comng in the mail soon, and the next things i'm getting are a new G7 mouse next month, then.., i can start to finally get the cash together for that widescreen 22" LCD, and i'll be set for everything i need.

One more thing just as important is i want to get that MSI 8600GTS OC card. Great price. Should look at their cards..??
After readiing what MSI is doing with thier cards and HSF and all i am vry impressed and getting an MSI card next.