Best AMD XP motherboard atm

STaN

I need a new mobo, the present 1 i have is giving me grief... some kind of clash with my asus gf4 ti4600.

Basically no direct 3d application will work (ive used 2 gf4's in it to test) but it seems that my Asus A7S333 sis's chipset isnt that great. And yes ive tried 3 different detonator drivers as well as 2 standard drivers & no luck

So im going for something more recent and with a bit more unf.

There seems to be 2 good chipsets on the market at the moment the VIA KT400 & Nforce2SPP.

Both have 8x AGP, support for 333 & 400mhz ram. Both have serial-ata.

So which is better & why.

There are 2 boards by Asus which i am considering (mainly because they are asus and my gf4 is an Asus V8460/TD and i dont want to have any conflicts). These are the Asus A7V8X/LAN/S-ATA mainboard - VIAKT400, ATA/133, ATX, USB2.0, 8X, Raid (does it have sound?) & the Asus A7N8X Deluxe/GD mainboard - nForce2SPP, ATX, 1394, USB2.0, Dual LAN (does it have sound?).

So which would be the best bet?

Gerry

Erm. Don't junk your motherboard. If the chipset + video card clash, the usual result is lack of machine booting up, or crashes. You purely have a driver problem. Have you installed the sis chipset drivers, including the agp driver ?

STaN

Well the problem is that all direct3d games minimize to the taskbar whenever i go to play them.

I've installed the drivers that asus gave me for agp. Dont think they have other drivers for their chipset?

System spec:
1xAthlon XP 2000+
1xasus A7S333 motherboard
1x256mb 333mhz dimm
1x40gb seagate hd ata-100
1x30gb maxtor hd ata-133
1xsamsung 40xdr
1x400w psu
1xasus V8460/TD w/dvi & tv-out (ti4600 chipset)
1xintegrated cmedia 8738 sound
1xfloppy
Win2k sp3 w/ie6

Ive tried a load of drivers & numerous directX installations. Ive been trying for 2 weeks to get it working. : (((((((((((((((((

Dizz

After reading most reviews on KT400 it doesn't seem worth the upgrade. If your lookin for a new mobo (money to burn) go and look at the usual suspect type web sites tom's hardware etc. If you do have money to burn - can I have your mobo? (Need one after my AV7333 went all sideways - my own fault). I would throw a couple of posts to www.amdforums.com (plenty of discussion about conflicts there) and the comp.***.asus newgroup. Plenty of people there have lots of experience with Asus boards.

Dizz

deckie27

Did you try reinstalling windows ?
It always worth a try, use a small partition on the harddisk that doesn't have the current os installed with the other disconnected
so you can leave you existing installation in place

Deco

astrofool

if u can afford it the at7-max2 is probably the best amd motherboard out there atm.

It doesn't have serial or parallel ports, but has loads of usb and firewire ports (the max2 has ps2 ports for non-usb keyboards and mice, the original max didn't.

It also supports serial-ata. While you probably don't need all those extra's, if you're getting a new motherboard u might as well get the best and most fully featured you can.

Below the max, the top of the line Asus and abit kd7-raid's are probably the best going, and cheaper than the max series of motherboards. Compatability wise they seem to have very few problems.

Nforce2 motherboards are also coming onto market now, so will be an option in a few weeks.