Cheapest stable Skt 939 boards + PCI-Ex cards

aaf · 23-01-2006 10:52AM #1

I'm gonna be building 2 PC's for some people. They're not going to be doing anything intensive with them so I'm looking for the cheapest Socket 939 motherboards. They obviously need to be stable. I was looking at some EpoX boards on komplett.ie but I can't find any reviews for them. I was hoping to find a motherboard with onboard VGA but only the Micro-ATX boards seem to support that. Therefore, I'm also looking for the cheapest PCI-Ex cards. Probably just go for the cheapest on komplett. Will post a thread in wanted section to see if anyone wants rid of similar items. Any advice on above?

uberpixie · 23-01-2006 03:54PM

aaf wrote:

I'm gonna be building 2 PC's for some people. They're not going to be doing anything intensive with them so I'm looking for the cheapest Socket 939 motherboards. They obviously need to be stable. I was looking at some EpoX boards on komplett.ie but I can't find any reviews for them. I was hoping to find a motherboard with onboard VGA but only the Micro-ATX boards seem to support that. Therefore, I'm also looking for the cheapest PCI-Ex cards. Probably just go for the cheapest on komplett. Will post a thread in wanted section to see if anyone wants rid of similar items. Any advice on above?

used this for builds for friends
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=312583&cks=PRL

Stable, nothing fancy.

Sata setup was a pain due to the drivers being well hiddden on the drivers disk.

Ended up getting them off the web. Installing the sata drivers took a try or two before they stuck as well.

Would recommend you stick with ide harddrives for this mobo.

aaf · 23-01-2006 03:59PM

uberpixie wrote:

used this for builds for friends
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=312583&cks=PRL

Stable, nothing fancy.

Sata setup was a pain due to the drivers being well hiddden on the drivers disk.

Ended up getting them off the web. Installing the sata drivers took a try or two before they stuck as well.

Would recommend you stick with ide harddrives for this mobo.

That's a Micro-ATX motherboard. I've never used or seen for that matter a Micro-ATX board or case. I'm gonna be using an Antec Sonata II case which is ATX certified. I know Micro-ATX are smaller than ATX but will this motherboard fit in the case and be good enough.

tba · 23-01-2006 04:08PM

micro atx is mormal atx with just the last two screws missing, it will fit any atx case

aaf · 23-01-2006 04:11PM

tba wrote:

micro atx is mormal atx with just the last two screws missing, it will fit any atx case

Well, you learn something new everyday.

That opens up few motherboards with onboard VGA which suits perfectly. No need to spend money on a graphics card.

tba · 23-01-2006 04:17PM

works like this

http://www.formfactors.org/FFDetail.asp?FFID=1&CatID=1 <

form factor

K.O.Kiki · 23-01-2006 04:33PM

If it's not to be used for intensive work, why don't you get them a Socket754 system instead?
As for cheapest cards: just press the "Your price" button when viewing!:p

aaf · 23-01-2006 04:38PM

K.O.Kiki wrote:

If it's not to be used for intensive work, why don't you get them a Socket754 system instead?
As for cheapest cards: just press the "Your price" button when viewing!:p

Well, I want to future proof the PC as I'm building the PCs for families with young kids who in a year or two may want to start playing a few games so it needs to have PCI-Ex slot. Also, skt 754 will probably not be around in a year so if they want a faster CPU, getting hold of a decent skt 939 CPU shouldn't be too hard.

plonk · 23-01-2006 04:42PM

Would you not use a pentium if they are not going to be doing anything intensive with it. I would say it wolud be more future proof at the moment.

mordeith · 23-01-2006 04:45PM

uberpixie wrote:

used this for builds for friends
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=312583&cks=PRL

Stable, nothing fancy.

Sata setup was a pain due to the drivers being well hiddden on the drivers disk.

Ended up getting them off the web. Installing the sata drivers took a try or two before they stuck as well.

Would recommend you stick with ide harddrives for this mobo.

Sorry for hijacking this thread but I just built a system using a similar board to the one above. . I'm gonna install the SATA drivers today. (Have them on a floppy for XP) Uberpixie do you have any tips seeing as you had trouble yourself.

aaf · 23-01-2006 04:52PM

plonk wrote:

Would you not use a pentium if they are not going to be doing anything intensive with it. I would say it wolud be more future proof at the moment.

AMD are cheaper and more suitable to gaming which will probably be the most intensive use it gets in a year or two.

K.O.Kiki · 23-01-2006 04:56PM

aaf, I can attest to families rarely upgrading their own PCs! (well, all the ones I know anyway).
Besides, get them a Socket 754 Athlon64 3000+ & they won't bother you for another year or 3 at least; if you're that worried, get them an SLI board so they upgrade with that;)

aaf · 23-01-2006 05:02PM

K.O.Kiki wrote:

aaf, I can attest to families rarely upgrading their own PCs! (well, all the ones I know anyway).
Besides, get them a Socket 754 Athlon64 3000+ & they won't bother you for another year or 3 at least; if you're that worried, get them an SLI board so they upgrade with that;)

I'll be doing the upgrading for them. I've been looking after this guys home pcs for years. I'm building this PC so that it will last them at least 5 yrs so skt 754 is just not a viable option. Not going Sli. If they're gonna get into gaming big time, they're gonna want a more powerful PC anyway. I'm on a budget here but I want to make it as future proof as possible to save myself the headaches when they ask for this and that!

K.O.Kiki · 23-01-2006 11:33PM

Just teach the kids how to overclock!;)

Also remember that DDR2 AMD's are coming out end of this year, so if they want to upgrade the kids'll probably want that (eg in 3-4yrs).

Seriously, a skt754 wouldn't be as bad as you think; hell, my family still uses a 3yr-old sktA XP2200, and I have gamer friends running with less! And super-high quality is for the hardcore; as long as they get good GPUs, they'll happily run most any game that gets bought because no company wants to lose customers over overtly-high hardware demands.
*In short:* GPU is more important than CPU for gaming.

TerrorFirmer · 23-01-2006 11:43PM

Interesting, didn't think about it before but would a micro atx fit into a Dell case....?

And also, why do you want to make it "Future proof" regarding cpu if you are going to use onboard vga? That means they won't even be able play new games from day 1 let alone down the line....:D

kirving · 23-01-2006 11:51PM

K.O.Kiki wrote:

...no company wants to lose customers over overtly-high hardware demands.

Except EA with BF2. :rolleyes: But it made a fair few people go out and buy new GPU's, But yeah, if the kids are that into gaming, they'll probably upgrade the whole thing in a few years.

aaf · 24-01-2006 06:34PM

MobileInfantry wrote:

Interesting, didn't think about it before but would a micro atx fit into a Dell case....?

And also, why do you want to make it "Future proof" regarding cpu if you are going to use onboard vga? That means they won't even be able play new games from day 1 let alone down the line....:D

Ever heard of a PCI-Ex slot?

K.O.Kiki · 24-01-2006 09:33PM

aaf wrote:

Ever heard of a PCI-Ex slot?

*Ahem* I believe the correct way of saying that is PCI-e; and also, never PCI-X (as that is a different factor altogether)

You're not giving them graphics cards to begin with? Shame on you! *remembers the load times & crap graphics before getting a GPU*

aaf · 24-01-2006 10:08PM

K.O.Kiki wrote:

*Ahem* I believe the correct way of saying that is PCI-e; and also, never PCI-X (as that is a different factor altogether)

You're not giving them graphics cards to begin with? Shame on you! *remembers the load times & crap graphics before getting a GPU*

I specifically asked the guy if he wanted the PC to have a graphics card and explained that it would be needed to play any recent release games. He didn't want to spend the money on one right now so I explained to him that it would be an easy future addition and he's fine with that.

Ya got me on the abbr! Handbags

K.O.Kiki · 25-01-2006 11:15AM

Well, if he wants skt939, PCI-e & no GPU immediately, then there's only 2 options for him: get a board with either a Radeon Xpress200P chipset, or a GeForce 6100 built in -- because otherwise he won't be able to see squat!:o And those chips aren't the most stable AFAIK. Really, an X300SE or 6200TC (€55) should be considered before resorting to onboard video nowadays...

aaf · 25-01-2006 11:28AM

Well, I read some good reviews on the Asus A8N-VM so I've just ordered that 5 mins ago. If it gives me a lot of hassle, I'll just send it back. I'm on a very tight budget here so even getting a graphics card as cheap as €55 would only end up coming out of my fee so he's getting onboard graphics. Thanks for all the replies

Cheapest stable Skt 939 boards + PCI-Ex cards

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