Motherboard is dead, need recommendations for a new one

[Paul Victorey]

OK, I am assuming that the capacitors of my motherboard should *not* have some strange yellowish-white gunk all over the tops of them, and I think this may well explain my system's constant decline of stability over the past month or so.

Being as it looks like about 1/3 of the capacitors on my motherboard have burst, I am in the market for a new mobo.

My current (dead) mobo was an MSI, it was from the nForce series. I was thinking I'd get an nForce2 motherboard -- the onboard graphics would be better than my GF2, the onboard sounds and network was good on the nForce so I assume it will be good on the 2's as well.

I do want to continue to use my processor (Athlon XP 1800+), and my RAM (512 MB of Kingston PC2100). I trust that will be possible using the nForce 2? Do people recommend this motherboard?

Also, I think it would probably be in my best interest to replace the power supply -- I think it's most likely a faulty PS that caused this, unless people have other theories as to how this would have happened? I certainly don't want, and can't afford, a repeat of this.

[bailey]

now there is a name I have not seen in a long time,

hi paul and welcom back, missed you.

if you can look for a asus board like the p4p800, there is a amd version of it and is very stable.

[Alfie]

There was the bad capcitators that appeared on numerous motherboards,MSI included.
It would appear yours may be one of that category.
Contact MSI and complain(worth a shot)
The nforce2 boards would work with your hardware just fine.
The ultra400 maybe the chipset to look for and if you want onboard video just check around and see what's available.

Tried to give a link to Newegg,as they have a few boards,but didn;t work,just go there and look around at their choice of Nvidia2 boards with video.

Another alternative is the Via600 chipset boards.
I'm using the Soltek 600RL board and have been pleasantly surprised with it's stability and options.
Worth looking in to.

[Paul Victorey]

Thanks for the welcome back, it was a hectic summer. My grandmother passed away, I moved, increased my number of hours spent at work, and now have been grappling with PC problems.

A stable board would be very welcome, especially after my most recent experience with my PC. I've heard about some nForce 2 problems; are there models I should avoid?

I'm really looking for something that has good integrated audio (with front and rear channel output) and integrated LAN. Integrated graphics that are better than a GF2 MX would be nice as well, but I can use my GF2 if need be.

I'll take a look at your recommendations, thanks!

[FLG]

Hi paul, i would go with another MSI i purchased the K7N2 and it works great. The only thing is it dosent have onboard graphics.

Heres a link to it on newegg

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=1&submit=Go&description=Model%2CK7N2%2CDelta%2DL%2CRetail

[Paul Victorey]

I was thinking about this model:

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/detail_spec/product_detail.asp?model=K7N2G-L

My questions, though:

1) Does this include the ACR card, though, that allows you to get the other channels of analog audio? In the nForce (and the 2, it seems) the front audio is integrated on the mobo, the rear audio is provided with a separate card. Is that card included?

2) How stable is this mobo/are there known problems?