New Mobo for gaming

[cpawluko]

Thanks for taking the time to help me with my problem. Recently my motherboard has been going crazy so I have decided to get a new less expensive motherboard that I can use for gaming. I mostly want a nice stable motherboard that isn't going to be detrimental to my gaming.

I have an AMD athlon 64 3200+ with an ati radeon 9800 pro 256mb and 2 512 sticks of corsair xtreme XMS memory.

I have been looking at this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813135194 motherboard. Reading the reviews it sounds like some people highly suggest a gamer to find another board while some people state that gaming is excellent for this board. My question is, is this board not good for gaming simply because these people didn't have a video card and were just using the onboard video? Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated. If this board is indeed not good at all for gaming, what board would you suggest at a low cost? The board that is going crazy on me at the moment is an msi k8t neo fis2r. If I got this board, how much slower do you think it would be than my current board for gaming?

Thank you in advance for your help.

[TimPoet]

Originally Posted by cpawluko My question is, is this board not good for gaming simply because these people didn't have a video card and were just using the onboard video?

No one will enjoy gaming with an onboard video system. An independant card is a must. So don't listen to anyone complaining about bad gaming if they are using onboard video- they should know better....

I'd look into an Asus or Intel mobo.

[cpawluko]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Heres a quote from a review of this board...

"Cons: SiS 760 chipset does not work well with battlefield 2, it worked great with doom3, but the graphics in bf2 are horrible, like 90% of the models (players, your gun, environment) are missing, its like invisible"

What do you think of that?

[TimPoet]

Originally Posted by cpawluko What do you think of that?

SiS chipsets aren't very much liked on this forum and ECS is taboo!
Stick with Asus. There are a handful of others that are good but I don't know which ones, I don't do much with AMD.
But friends don't let friends do ECS.

[cpawluko]

Ah, thank you for warning me!

What do you think about this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138247 board? Does anything strike you as bad about it? Reading the reviews it sounds like its just what I am looking for.

[TimPoet]

Well, it looks good. I always like it when there are scores of reviews that are highly positive. Just remember your upgrade options on video cards on this board are limited to only AGP cards.

[telegramsam]

That's probably not too bad, but take a look at this one. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131577

Be careful with those reviews. I suppose 3 RMA's in a row with an ASUS board is POSSIBLE, but not likely.

Be sure to verify your socket type and RAM speed for compatability.

[flanzig1]

A new mother board is going to have very little affect on the performance of any game unless your mother board has some actual problem with it. Gaming performance increases are from an upgrade of video cards not a change of mother boards. ECS and Biostar are considered budget boards.

[cpawluko]

Thanks for the replies. Telegramsam that board looks good except for this review

"Cons: After owning the mobo for about 9 months it would shut down for no reason. ASUS says it's not their hardware causing the shutdown. The problem became worse as time went by. Now it won't stay on for more than a few seconds without failing. There is nothing I can do if it won't even turn on.

Other Thoughts: The problem I experienced, as it turns out, was a progressive memory failure which occurs when you mix the K8VX with the Athlon 64 and a radeon 9800. It's a failure which could only be remedied with the combination of a 64 bit OS and the change of one of those three components. I recommend changing the video card if you get this type of failure."

Those happen to be the components I have, and I don't have a 64 bit OS.

[FLG]

Dont rely on the reviews on newegg. Best thing to do is go to the Asus forum and see if alot of people are having issues with the mobo.

[telegramsam]

Like I said, be CAREFUL with those reviews. Other components, especially cheap power supplies can ruin motherboards. Shorting them, stabbing them with screwdrivers, etc, that stuff all causes "DOA" motherboards.

Life FLG said--go to the ASUS forum and check it out.

Not saying it couldn't happen, but I've seen some negative reviews about boards that were written by obviously illiterate people--meaning there was NO WAY they understood the manual, if they read it in the first place...

[glc]

The K8V-X is also a budget board - it's got a Via chipset. Asus has budget boards too.

Get a Nvidia-based board that has an AGP slot from one of the better manufacturers and you should be okay. Most of the 754 boards out there now are budget boards.