What Motherboard...AMD64 2800 - 3000

[ghostbreeze]

Hi,

I want to update my PC and need a cheap selection, so was going to use an AMD 64 2800 or 3000 (about£80), memory about £40, then about £60 for my motherboard. I haven't bought new equipment for a while and have lost track of what is good.

Anyway the only things I want are:
1. has as fast a bus as possible for the price.
2. easily overclockable, but still reliable.
3. if it comes with built-in sound - hopefully is on a chip that does not use the processor.

basically I'm trying to get the most performance I can out of the processor, as I can always buy a new sound card and video card later, also it would be handy if it had a NIC that was recognised by the linux kernel. And are there any decent coolers for the AMD 64 to keep it stable for overclocking(less than £20)?

Thanks for your help.

[starbuck]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...k_Only_25.html

4th down, the DFI board. always good.

[speedy_s]

Abit KV8-Pro-- Great Features--Great price very stable. Not as overclcokable as DFI but still better than the others. Heck, the number of features on it won't leave u time with ocing

[ghostbreeze]

hi, thanks for the suggestions, I found this one that seems ok:

Abit AV8 3rd Eye

Anybody know if its any good. Or is it worse than the above.

Also if I'm to overclock, whats the cheapest memory I can get away with?

P.s forgot to mention it needs AGP as I can't afford the graphics card just yet and will have to use my old one

[ghostbreeze]

forgot to mention- will only be getting 512Mb

and is it better to get one memory module to allow for expansion or to get two to make use of the dual memory of athlon 64's?

I saw this, is it any good?
OCZ Premier 512MB DDR400 PC3200 CL 2.5-3-3-7 With Heatspreader

[YorkieBen]

socket 754 is single channel only. Socket 939 is dual channel

[GrahamGarside]

The AV8 3rd Eye wouldn't be a great overclocker as it's based on the K8T800 chipset which doesn't feature agp/pci bus locks, for this you need either a K8T800pro, of which the only boards I know of is the Abit KV8-Pro and KV8-Pro 3rd Eye, or an NF3 250, which the DFI board starbuck recomended is the best.

[BUFF]

The AV8 3rd Eye wouldn't be a great overclocker as it's based on the K8T800 chipset which doesn't feature agp/pci bus locks, for this you need either a K8T800pro, of which the only boards I know of is the Abit KV8-Pro and KV8-Pro 3rd Eye, or an NF3 250, which the DFI board starbuck recomended is the best.

Wrong, the AV8 uses the K8T800 Pro chipset so it does have AGP/PCI locks & is supposed to be a reasonable overclocker.
He is also better off long term with a 939 (which AV8 is) rather than 754 (which the DFI & KV8 are).

[shiato storm]

get 939 pin
I have MSI K8N Neo2...does the job, very stable but can overclock if you want it too...all you need really.

[GrahamGarside]

Wrong, the AV8 uses the K8T800 Pro chipset so it does have AGP/PCI locks & is supposed to be a reasonable overclocker.
He is also better off long term with a 939 (which AV8 is) rather than 754 (which the DFI & KV8 are).

My mistake, I thought he was on about s754 boards as those boards without the pro suffix are just K8T800 chips, where as the AV8 range are S939