Advice mAtx Core 2 motherboards

[Gunbuster]

Hi all,
my sister got some money from her BF for an upgrade to her aged Athlon 850mhz system. We've managed to work out what she needs, but I'd like to pull on your goodselves for advice on what is good or bad to buy.

She wants to go down a physical size, so mAtx/uAtx has been chosen as the form factor.

She has a few legacy PATA drives she can't afford to replace, so a minimum of 2 IDE connectors.

Again she can't afford a VGA card as yet so onboard will be fine till she upgrades.

She wants to buy a cheap CPU now and then upgrade to some dual core hotness latter in the day. So socket 775 and Core 2 support seems a must.

So would either of these do?

Asus P5VD2-MX £37.42: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=421269
or ASUS P5LD2-VM £66.96: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=226862

I don't know if Via are any good these days. Considering her current machine has been going for nearly 7 years on the same Via board I would guess yes, but 7 years is a long time. The Intel board seems more premium and as this will have to last I'm leaning toward that.

She may be able to upgrade over time, adding more ram, a good graphics card and upgrading to a Core 2 when they reach affordable levels.

Update: She now only wants one IDE connector.

[chrestomanci]

Of the top of my head, I don't know if those boards support Core CPUs, have you checked?

The onboard graphics of those boards will be serously underpowered, and unsutable for any 3D work, including the Windows Visa Aero glass UI. If your sister is likely to add a graphics card in the near future then it is not a problem, but otherwise, I would look into a 965G based board. Two I would consider are the ASUS P5B-VM iG965 and the Intel BOXDQ965GFEKR iQ965. They are a bit more expensive though. The two have very similar specifiations, thought the Intel board is likely to be a bit more mature and stable, but not overclockable. It is also slightly cheaper. The Asus board comes with more extras.

[this_is_gav]

The onboard graphics of those boards will be serously underpowered, and unsutable for any 3D work, including the Windows Visa Aero glass UI. If your sister is likely to add a graphics card in the near future then it is not a problem, but otherwise, I would look into a 965G based board. Two I would consider are the ASUS P5B-VM iG965 and the Intel BOXDQ965GFEKR iQ965. They are a bit more expensive though. The two have very similar specifiations, thought the Intel board is likely to be a bit more mature and stable, but not overclockable. It is also slightly cheaper. The Asus board comes with more extras.

Both of those only have a single IDE connector. The 2nd that Gunbuster mentions does support C2D with 'rev 2.0 of the board', which I assume will be the one Scan will stock.

[Gunbuster]

I filtered by Core 2 and 1066 FSB on scan to get those boards. As she said she only needs a single IDE (DVDRW+HD) for booting its free'd up her choices somewhat.

Her plan (I think) is to save up and get a X800 from Retek when she has a spare £50. So spending £20-40 more wouldn't make much sense for her.

Would the ASRock ConRoe945G-DVI be a rubbish option? it seems to get good reviews, 4x ram slots would I think be useful.

[this_is_gav]

I've been pitching it as an excellent little budget C2D runner. I wouldn't want to be overclocking it, but running stock it'll do pretty much as a 965/975 would.

[Madafwo]

I would seriously reccomend going for one of the Intel 965 based boards, although the Asus is more expensive it would be a better option that the others that have been listed. Ok its £88 but it would be the best option.

If you find you are running low on IDE channels get That

There aren't any guarantee's that you'd get a revision 2.0 board from any retailer unless they are specifically advertising that they are that revision of board.

[Sumanji]

OP, check out the mATX mobo Bible

[Gunbuster]

OP, check out the mATX mobo Bible

Ooh, I do like that it lists such a good range thanks.

[BUFF]

abit also have a similar board to the Asus P5VD2-MX
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=518610

[Alistair]

Gigabyte offering
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=484508

[kalniel]

Would the ASRock ConRoe945G-DVI be a rubbish option? it seems to get good reviews, 4x ram slots would I think be useful.

I can confirm it's not a rubbish option - infact it's bloody brilliant for the price