Motherboard pgrade for RT2000 system

[cplev]

My Tyan Trinity 400 motherboard just died. I'm looking to upgrade to a higher spec recent motherboard - any recommendations, and any agp issues with modern chipsets - ie 845 doesn't support agp2x or 4x?

I don't have any preference for Intel or AMD, stability and value are main criteria. It doesn't have to be bleeding edge - in fact I'd prefer a tried and tested solution.

Any advice? Sis 735 or 745 chipsets? ECS K7S5A?

TIA.

[Dr Mordrid]

The MSI 745 Ultra (SiS 745 chipset) handles my RT.X100 just fine, and it's more demanding than the RT-2000. It's also solid as a rock and supports APIC under Win2K/XP. APIC allows you to not put everything on one IRQ.

There will also be new boards coming out soon with SiS 748 chipsets. The SiS 748 offers a 333mhz (and unofficially 400mhz) FSB for the new AthlonXP's of 2600+ or faster.

Dr. Mordrid

[Jkun]

Doc,

what new boards do you know of? The old ones are impossible to find here, except ECS, and only Asrock has a new one out.

J-kun

[Dr Mordrid]

The SiS 748 boards I'm aware of:

AOpen AK76F-400N

Asrock K7S8XE

BIOSTAR M7SUB

DFI 748-AL

ECS 748-A

FIC KT-748

Jetway S748DA (not on website yet)

Gigabyte GA-7S748 (not on website yet)

IWILL K7S3 and K7S3-N (N denotes onboard network) (not on website yet)

MSI 748Delta (not on website yet) (PKA: MSI SIS748)

Dr. Mordrid

[Sasq]

The MSI delta not being on the site confuses me. I've been able to buy it here for at least the last 5 weeks.

And against popular belief we don't always get everything first.

[Jkun]

Thanks, none except the Asrock could be found here.

Anyone know if and where the MSI board can be found in EU?

J-kun

[Mikele]

A board with the new Nforce 2 400 chipset is good.
But NEVER buys one with the IGP enabled. Is VERY problematic with ram modules.
Is better a extra VGA card.
I have tested an EPOX 8RGA+ with a dual head VGA and it was a pain to configure. Lot of bugs, no drivers update ????, crashes.... Awful!!!!!!
And the "dual channel" is a bluff.
Then I tested a Asus A7N8X-X. Is a cut down version of the Nforce but it works really well and supports 200 MGHZ frontbus.
No dual channel, no VGA, no Firewire... but it works without a problem and my Duron 1300 runs like a rocket.... eeeeem, well, quite fast than my old Epox with VIA KT133A.

Media Studio 7 works fine and there is so real previews even on a "slow" Duron 1300.
Whith a Ahtlon XP with Morgan Core it could be a real winner.

Here you can found lot of util info:

http://www.nforcershq.com/

Well, I'm Spanish and my English is that. Sorry, sincerenly.

[Jkun]

nForce2 has very poor IDE performance because you're forced to use the MS drivers. Nvidia's drivers were extremely buggy and they pulled them from their website a while ago.

Plus Doc said this chipset has poor PCI performance, important for capturing.

J-kun