NEW MOTHERBOARD

[Hard Driver]

Currently have a Tekram P6B40-A4X. I am looking for suggestions for a replacement (faster) MOBO.

Specs.
PIII-500
128 mg ram
SBLive-Value
Plexwriter 8x20
Adaptec 2940U
WD 13.1g 5400 rpm D
Maxtor 27.3g 7200 rpm C
Toshiba SDM1202
ZIP100 internal
crappy Lucent Modem
Hollywood Plus
Matrox G400-Max
Viewsonic 17GS
UMAX600-S scanner
Tekram I/R reader

[paulcs]

I use Asus and AOpen BX motherboards, and I think they're quite good. The BX chipset has really come into its own--the bugs have pretty much been worked out--although it's an aging technology and about to be superceded.

I'd recommend the AOpen AX6BC Pro Gold. (I use the AX6BC, which I bought before the Pro and Pro Gold came out and, unlike the newer boards, does not incorporate voltage tweaks.) The capacitors are enormous. The floppy drive connector is in a really dumb place, although, apparently, this contributes to the boards remarkable stability. Here's a couple of reviews:
http://www.anandtech.com/html/articl...m?document=993
http://bxboards.com/mainboard/slot1/ax6bcpro.shtml

I also recommend the Asus series of BX boards. I've installed two P2B-F's and a P2B-D (a dual processor board), and I find them remarkably easy to work with. The P2B-F has been superceded by the P3B-F, which is available both in 5-PCI/2-ISA or 6-PCI/1-ISA slot configurations. Asus BX boards, I've found, are extremely stable as well and have a well-deserved reputation for this. Here's a link to a review:
http://bxboards.com/mainboard/slot1/asusp3b-f.shtml

The Abit people will be here soon, if they haven't already arrived while I was writing this. They're fine boards as well.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[birdy]

first in the abit camp and well, if you can put up with a lot of fiddling then go for an abit board. they have excellent setup manuals and the bios setup makes them very easy to set up initially. The fiddly bit is they don't seem to like the g400. No doubt others will disagree but i have had two. bx6 and bx6 v2 and both have had a problem with 2x agp. They are superb for overclocking and th stability with any other graphics card is superb even at 133mhz. As the previous post get anything with the 440bx chipset and you won't be far away from current pc nirvana although in three months people will be slagging them for being crap/

[Livius]

A Soyo motherboard will do as well - I recommend the SY-6BA+ III or IV.

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Soyo 7IZB+, C500A, 96MB PC100, G400Max, Vortex2

[VISADE]

I am waiting for a new i820 mobo. BX chipset
was not designed to run at 133 according to
Intel specs.

regards

[Mark F]

I second the motion for AOpen. Many of the other boards mentiond are good, however I must say I'm happy with my experiances with the AC6BC. I have used a Rrv 1.1 and 1.3, neither have the voltage tweaking, but I was able to run a friend processor at higher speeds at standard (2.0V) than he could with higher VCore. They are also very good at hadleing IRC, as well as shairing them without a problem.
I realy like the position of the power/floppy connecters. I don't use a floppy in one system, and on the other I runn the cable under the board. Since I have fans mounted to the case behind the CPU (in the grill) this means there is nothing to impeed airflow!!
Newer verions (Pro & Pro Gold), have "better" capacitors, and you can adjust VCore. Some have complained it's "only" up to 2.2V, but if a CPU can't be overclocked at 2.2V on these boards it probably won't work on others at 2.3V (or more dangerous levels).

Mark F.

------------------
OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a CD

[EchoWars]

Take a look on Tyan's website at the S1854 Trinity 400. Suppory for PC133 and VCSDRAM, AGP 4x, UDMA/66. Chipset is the VIA Apollo Pro 133A. This is most likely my next MB..

[EchoWars]

OOps...how about a link... http://www.tyan.com/products/html/s1854.html

[James]

I use the AX6BC Pro Gold that's been referred to a couple times above. I've been happy with the performance so far. There hasn't been any problems to speak of. The G400 installed without a fuss. It was pretty simple to overclock the CPU. No real complaints. The sparkly 24k gold heatsink's nice to look at too.

One thing though. It would have been nice to get an ATA-66 controller on the mobo as well for my Quantum KA drive. Oh well. Maybe AOpen now has something like the AX6BC Pro Gold but with an ATA-66 controller.

Good luck!

--------------------------------

Windows 98SE
Run case-open with 5" fan blowing in, targeted primarily at CPU
Cel 366 (@550, 2.1v)
AOpen AX6BC Pro Gold (24k)
64 Megs PC100 (1 DIMM)
Matrox Mill G400 Dual 32 Meg w PD5.30 (@119%)
Sound Blaster Live!Value w Liveware 3.0
Quantum KA 13.6 Gig HD
Pioneer 103S DVD3 6x/32x
3DMark99 Max Results (@ 1024 x 768 x 32 x 32, triple)
3DMarks ~4200
CPU 3DMarks ~5250
No Overclocking (@ 1024 x 768 x 32 x 32, triple)
3DMarks ~3000
CPU 3DMarks ~3500

[merchant2112]

isn't there a soyo board that uses the via pro 133 chipset as well????