A New Motherboard - Yea!!!

Hi everyone . . . don't go running and hiding because I'll find you.

My birthday is coming up and my daughter hinted about what I'd like. Well, the first thought that popped into my head was a new motherboard. Those of you who know the saga of the build of my pc will agree that I need a new mobo. The new socket worked for a short time and it's back to running slowly again. Except for a new hard drive and motherboard, everything has been replaced from the original kit and I believe that my hdd is working fine. If not, I'll shoot it.

But to get serious, I want a serious motherboard . . . one that has as many ports as possible and is very fast. This is what my computer already has:

- Biostar TFORCE 6100-939 mobo which supports dual channel DDR
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 320Gb hard drive (RAID array not set up and never will be)
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Toledo 2.2GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor
- ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
- Corsair 620W PSU
- Ballistix 2x1G RAM, 184-pin DIMM, 128MX64 DDR PC3200, Unbuffered
- NORCO-4618 PCI-X / PCI eSATA / SATA II / SATA I Controller Card RAID 0/1/5/10/JBOD
- Windows XP X64, SP2
- NetFramework 2.0 Redistributable Pack for X64

I don't do gaming but I do a lot of video work . . . watching them, editing, cutting, splitting, joining, etc. I won't be overclocking either.

So I'm hoping that you gals and guys can come up with a suggestion or two of what will give me what I want. Some of you know me and my pc well (those of you who are hiding behind trees and such . . . I really can't blame you though. I'd be running in the other direction myself if I could.)

What I want are external SATA ports, firewire ports and USB 2.0 ports, as many of each as possible, or a slot where I can plug in an adapter card.

I have 17 external hdds now. Some are SATA, some SATA II, some firewire, and some USB 2.0. I have them all connected to this pc using on board ports and HUBS and it handles them very well, but slowly, even if I don't have an ext hdd on. It can handle having them all turned on at the same time too, but it runs slower then. It will do only 1 simple task at a time so I rarely have them all on at the same time, only about 6 or 7 at a time but would like to have between 8 and 10 on at a time.

I would limit the price to between $150.00 to $175.00. (My family loves me and it keeps me out of their hair if I'm at my computer.)

If anyone can find this dream :cloud9 motherboard, you can have my first born but she'll put up a good fight to stay with her husband and 5-year old son.
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Come on you guys! If it was left up to me, I'd buy who knows what because I didn't realize that it wasn't compatible with something in my pc.

I remember that baklogic recommended a motherboard but I can't find the post. There might be an upgrade to it by this time too. If I look for it, do I just look for "AMD Socket 939 motherboard"?

 

Hate to tell you, but there is not much socket 939 stuff out there any more. Dang compruters keep on getting faster and such. You might find something in the Buy Sell Trade section...

When you were fighting Damion, I had a 939 board, then I got a dual core AMD, now I have a quad core Intel... It changes fast. I still get a kick imagining you with 17 external drives!

E

 

That was the worst news you could've given me . . . my 1 year old computer is out-of-date with no replacement parts. It figures though. Nothing goes smoothly with this pc.
Thanks Fred.

 

Yeah... bummer.... the socket 939 has gone the way of the socket 754.... both were great for maybe 4 or 6 months and then faded to obscurity. It is also unfortunate that all the new gear pretty much uses DDR2 and you currently have DDR So an upgrade would mean a new motherboard, a CPU to go in it, and new memory. One plus: DDR2 memory is VERY inexpensive these days. A 1gb stick is under $40. You didn't list a video card in your current arsenal so I'll assume you have on board video. The point being that if you don't have an AGP card, you won't have to replace that also with a PCIe video card....

 

Well, there is a bright side to it Denise. The technology is amazing. The first computer I built was a 1.83GHz computer with a whopping 512MB of RAM, with an 80GB hard drive... Smoking fast!

A couple of months ago I built a Quad core CPU running 2.4GHz at stock, with 2GB RAM, and a couple of 320GB SATA II drives. For about the same amount of cash, I got a whole lot more computer!

On another note, your computer should be up to the stuff you do. At least enough to get you by for another year or so. Any ideas on why it keeps on getting slow? Any hardware/software changes? You might want to post in hardware or software. Maybe we can get you up and running untill you can upgrade.

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Thanks dlb and Fred . . .

It's running, but slowly, like my 5 year old pc ran, even after I replaced all the parts except the hdd and mobo. I think the mobo was ruined because I didn't put the risers under the mobo when I first built it, and all the blown parts and sparks and smoke. Those problems did it in.

I've looked through the forums and couldn't find the mobo that baklogic recommended, and then I did it a second time. I had so many posts going, I don't remember when one it was under.

baklogic, if you can help me find the post in which you recommeded the mobo, please give me the url.

 

Look at post #303 in this thread Denise. I think this may be baklogics links.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=130536&page=16

E

 

Great detective work, Fred. Thanks for taking the time to find it. I thought I'd go blind if I had to scour another of my posts, lol.

I found a posting by baklogic. He thought this one would ber a good mobo for my system.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/A8N32-SLI-S939-NVNF4SLI-FSB1000SATA-Motherboard/sim/B000FEJAT8/2

Others were also mentioned. At this point, money too much of an issue. My family knows that I want a new mobo and they'll all chip in to get it for me. Max would be between $150 to $175, and I could chip in if the price is higher.

Now I need to take a good look at the motherboards that were mentioned and decide which I will like better. I've bookmarked them all.

Thanks again Fred. I was mortified that there might be no more socket 939 mobos left because I very badly need a new one. I know that my hard drive, RAM and case are ok, so I should be all set to order one in a couple of weeks, or give the url to someone who'll order it for me.

If you have a suggestion as to which motherboard is the best, please let me know. I don't make any decisions until I hear from you all that it's a good decision.
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Have you found that board in stock Denise? That is the problem with the older stuff.

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I haven't yet, Fred. I was really busy today but I'm going to compare all of them, see which one would suit my needs the most, and order it if it's in stock. I had no idea that socket 939 was being phased out.

If I can't get another socket 939, would the other parts that I have be suitable with another mainboard?

 

In my post above, I more-or-less covered this question. Your RAM is DDR and most new boards take DDR2. You didn't list a video card; if it's an AGP card, again, you may need to replace it, as most new boards have phased out AGP and now use PCI Express. A search at NewEgg using only "939" in the search box brought up a few motherboards, mainly server motherboards. But they take your type of memory, and don't have to be used for a server, and most were under $100. I checked with my friend who owns a PC store, and he can't get any 939 boards unless he goes to eBay, which you could do yourself, just be careful! Of course, your hard drive(s) and CD/DVD drives will work on any motherboard, but many newer boards only have one IDE (or ATA) connector, so only two IDE devices can be used. This can be one HD and one CD/DVD, or two CD/DVDs, or two hard drives. My motherboard has this, but I have a SATA hard drive so it's not an issue for me... but other people are having to buy new serial hard drives (or new serial DVD drives) because of this.

 

Hi dlb . . . this has truly turned out to be a nightmare. I looked on eBay but their socket 939 boards are all used, no new ones. I haven't really gotten into checking out the boards, but I'm going to start tomorrow, getting initial information.
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My video card is built into the motherboard, I believe. I didn't have to install one. Am I right Fred?

As mentioned, I need a mobo that will be compatible with my RAM. I also need one that will be compatible with my cpu. My present pc is SATA and I want it to remain SATA but I'm not going to set up an Array.

I did some checking at eBay and found this one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ASUS-A8N32-SLI-...hash=item180221705959&_trksid=p3285.c57.l1288


Surfing the net, I found these
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2949323&CatId=2016




http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3444881&Sku=I69-2162

This page went right over my head but it's chock full of info.
http://www.amdboard.com/socket_939_boards.html


I can't make a decision to buy a motherboard based on the knowledge I have. The last page looks like I can pick and choose what I want but I'm not sure.


I'd appreciate it if someone would check these out for me. If a page won't open, I'll copy and past the info into a post.


Tomorrow I'm going to go back to baklogic's posts that you gave me. I've been checking out so many things, I forget which ones I checked out and which ones I didn't, but I want to look at baklogic's again.
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Well, it is just me, but a I don't trust the Ebay one. The first one from Tiger looks pretty good. $79 or so ASUS board. You will need a PCI express video card for it though.

Honestly, I can't remember about your video. One of your links had a $229 mobo! You can get a dual core Intel CPU, mobo, 2GB RAM brand spankin' new from NewEgg for $257! You will need a PCI Express video card with this as well. You can use your case, PSU, and hard drives and cross over to the Dark Side... Intel that is.

Just think about what you are doing. Do you want to dump any more money into Damion? Your call, and best of luck to you. And you know I will answer any questions you have (if I know the answer) whatever you decide to do. $28 more for nice, shiny new stuff (with a warranty)...

Mobo $89
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059

Intel CPU $119
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115031

DDR2 RAM $49.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146112

Plus, you could sell your DDR RAM and your CPU to get some $$ back.

E

 

I can't believe that it came down to this. Absolutely no reflextion on you, Fred, or anyone else here at MG. I must've had a premonition or woman's intuition about this pc because I left it in a closet for 8 months before looking through what I had. I believe that the problem lies with the risers not being placed under the motherboard, and I think everyone would agree.

For all the hard work and new parts I installed, recently the brand new cpu and hsf, it's a shame. It's so much of a shame that I really don't want to give up on it. If a new motherboard doesn't fix the problem, I'll then look into something else because all I'll have left of the original parts are the case and the hard drive.

I'll have to do a little more thinking about this.

Thanks Fred . . . your input is much appreciated

 

I looked at a multitude of motherboards since last night. The pickings were few. My problem is that, if I don't know the brand name, I won't look at the product. So ASUS had 3 good deals. The first one is expensive and it doesn't have firewire but I have my firewire card that I can install. The second one looks like my

1. Atx-nvidia GFORCE4 Sli-socket 939-4GB Ddr-ata,sataii-gbe Lan-ati Rage Xl
http://www.antonline.com/p_K8N-LR-NX_210306.htm

2. BIOSTAR TFORCE TF520-A2 AM2 NVIDIA nForce 520 MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138082

3. Asus A8N-SLI SE Motherboard - NVIDIA, Socket 939, ATX Motherboard, Audio, PCI Express, SLI Ready, Gigabit LAN, S/PDIF, USB 2.0, Serial ATA, RAID
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2949323&Sku=A455-2138

4. ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.crayeon3.com/c3/pc-91-6-.aspx

5. SUPERMICRO H8SSL-i - Motherboard - ATX - ServerWorks HT1000 - Socket 939 - UDMA100, SATA - 2 x Gigabit Ethernet - video
http://www.nowdirect.com/exec/partInfo/part_detail.tsb?prcpart=SUPMBD-H8SSL-I-O

6. Buy Now for Free UPS Ground Shipping
Condition Lowest Internet Price Regular Price Sale Price Qty. Available
Open Box original price $205.95 Sale Price $109.26
http://www.techforless.com/cgi-bin/tech4less/H8SSL-I?mv_pc=nextag#specs

7. Asus A8V-XE Socket 939/ K8T890/ PCI-E/ RAID/ A&L/ ATX Motherboard
http://www.pcplanetsystems.com/abc/product_details.php?category_id=115&item_id=3017

8. Super Micro MBD-H8SSL-I-O
http://www.nowdirect.com/exec/partInfo/part_detail.tsb?prcpart=SUPMBD-H8SSL-I-O

9. Asus K8N-LR Motherboard
http://computers.pricegrabber.com/motherboards/m/17662902/st=featured/

Well, these seem to all be good/will work with my other components. The prices differ only slightly but one is pretty high.

I'd appreciate it if you'd look at them for me and let me know what you think. As for me, I'm taking 2 aspirin and gonna call you in the morning.
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Dang, a couple of those are expensive. Double check your CPU and RAM compatability. Some of those are server type boards and say they are compatible with Opteron 100 series. Not sure about that.

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Hi Fred,

It's expensive, but I want the speed, ports and quality that it has. If I can find a board that comes close for $50-$75 cheaper, I'd get it. There seems to be a gap in price ranges. They're either between $75 and $100.00 or over $200.00 . . . nothing in the range of $125.00 to $175.00. You were right, socket 989 is going out fast and a lot of places are sold out. This one, I believe is compatible with the other components of my pc, as I listed them in the first post.

I must have changed pages because this isn't a socket 939. I don't know what happened there or what board I wanted to bring up. So this one is out.

This looks like the best board for the money but I would have preferred one that has a little more umf behind it and more ports.

This one looks good for $95.00

This one is a High-End A+ ServerBoard for $205.00. I didn't realize it was a server board, so scratch this one.

This one sounds very good but I'm leary about the fact that the box is open, but the page states,Open Box products are in original manufacturer condition, "fully functional, include accessories, and carry manufacturer warranty, so it looks like a great deal unless I have to do RMA's on it."

This one looks to be the Asus equivalent of my present mobo. I really want to go a step higher. My mobo is on its last legs and never performed the way it should, so I don't know how this equivalent would perform.

This is a duplicate of #5. I must've liked it . . .

This one is inexpensive but, by reading the reviews, it has more cons than pros, so I think that I'll pass on this one.



That's the take of my thoughts on the boards but I'm not really a major geek, more like a minor in training.

I would like to get your opinion, Fred. Put money off to the side and think of what I've said that I want in a motherboard. I'd appreciate other opinions too, to mull around in my mind. I can't keep pouring money into this pc. Hopefully, this will be the last replacement part for a very long time.

And if anyone has another motherboard in mind, I'd appreciate it if you'd bring it up.

The board that baklogic mentioned is no longer in stock.
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You probably already know this, but SuperMicro only makes higher end server boards and they aren't cheap.

 

Do you have an Opteron CPU Denise?

-- SPECIFICATIONs ------------------------------------
CPU - AMD Opteron 100 series (up to 2.8GHz) (Socket 939)

(from your first link.) I don't know if other AMD 939 chips will work. And I can't remember what CPU you have.

Look back a few posts, in my opinion it is time to move on. But that is your call. As far as the open box one goes, I would not, but if you like grab bags and feel lucky, go for it.

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I have an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Toledo 2.2GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor.

I'd still like to receive opinions from other Geeks. I know too little about it to spend $100.00 to $100+ for something that won't work with what I already have.

I saw that about SuperMicro and ruled that one out.

Right now, I'm looking at #3

It's 95.00 but it looks like a good board to me.

Would someone would compare the parts that I have in my present pc in post #1 to see if they're compatible with this board? I'd really appreciate it.

 

Does no one here know if this motherboard would be compatible with the other components of my pc?

 

Bad link Denise. Is it this one? http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2949323&Sku=A455-2138

That one looks like it will work.

E

 

It's basically the same one but the one I wanted cost $99.00, but I read the description a few times and no where does it say that it's dual core, so it's single core. I have more digging to do.

 

I found this one and it looks pretty good . . .
http://www.xpcgear.com/asusa8n5x.html

In case the link doesn't open again, these are the specs:

 

This should do it.

CPU - Socket 939 for AMD Athlon 64FX / Athlon 64 / Athlon X2
- AMD64 architecture enables simultaneous 32- and 64-bit computing
- Supports AMD Cool 'n' Quiet Technology

Don't forget the mobo studs...

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Thanks for checking it out for me Fred, and for the reminder about the risers . . .

 

Unfortunately, the mobo that I decided upon is no longer available on the internet. If it is, I couldn't find it.

I've never heard of the brand, Foxconn. Are they a reliable, sturdy motherboard? It's a little more expensive but within my price range, and it has the extra ports that I want.

After about 8 hours of searching today and 5 hours yesterday, I found another motherboard that would be compatible with my pc (I think), the other being the Asus that you and I had found, Fred.

The other is a

http://www.xpcgear.com/nf4sk8aa.html

If the link doesn't open, these are the specs:

I'd appreciate it if someone would check the specs to make sure that the board is compatible with my other components.

 

Well, I ran into another wall. The mobo isn't just a Biostar TForce6100-939 NVIDIA Socket 939 ATX Motherboard, it's a Micro ATX and there are none to be found. I might have to buy a used/refurbished board or buy all new parts and build another pc.
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Build a new one Denise. The quad core is calling you...
Well, or a dual core...

E