Hmm, I'll be interested to see what responses you get to this one.  It's
hard to keep up with motherboard development and you really do need
user-input to find out what's true and what isn't.
I assume you've looked around the net for reports, like at Tom's Hardware
and AnandTech?

I've also found a lot of reliable hardware information in magazines like
PCUser etc, where the technical staff have actually carried out real-world
tests of the equipment.

I tend to stick to Gigabyte, but only because my main supplier likes them,
and the prices aren't top shelf. My current board is a 7VRXP, which seems to
perform pretty good, but it's over 6 months old now, and a bit dated.  My
Athlon 2000+ goes very well.

I'm not a net gamer but I get a great kick from graphic-rich games like
Dungeon Siege and Syberia.

Keep us informed on what you end up with.


Ian Porter
Computer Guys Inc.
Arrowtown
New Zealand
[log in to unmask]


----- Original Message -----
From: "Neal Collins" Subject: [PCBUILD] Mainboard for gaming system


> Hey good folks,
> Going to put together a dedicated gaming computer and have narrowed
> everything down except the motherboard.
> System will for sure include:
> Antec case with 400w power supply
> Western Digital 80gb HD with 8meg cache
> Sony DVD drive
> Corsair memory...either 256mb or 512mb of pc3200 ddr ram
> GeForce4 Ti4200 64mb video card
> Will get a switch to share my existing monitor, keyboard , and mouse
> between the gaming computer and my current system (no desk room to add)
> Cpu will be an Athlon XP...1900+ or 2000+ or 2100+...depending on mobo
> cost
>
> The mobo's I have selected:  Asus A7V8X w/ Via Kt400 chipset, Gigabyte
> 7VAXP Ultra with Via Kt400 chipset, Asus A7N8X Deluxe with nforce
> chipset, or Soyo SY-Kt400 Dragon Ultra Platinum.
>
> I know I probably can't go wrong with any of them, but just looking for
> opinions on what you might pick and why.
> If you have suggestions on other changes, feel free on that also.
> Probably going to use Partition magic to divide up the hard drive into
> about 10gb for WinXP Pro, 65gb for data partition, and rest for swap
> file.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Neal Collins
> A+

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