Brian Frank

My new desktop.

MSI is pretty good too. I used generic sticks of RAM on my Asus A7V, but the chips were Micron and Infineon, and the system is solid as a rock still today.

Not necessarily, there are still boards that make the infamous list, tho some I can't really justify putting on, like the BP6--with it's major influence. The AAC has taken a breather

Well, before my current Abit board, the NV7-133R, I had yet to have an Abit board that didn't give me any crap. The BE-6 wasn't very stable, nor was the VP6---gave me crap errors from time to time. KG7-RAID in another guys system was defective after 2 days and the replacement had to have the CMOS cleared before it would even power on. I think Abit has been getting better, especially since a few people who haven't been impressed with Abit in the past said the NV7-133R was extremely stable. I have 1 blue screen and that didn't seem to be the board as much as some BIOS setting. I don't know if I just got some bum boards or what, but so far the 3 out of 5 boards that went out don't do good for the faith in Abit. FIC: horrible website--to be fair it's been at least 6mo since I checked it. All the local shops refuse to carry anything but their Socket 7 boards--and that's simply because they're the only ones that make them still apparently. I will avoid FIC simply because of how horrible their boards have been. Even with a BIOS flash, their AZ11 was unstable at best. Add to that the horrible support at the time, and I have no really good reason to buy them again. I can get better boards with better support. I've not used Soyo before, but I've heard local shops and my geek buddies have had too many defective boards by them to want to touch the companies product again. ECS: I hear mixed results about them. Tyan, Asus, and SuperMicro all have treated me well even though they used a Via chipset on the boards I use(d) from them. Rock solid.

Ti4200.

I cycle in new parts about once a year in the mobo/CPU department--tho I have had a lot more motherboard's come through here recently.

Never had any problems here.

SuperMicro is good, however, a lot of people don't like their tech support. My P3TDDE is great, too bad I can't say the same thing for the IBM 60GXP's which at least one has crapped out.

The Ti4200 will be the best bet, and if you want to overclock, the 4400 or 4200 can probably hit the Ti4600 speeds if you choose the right company, such as Gainward.

I like Gainward and Hercules so far, tho Herc pulled out of doing Nvidia cards. Visiontek is becoming quite popular tho. For drivers, I've found the best for me have been the 10.80's or the 21.81's. I used the 10.80's exclusively until the 21.81's came out and stuck with those since.

I got the NV7-133R recommended to me by one of the local shops (there's a ton in town), and so far it's been a solid board. Not the fastest thing out there, but it's stable as hell, thanks to the NForce 415 chipset. I almost went for the KR7A-133R, but when they told me how cheap this board was and it's stability, I got it.

No need for a new computer?! Bah! I will 0wn3rz j00! On the side note, at least one of my reliable ;( 60GXP's is going to PC hell. At least I had another drive to plug in (yay).

Tyan is a great company, most definitely. I almost went for the 230T, but the SuperMicro P3TDDE had the on-board RAID I wanted.

In the past, I've not been pleased at all, to say the least, with Abit's motherboards. This one, however, has not given me any crap yet--if it sucks, I just bought it and have 3 months where I can get my money back.

Server's working great!

If the 300W is a good brand, like Antec or Sparkle, you might be able to get away with it, depending on your total configuration. Of course, a 350 or better can't hurt. I'd personally make way for a newer PSU, but if you only have 1 optical and 1 hard drive, you could try it with the 300W.

About 3 years...I think, maybe 4.

Main rig, updated (hopefully the last time for awhile) SCORPIO -Abit NV7-133R w 5.1ch snd, 10/100 LAN, USB 2.0 -Athlon 1.4GHz -512MB PC2100 DDR -Gainward GF3 @ 250/571 -Maxtor 20GB ATA100 7200RPM -Maxtor 40GB ATA100 5400RPM -Toshiba 12x DVD -Samsung 48x CD -Vantec CCK-6027D -Sparkle 350 W PSU -SuperCase full tower -Kleer 17" monitor -Zip100 USB drive -Inspire 4400 4.1 speaker set -MS Intellimouse Optical -Logitech Deluxe keyboard -APC 350 BackUPS UPS with USB data link:D And, yes, I did buy Abit.

Well, it's time to repost one of my systems. Scorpio -Abit NV7-133R -Athlon T-Bird 1.4GHz @ stock -512MB PC2100 DDR -Gainward GeForce 3 @ 250/571 -Maxtor 20GB ATA100 7200RPM -Maxtor 40GB ATA100 5400RPM -Toshiba 12x DVD -Samsung 48x CD -Mitsumi floppy drive -2 port Lucent IEEE1394 PCI card -Sparkle 350 W PSU -Vantec CCK-6027D HSF -Super Case full tower I cannot believe how many PCI slots I'm not using. Currently, I only have a firewire card for this thing. I'm probably not going to do much, if any, overclocking, especially since the options on this board are quite anemic at best. I'm not going very far with a max Vcore of 1.8 volts--and yes, this is an Abit board. On the upside, the integrated stuff rocks! USB 2.0, HighPoint ATA133 RAID, 5.1 ch sound, integrated LAN. I'm liking the NForce, which IMO, is possibly the best integrated chipset yet.

www.newegg.com Look for the Vantec CCK-6027D. Copper cooler, and I run a 1.4GHz T-Bird with it. Great performance for the money.

Win2k and XP are more sensetive to hardware issues than 9x.

Criminy! My 8K3A+ died, and I'm sending back for a full refund from Newegg. On the upside, I got an Abit NV7-133R to replace it. This mutha is loaded, and could probably change my stance on Abit. So far (and it hasn't been long) it's given me no problems. On a side note, this is the first non-Via chipset motherboard I've used in one of my personal machines for at least 2 years (440BX last non-Via one for me).

There should be a "My head hurts" option

From an enthusiast and home user's standpoint, I'll say what I've said before: I don't believe the chipset matters as much. For critical applications and servers, heck, even any business machine, I'd be rather wary of anything outside of Intel. I'm a Via man @ home, but depending on where I land a tech job (PC shop or some company) may mandate in some way that Intel chipsets be used. I believe that you cannot go wrong with Intel at any point, but there are some places where anything but Intel is inappropriate. Clutch has been very good at laying out the points about Intel chipsets. If I had his experience, I'd probably be in the same position. Right now, I don't care so long as it's working well for what I do.

As big of a Via fan that I am, I really can't dispute Intel's reliability overall. I rarely hear any complaints about an Intel chipset-based motherboard, although I'm quite sure some unfortunate soul has had an issue. I consider myself to be pretty moderate on chipsets and CPU's, but considering all levels of the market, Intel rules all.