Motherboard recomendation

[wonderllamamatt]

Here's the deal. Every motherboard I have put into a machine since I started building them has been an Asus, with the exception of one very crappy Abit. My last two Asus boards have both had bad capacitors. The first of the two, an A7N8X-X, had a capacitor that burst, causing my machine to reboot every 10 minutes. The second one, my current board, keeps failing post until I have restarted it a dozen times, indicating a weak capacitor. Its a Crosshair and I absolutely love the board, but I am a little weary of buying another Asus. Does anyone have any recommendations for a good brand other than Asus or for a specific board?

[humbll]

intel...tyan...supermicro...

[wonderllamamatt]

I almost forgot. Due to limited financial resources, it has to be a board where I can take my current processor, RAM, video cards, sound card, etc and use it.

[willcomp]

You may not want my recommendation, but here it is :)

For AMD CPUs, I primarily use Gigabyte motherboards. For Intel CPUs, either Intel or Gigabyte.

Do you need a SLI board? What is your CPU, RAM, video card, etc. that you wish to keep. I surmise the CPU is Socket AM2 based on the existing mobo.

[humbll]

I almost forgot. Due to limited financial resources, it has to be a board where I can take my current processor, RAM, video cards, sound card, etc and use it.

If you post the specs of the components you mention, as well as your upper price limit it will help out... What processor is it? Pentium 4, AMD? What form factor ATX, Micro ATX? Is the video card one that fits in an AGP slot, PCI? How many pins on the RAM, how about the speed of the ram.. voltage.. etc..

[wonderllamamatt]

The current specs are:
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ AM2 CPU
- 4 GB SLI ready 800mhz ddr2 ram (4 sticks)
- Dual nVidia GeForce 7800GT PCI express x16 video cards

The board must support at least 4 SATA 3GB/s devices, and must be able to boot from an SATA device. (I'm surprised how many don't)

My absolute upper price that I can afford is $200, though $150 would be much better.

[willcomp]

The board must support at least 4 SATA 3GB/s devices, and must be able to boot from an SATA device. (I'm surprised how many don't)

What do you mean by that comment (boot from SATA)? What SATA devices are you referring to?

Here's what Newegg has in SLI boards:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200022+1070921489+1073607588+1075707618+107191935&Configurator=&Subcategory=22&description=&Ntk=&srchInDesc=

Check specs for SATA ports and memory sockets.

[wonderllamamatt]

The board must support at least 4 SATA 3GB/s devices, and must be able to boot from an SATA device. (I'm surprised how many don't)

What do you mean by that comment (boot from SATA)? What SATA devices are you referring to?

Here's what Newegg has in SLI boards:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200022+1070921489+1073607588+1075707618+107191935&Configurator=&Subcategory=22&description=&Ntk=&srchInDesc=

Check specs for SATA ports and memory sockets.

Hard Drives and optical drives. I have been reading in a lot of reviews on newegg for various boards that these boards will not boot from an SATA drive. I would have thought you'd be able to boot from any drive connected to the MB.

[willcomp]

Hard Drives and optical drives. I have been reading in a lot of reviews on newegg for various boards that these boards will not boot from an SATA drive. I would have thought you'd be able to boot from any drive connected to the MB.

News to me. Realize that many posters on Newegg are relative novices and may not understand BIOS settings or F6 drivers.

Yes, you should be able to boot from any SATA drives (HDD or optical). There were problems with some early SATA optical drives, but those have been resolved as best I know. I haven't had any problems booting from SATA drives other than the pain of installing F6 drivers for HDD support.

[wonderllamamatt]

News to me. Realize that many posters on Newegg are relative novices and may not understand BIOS settings or F6 drivers.

Yes, you should be able to boot from any SATA drives (HDD or optical). There were problems with some early SATA optical drives, but those have been resolved as best I know. I haven't had any problems booting from SATA drives other than the pain of installing F6 drivers for HDD support.

Alright. Now the link you sent lists mostly Asus boards on it. Do you think it is safe to go with another Asus considering my problems with the last two?

[willcomp]

Your Asus board has solid state capacitors which are less likely to fail.

Have you contacted Asus about warranty replacement? Asus boards have a 3 year warranty.

The symptoms you have are unusual for a weak motherboard cap. Strange things can and do occur though.

[wonderllamamatt]

Your Asus board has solid state capacitors which are less likely to fail.

Have you contacted Asus about warranty replacement? Asus boards have a 3 year warranty.

The symptoms you have are unusual for a weak motherboard cap. Strange things can and do occur though.

I haven't contacted Asus yet because I didn't buy the board. My brother did. Hopefully, I will not have to provide a receipt. Could the symptoms be something else, like bad RAM or bad video cards? When post fails the lcd is reading "det dram."

[willcomp]

I haven't contacted Asus yet because I didn't buy the board. My brother did. Hopefully, I will not have to provide a receipt.

Could the symptoms be something else, like bad RAM or bad video cards? When post fails the lcd is reading "det dram."

Very well could be another problem besides mobo. In fact, I'd be a bit surprised if it isn't. Have you tried booting with 2 of 4 modules and swapping them around? Ditto with one video card at a time.

Warranty is based on serial number (date of manufacture) AFIK.

[wonderllamamatt]

Very well could be another problem besides mobo. In fact, I'd be a bit surprised if it isn't. Have you tried booting with 2 of 4 modules and swapping them around? Ditto with one video card at a time.

Warranty is based on serial number (date of manufacture) AFIK.

I will have to try that tomorrow. I should have thought about that myself. That was the first thing I tried on my last motherboard before I saw the burst cap.

[wonderllamamatt]

Over the weekend, I try to turn my computer on and get the same beeping and "DET DRAM" message that I was getting before. I used my computer at work (the only way I can get online right now) to do a search and I am coming up with a lot of pages about how either ASUS mobos and crucial ballistix ram do not like each other or about how the crosshair boards have been having exactly the same problem as me and the individuals have to replace the board. Someone suggested removing all of the ram and if I get the message and the beeps when I boot up, the problem is the motherboard. Hopefully I won't buy a new mobo and find out I need new RAM or vice versa.