Motherboard help? Please? -Poll provided for the Lazy -

[totoro]

Has anyone had experience with any of the following:

Chaintech VNF4 Ultra -or-

Abit AN8 (Ultra/SLI) -or-

Asus A8N-E (or SLI) -or-

Epox 9NPA ?

I'm trying to decide between these for a "RealSoonNow" -type of purchase.

I've heard bad things about all of them, but I know that TR'ers know their stuff.

Thanks in Advance!

EDIT: I don't know how I thrice submitted this post, but I think I fixed it.

[Hoodieboy711]

i have an a8n-sli deluxe and i love it (besides that lame **** fan issue which i replace with the nb47j), it was extremely easy to install and configure and came with all and more than any of the cables i needed. plus bios flashing is as easy as ALT+F2 during POST and popping in the floppy. i recommend the asus!

[totoro]

Thanks Hoodie! I have that heatsink, does it work well with the Asus?

[BobbinThreadbare]

Stay away from Chaintech. They are not stable nor reliable. I have seen 3 different Chaintech boards (all with different chipsets), in the last 2 months, have stability problems or die.

[Hoodieboy711]

yeah the nb47j was great, just pop off the old hsf, clean up the chipset, drop the thermal grease and put the new one on... the only trouble took lining up the holes for securing the heatsink down... but btw if you go with the A8N-SLIs go with the premium, the heatpipe gets rid of the need for the hsf or nb47j, i wish it had been out when i bought my mobo in jan

[totoro]

I have gone for the A8N-E.
Now to find a good cheap PCI-E Graphics card.....

[Hance]

i have a 9npa+ sli sitting at my house waiting on me if i can ever get home from this work trip . to replace my 9nda+ that didnt support the x2 processors until a beta bios came out for it oh say 30 seconds after i clicked on the submit order button .

i would say get the epox i love there boards i have never had a problem with any of them . i will report back hopefully in a day or two on what i think of the 9npa+

[newtrip]

/me votes for non-existant DFI board on the poll.

[dextrous]

/me votes for non-existant DFI board on the poll.

make that 2 for an NF4 Ultra-D

[todd]

Stay away from Chaintech. They are not stable nor reliable. I have seen 3 different Chaintech boards (all with different chipsets), in the last 2 months, have stability problems or die.

Thanks for that AFTER I bought one, haha. Where were you 3 weeks ago?
Seriously though, it was my very first build from the box up, went just fine.
Works just fine. Far as I can tell, at least, still using defaults.
Hey, it's the cheapest ultra out there. What can I expect? At the time I was concerned with price/future upgrades. I made the decision to save money on the board, and use it for the best case/powersupply.
But it didn't come with rounded cables, so that was an extra expense. SLI was not a concern at all, so on paper seemed the best bet.
Also, the manual is awful, thus still default settings, as manual explains nothing, just mentions that you shouldn't mess with any of the settings. Website isn't much better. Might not have been the best choice for a newb like me. A seasoned pro may have no problems at all.
No idea about oc, as I won't ever be doing that.
If it lasts well, it will have been a decent decision. Heck, the thing works, what more can I say?
Supports 64X2 and sataII. PCIX16. I believe it will be 2-4 years before this board is outdated, but I'm no expert. I did do my best to make sure that this box will be servicable for some years even after it IS outdated. No firewire though.
I'm using an antec case with 400 antec ps. Couple of 120mm fans, and a 90mm on the venice 3000. Has never exceeded 31C. Stable with 2X512 corsair value select ram, though I'm just surfing. Boots xp pro in 15 seconds. I think better boards could beat that though. My old box, an asus board with xp 2500, 1.83 ghz, versus the venice at 1.8, took over a minute for the same boot. Dialup on the new box is about the same degree of improvement, 10 seconds for new, 60 seconds or so for the old.

Bottom line: It's cheap, and it works. Has all the features I think I'll ever need in this generation of motherboards.
Bottom line2: It might have been worth 20-30 bucks more for a board with rounded cables(or I could have chosen sata dvd's rather than pata, big mistake on my part), a good manual, and better support site.