I'm looking for the most stable, highest quality, and least quirky motherboard I can find for an AMD processor. I have a very low tolerance for shit not working like its supposed to and/or having to spend hours tracking down the right combination of drivers to get something to work right. The above pretty much sums up my last few experiences with non-Intel motherboard chipsets. My last few systems have been Intel brand motherboads, not so much because I'm in love with P4's but because the Intel boards have been so kickass stable, runnning 24/7 for months without issue. Super easy setup too. I've heard the nForce chipsets are much better than the VIA & SiS crap but I don't what what board to choose. Even supposedly better brands like Asus seem to have their share of quirks from what I've read in reviews.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813123236

that was highly recommended to me. There is an SLI version if you want

 

For which type of AMD CPU? And you're NEVER going to get a MB that's 100% stable, 100% of the time. ASUS is probably one of the best brands, IMO.

 

My recomendation would be a board made by Gigabyte or Tyan, depending on which AMD CPU you want. If you haven't bought a CPU yet, go with the 939 pin or Opteron (depending on your budget). Most MB manufacturers will offer an AMD-based board supporting several chipsets. One of the more popular is the nforce4. I recently read about a concern related to data corruption problems with nforce4 chipsets, but I haven't followed up on it (so do some googling). You also have the choice of a VIA, ULI, and ATI for chipsets.

No offense TLover, but I wouldn't recommend Asus. I consider their products to bemuch like Bose IMHO. They overcharge for what you get. I've read enough problems with Asus from people (who I've been chatting with for years) who build systems for a living either through their own business or contracting. I wouldn't recommend them to people as a board known for ultra stability. Are they terrible... No, but they're not that great.

 

^^^Everyone I know, including myself, uses ASUS with no problems for normal use and OCing. I've also had luck with Abit as well. Like I said, it's just my opinion.

 

ASUS have been the best boards that I've ever used. And I've used them all...

 

You'd be surprised. My Intel motherboards have been damn close to perfect.

Not sure which CPU yet. Whats the difference between the X2 and Opteron? They're both dual core right?

 

its luck of the draw. no board is perfect, and there will always be a couple bad ones in the bunch.

and ive heard very good things about asus.

opteron is newer, and supposed to be VERY good for overclocking. 940 pin are they? not sure

 

Not this again. One of the last AMD systems I had years ago had a VIA southbridge that was corrupting IDE data transfers. I couldn't figure out what was going on and googled the problem and found all too many people with the same problem. And now years later the supposedly much better nForce4 might have the same problem? Yeah that gives me great confidence in departing from the tried and true Intel chipsets.

 

Asus, Abit and Gigabyte are my preferences.

 

Regarding the nforce 4 data corruption:

http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion...php?t8171.html
http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/show...6&page=1&pp=15
http://www.amdgamer.com/read.php?rid=136&type=1
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=8171&st=20

I haven't read them all, but these are the links posted on my own website from other members.

 

Thanks for the links. I wonder how many hours the guy in the 3rd link wasted before finding out that turning off command queuing "fixed" his problem. I'd have probably done everything he did: Reloaded Windows a million times, moved stuff around, loaded new BIOS/firmware/drivers/etc, cursed, pulled my hair out, etc. Life's too short to invest that kind of time getting popular, reputable, brand name hardware that should work together to actually work reliably.

 

IMO a lot of the stability problems people complain about when they build a current generation machine come from using cheap memory and power supplies.

 

Two great points o stability. For those I recommend the Seasonic or Antec power supply lines for decent power (seasonic being my new favorite for efficiency and noise). If you have oodles of money, feel free to check out PC Power and Cooling.

For memory I've always had good results with Crucial. My new favorite in the value line is the corsair value select series. I've put at least 6 sticks of their PC3200 512MB value select RAM into service with no stability problems (all on gigabyte motherboards using AMD processors with a mix of VIA and nforce 3 chipsets). I don't over clock, so don't consider that RAM if you plan to.

 

i just ordered a gigabyte

it seemed to get good reviews on newegg

 

ASUS makes great AMD MOBO's. They are not cutting edge overclocker boards but they are VERY stable.

Just like cars every once in awhile there are lemons. But almost everyone I know uses ASUS and has no issues.