Need a new motherboard

Ashex · Post by **Ashex** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 9:55 pm

I currently have an Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless that I was giddy to get. But it's been causing issues since I got it.
Right now I've solved everything but one, occasionally the system will begin to freeze up and I have to do a manual reboot. The post will appear but will freeze right before testing the ram, rebooting doesn't solve it and I have to switch off the power supply, wait 10 seconds, then power it on. I had this issue with a BP500, and with my NeoHE500.

Does anyone have a recommendation on a AM2 board? I need at least 4 sata 1 ide, and the usual for a current board. I don't really overclock much either.

I'm also planning on swapping out the fans in my system. I current have some cooler master fans that are nearly silent but still make some noise.
These are 80mm, so I haven't found much in the forums, I checked out the spcr article about fans and I'm looking to get three Thermaltake A1357 to replace them and possibly a Scythe KAZE-JYUNI "SLIP STREAM" 120mm Case Fan to put in the front.

Any have any advice on these or other ones I should be looking at?

beoba · Post by **beoba** » Sat Nov 17, 2007 11:08 pm

Have you tried a ram test? Could be the ram rather than the motherboard.

Boots off a CD: http://www.memtest86.com/download.html

Ashex · Post by **Ashex** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 12:54 am

beoba wrote:Have you tried a ram test? Could be the ram rather than the motherboard.

Boots off a CD: http://www.memtest86.com/download.html

I tried a ramtest. I had OCZ ram before, I did a 12 hour memtest and it came out clean, I bought some new ram and put it in and the issue persisted, I used to manufacturer timings and voltage settings for each to double check, and the new ram is running at manuf specs. Only thing I can think of would be a psu incompatibility. I don't have any extra cards plugged in, just my 7800GT.

I primarily run linux so bad ram would be fairly evident to me. I have the most issues when I'm running windows, as windows will just freeze up, in linux it's not as obvious unless I attach a debugger.

Jokoto · Post by **Jokoto** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 1:15 am

How about trying to eliminate the PSU as the cause if you have a spare you could use for a while?

Ashex · Post by **Ashex** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 5:32 am

Jokoto wrote:How about trying to eliminate the PSU as the cause if you have a spare you could use for a while?

I've already tried that route, I was using a BP500 for about 1 weeks and the bios would occasionally randomly hand on me, I then used an SP500 for about 2 days and still had random hangs (but this was partially due to bad ram timings), and then switched back to a BP500 for another week and finally to the NeoHE500 (gotta love RMA's) . Although I wouldn't be surprised if there were some compatibility issue I'm missing, I've seen other people who use a NeoHE with an M2N32-sli and not had any issues with it.

gentonix · Post by **gentonix** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 6:37 am

Ashex wrote:Does anyone have a recommendation on a AM2 board? I need at least 4 sata 1 ide, and the usual for a current board. I don't really overclock much either.

If you're not a serious overclocker, then almost any board will do just fine. I am personally quite satisfied with my Gigabyte GA-M52S-S3P
http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Mothe ... uctID=2611
Abit AN52 is probably a good choice too. I think it's a good idea to go for a decent low cost AM2 motherboard or some new AM2+ motherboard. High end AM2 boards are not very good value for money right now.

Ashex · Post by **Ashex** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 7:53 am

gentonix wrote:
Ashex wrote:Does anyone have a recommendation on a AM2 board? I need at least 4 sata 1 ide, and the usual for a current board. I don't really overclock much either.
If you're not a serious overclocker, then almost any board will do just fine. I am personally quite satisfied with my Gigabyte GA-M52S-S3P
http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Mothe ... uctID=2611
Abit AN52 is probably a good choice too. I think it's a good idea to go for a decent low cost AM2 motherboard or some new AM2+ motherboard. High end AM2 boards are not very good value for money right now.

Thanks for the recommendations, the AN52 looks very good, newegg doesn't have the gigabyte motherboard though :/. After looking at those two, I realize just how much that asus board spoiled me. They look like they're lacking in the fan connector department, and I power all my fans off the board. All I need to be able to do in terms of overclocking is manually set the ram speed/timings, as half the time the bios gets it wrong. If I'm not able to find something else, I'll probably look into the AN52.

Ashex · Post by **Ashex** » Sun Nov 18, 2007 2:04 pm

I did a bit more research, and the AN52 appears to have two fan connectors, one for system and one for the cpu. This is a bit disconcerting since I'd have to get a fan controller (well, I already was kinda planning on one anyways).

I found the GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4. Which looks to be the same as the GA-M52S-S3P, but with a 570 chipset instead. It looks a bit more tempting to me, I'm considering buying a secondary 7800GT and doing sli with it, but the power consumption has made me hesitant to do so.

Does anyone have experience with the gigabyte motherboard or another 570 board?

Need a new motherboard

Need a new motherboard

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