Looking for a 939 Board

[Stoney]

I have a friend who wants to build a 939 system. He has an Athlon 64 3200+ as well as the memory, harddrives, etc. The one thing he doesn't have is a solid motherboard.

This build will NOT be for gaming nor will there be any OCing; it is for MS Office work, video editing, pictures, and a great number of other applications such as Quick Books. He may also install the 32 bit version of Vista Home Premium.

The thing is I have been searching for a decent 939 board but the pickings are becoming slim. Part of this is due to the fact that I don't know anything about the quality of some motherboard manufactures: Foxcon, Biostar, and MSI so I can't make a good educated choice. Such questions arise as to the BIOS support and stability, tech and customer support, and quality of build.

I have come across SLi, micro boards, and VIA chipset offerings, but he certainly doesn't need or want SLi, nor micro and the ASUS VIA chipset boards don't have the greatest ratings from what I have been able to read.

I have checked ZipZoomfly, New Egg, Tiger Direct, and MWave but I have little personal experience as to what is presently offered.

Any ideas for a good, solid and dependable motherboard that will be for purposes I listed? Much thanks.

[azzey]

Asus is good also. So are A-Bit (generally) and Gigabyte.

Those 939 boards have all been out for a while and should have no instability problems. Does he have a video card? He can pick up a cheaper one but still make Vista happy.

[saphalline]

This one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130491) is pretty good. Only an NForce4, but still pretty good.

[pentachris]

Other people may not think highly of ECS boards, but I've had a couple that I've been quite happy with, including my current ECS KN1 Extreme. I think it's a good board for the money (although I did have to replace the northbridge chipset heatsink and fan when the bearings on the old fan went out).

BTW - I guess Socket 939 really is dead. I just did a Newegg search for 939 boards with nForce4 and nForce4 Ultra, and only got 4 results, with only one of them in stock!

[Stoney]

BTW - I guess Socket 939 really is dead. I just did a Newegg search for 939 boards with nForce4 and nForce4 Ultra, and only got 4 results, with only one of them in stock!

Exactly! That MSI board sphalline linked to was there yesterday at NewEgg and is gone today! I think I should have jumped on it but I know so little about MSI and that particular board.

Okay,guys, let me ask you this. I know a few people, some of them tech engineers who have built many systems and servers, and they have used many Asus motherboards with the VIA chipset K8T890. They swear by the stability of said boards.

I even know one who uses this board for intense gaming and some ocing. Of course when you say VIA to enthusiates of overclocking and gaming the disdain can be heard for miles around.

Yet, as I posted, this board will not be for gaming or overclocking. Here is the link to one I found:

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=247018

What do you think? I can still get the MSI board at two other places but Ibetter move fast. From what I listed on what this rig is designed to do do you think either board could eventually -- and inevitably -- handle Vista?

Thanks for your help and advice. Just don't yell at me for using the word VIA. :p :D

[jlreich]

Good nForce4 s939 boards are still out there. Even if you're not a gamer or don't plan on using SLI don't shy away from nForce4 SLI boards. It's a good chipset and generally costs only a little more than non-SLI boards. Including nForce4 SLI in your search will broaden your choices.

I just recently used this Foxconn (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186037) to rebuild my daughters system. It's nothing special but it's a good board. It's about $10 more than the MSI Saph linked to but it supports SATA 3G where the MSI only has SATA 1.5. It has decent overclocking. Overall a good budget board.

Yeah either of these boards can handle vista. It's really going to depend on what you attach to it whether it will run vista good or not.

[saphalline]

VIA itself is not viewed with disdain. At least not by me. Back in the KT133 through KT400 days, VIA ruled the roost for AMD gaming systems. The only reason enthusiasts are not too keen on them now is because NVidia hit hard with their NForce2 series in terms of performance, and VIA never really recovered. But this is not necessarily a permanent condition. Enthusiasts chase whatever is best at the time, or for a particular platform. It's never a "VIA is always bad!" thing.

The VIA K8T890 chipset, as well as the K8T800/K8M800 series, is perfectly adequate and just as stable for non-gaming as any NVidia chipset. Enthusiasts will always be chasing the fastest chipsets simply because it makes sense. Why pay the same amount of money for a slower system? But for non-gamers, the choice of chipset is less important. It's still important to get a good chipset and mobo, but most chipsets will work for non-gaming just fine.

If the mobo's you're looking at use a VIA chipset, don't let that hold you back. Only the $200+ bleeding-edge chipsets have stability issues these days. Anything else is quickly culled from the herd (case in point: SiS).