I'm looking for a truly truly truly reliable motherboard that meets the following criteria (in order of priority):
-Socket 939
-ATX
-Passively cooled north bridge (no fans allowed, this is for an audio rig)
-Places priority on reliability over performance (I'm willing to pay more for this)
-~$200 or less (don't want to spend $200 but if that's want high reliability costs, I'll pay it)
-Works fine with Hyudai-class memory in dual-channel (2GB of PNY PC3200 will be used, that stuff I overpaid CompUSA for) (apologies for the metaphor)
-SATA RAID (don't just about all contemporary boards offer this though?
-Excellent driver (WinXP Pro 32bit) and bios support ...out of the box, but of course I'll check for upgrades
-FireWire would be nice but is not critical if its a lower-end board with more PCI slots
-At least 3 PCI slots
-Easy Overclocker for overclocking-noobs (yeah, I'm a noob @overclocking, but everyone was once) 8O
I remain hopeful that these are all qualities that are not hard to find together and am trying not to be brand-prejudice but because of familiarity am looking to Asus and Gigabyte. If you know of other brands that meet this specs that meet or exceed their offerings, I'd truly appreciate any assistance you can render.
As a jumping off point, I'm considering the following from NewEgg :
ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 (no firewire )
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081
Gigabyte GA-K8U-939 (no firewire )
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128307
Asus A8N-SLI Premium (...getting expensive, would have to be, one of the best)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131540
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe (Expensive, if its the best, than maybe I'll treat myself...again)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131568
I know there's a ton of choices so I was hoping to get some subjective advice.
****
Background: This mobo is to replace a still-good-to-me-but-old-socket-technology Gigabyte GA-K8U s754 that i'll likely pass on to an ex-girlfriend or some other friend. This setup is for my iTunes driven jukebox machine so it doesn't need to break any speed barriers and I'll only be putting an A64 3000+ or 3200+ Venice with a very slight overclock upon it for now (but may choose a higher-end processor in a few months.
Why Socket 939? I don't feel like replacing my still okay 2GB of oh-so-cheap PNY memory just yet (so I don't want a board that only takes BMW class memory but I am going RAID-0 with 2 x Maxtor DMax 10s...just because I'd like a little faster HD throughput that's still quiet).
-Socket 939
-ATX
-Passively cooled north bridge (no fans allowed, this is for an audio rig)
-Places priority on reliability over performance (I'm willing to pay more for this)
-~$200 or less (don't want to spend $200 but if that's want high reliability costs, I'll pay it)
-Works fine with Hyudai-class memory in dual-channel (2GB of PNY PC3200 will be used, that stuff I overpaid CompUSA for) (apologies for the metaphor)
-SATA RAID (don't just about all contemporary boards offer this though?
-Excellent driver (WinXP Pro 32bit) and bios support ...out of the box, but of course I'll check for upgrades
-FireWire would be nice but is not critical if its a lower-end board with more PCI slots
-At least 3 PCI slots
-Easy Overclocker for overclocking-noobs (yeah, I'm a noob @overclocking, but everyone was once) 8O
I remain hopeful that these are all qualities that are not hard to find together and am trying not to be brand-prejudice but because of familiarity am looking to Asus and Gigabyte. If you know of other brands that meet this specs that meet or exceed their offerings, I'd truly appreciate any assistance you can render.
As a jumping off point, I'm considering the following from NewEgg :
ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 (no firewire )
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157081
Gigabyte GA-K8U-939 (no firewire )
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128307
Asus A8N-SLI Premium (...getting expensive, would have to be, one of the best)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131540
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe (Expensive, if its the best, than maybe I'll treat myself...again)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131568
I know there's a ton of choices so I was hoping to get some subjective advice.
****
Background: This mobo is to replace a still-good-to-me-but-old-socket-technology Gigabyte GA-K8U s754 that i'll likely pass on to an ex-girlfriend or some other friend. This setup is for my iTunes driven jukebox machine so it doesn't need to break any speed barriers and I'll only be putting an A64 3000+ or 3200+ Venice with a very slight overclock upon it for now (but may choose a higher-end processor in a few months.
Why Socket 939? I don't feel like replacing my still okay 2GB of oh-so-cheap PNY memory just yet (so I don't want a board that only takes BMW class memory but I am going RAID-0 with 2 x Maxtor DMax 10s...just because I'd like a little faster HD throughput that's still quiet).