The Unofficial List of Good mATX Motherboards (Overclocking and Not)

from the foxconn oc thread, its prime stable up to 285fsb, it can post at 300 but it errors in prime in like 5 or 10 minutes.
 
ikuto said:
The options on Foxconn mothboard in the BIOS is just like my Epox ATX board with enough settings to overclock it a bit especially in the voltage settings area. The only feature missing that i would like in the BIOS is disabling the onboard video. I've contacted them giving them that suggestion and they replied back and said they will foward it to their R&D team, thats pretty cool :eek: . I've got the board moderately overclocked and using the BIOS temperature/fan monitor to keep things cool/quiet which is a nice touch :). Foxconn is a popular brand in asia by the way. Another thing they can work on some more is the temp/voltage/fan monitoring utility, it works but not too pretty.
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Set the frame buffer to "disable" to disable it. That was stupid how onboard is still stealing memory when you use an external vid card.
 
Ubyr said:
hay, did anyone ever get & test one of the ASUS A8N-VM CSM's?
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Excellent question. I have one (now at my dad's) and I was unable to find any BIOS options to adjust the VCore. It seems to overvolt quite a bit as is (can we say 1.45V on a Venice core A64-3200+) and I wanted to reduce the Vcore to lower the heat output.
 
Soymilk said:
from the foxconn oc thread, its prime stable up to 285fsb, it can post at 300 but it errors in prime in like 5 or 10 minutes.
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I'm not so sure about that, mine won't POST at 280 regardless of settings or CPU, and it's only prime stable at 275.
 
270ish seems to be the norm with the foxconn from what ive seen. 280 is better and 290 is its best in most cases.
 
Looking for some results/feedback from those who've used the tweaked bios's on an RS480-M mobo. Mine's been sitting for a month while I wait (patiently) on an Opteron 165 from dave.
 
4DoorGTZ said:
Looking for some results/feedback from those who've used the tweaked bios's on an RS480-M mobo. Mine's been sitting for a month while I wait (patiently) on an Opteron 165 from dave.
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tweaked BIOS seems the only way to go with those boards.
 
sleepeeg3 said:
Set the frame buffer to "disable" to disable it. That was stupid how onboard is still stealing memory when you use an external vid card.
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If u touch the Onboard GPU if u use a video card on your PCIe slot, it is still PIPING hot! That is more added heat next to the video card in the PCIe slot. I hope they are going to have an option to disable in the next BIOS update. I want the think disabled unless i ever need it as a backup video card. If some of u could, maybe email them about it to make sure the option will be included in the next BIOS update?
 
freddy418 said:
I'm not so sure about that, mine won't POST at 280 regardless of settings or CPU, and it's only prime stable at 275.
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Flashed your BIOS yet?
 
M4rk said:
Yeah, in fact the 754 OCs more reliably than the 939. Lots of times you'll get a 939 dud, but the 754s seem to be consistantly good OCers.
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I was asking more if the board in question itself would, though...:(

Only asking because it's not a board currently listed in this thread.
 
Satyrist said:
I was asking more if the board in question itself would, though...:(

Only asking because it's not a board currently listed in this thread.
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No one has said anything about the 754 board or even told me about it, I can add it and whenever you guys buy one lmk what the options are.
 
I'm considering getting one of the following boards. Help me choose...

ABIT IS-10
ASUS P4P800-VM
GIGABYTE GA-8IG1000MK

I'm a big fan of Abit boards. If I get the IS-10, I'll definitely use the modded BIOS.

I like ASUS boards as well, and option of using the Pentium M adapter in the P4P800-VM definitely interests me. However, the lack of overclocking options sucks.

Finally, I've never owned a Gigabyte board and I know nothing about them but it does seem to have some impressive overclocking options.

Can anyone comment positively or negatively about any of these boards from the standpoint of features, quality, reliability, etc...

Basically, I want to know anything positive or negative you've got to say about them.
 
drizzt81 said:
Excellent question. I have one (now at my dad's) and I was unable to find any BIOS options to adjust the VCore. It seems to overvolt quite a bit as is (can we say 1.45V on a Venice core A64-3200+) and I wanted to reduce the Vcore to lower the heat output.
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I just picked one up too, basically based on the options it supposedly had according to this thread...boy am I disappointed! No multiplier control, no Vcore, no Vdimm with a Venice 3400+! Unless there is a hidden bios screen somewhere like on Gigabyte boards, this is a real letdown, I must say. I think Asus quality is really going downhill- there was not even any foam under the board-it was just wrapped in corrugated cardboard for protection :rolleyes: And to think, I could have gotten the Foxconn for the same price :(
 
krick said:
I'm considering getting one of the following boards. Help me choose...

ABIT IS-10
ASUS P4P800-VM
GIGABYTE GA-8IG1000MK

I'm a big fan of Abit boards. If I get the IS-10, I'll definitely use the modded BIOS.

I like ASUS boards as well, and option of using the Pentium M adapter in the P4P800-VM definitely interests me. However, the lack of overclocking options sucks.

Finally, I've never owned a Gigabyte board and I know nothing about them but it does seem to have some impressive overclocking options.

Can anyone comment positively or negatively about any of these boards from the standpoint of features, quality, reliability, etc...

Basically, I want to know anything positive or negative you've got to say about them.
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I would go with the Gigabyte, the ASUS sucks ass and some people report that the modded IS-10 BIOS is a hit and miss- sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt. PLus the gigabyte board looks cool :)
 
Below is a reply I made in another thread on here, can people evaluate my garble in regards to the mATX and aspire rig? http://aspireusa.net/category.php?cid=61

Id love to stay mini as I love having my Aria based rig but don't know if there is a 939 mobo that can OC as hard as I want and fit in the case with a huge HSF or H2O kit...

Help!

HideOut

This is all regarding 939 Opteron single and dual cores, focusing on Dual cores

Mwave and monarch come up alot along with Newegg some. I want a Opty OC'd, either a DC or a 14x SC but the DC seems to be how I am leaning.

The 165, will it go just as high as the 170? I hear the 170 typically goes a bit higher...then again, at $150 more I would hope it would. I was thinking the DFI "expert" due to its superior OCing abilities but it might be a bit overkill. I want GbE ethernet on board. Dont really plan on ever using SLI. USB2.0 out the wazzo and a couple ports of firewire would be nice (sound cards often have, my current audigy 2 and planned Xfi) so that may not be required. HDD capacity for Ata and SATA 2 and beyond that, I just want it to be rock stable. That being said, I was thinking DFI as listed (maybe a cheaper variant) or ASUS or ASRock to save money. I have issues with MSI at times althougth they perform well. Abit has some finanical woes that worry me. Whats everyones recomendations for a GOOD oc and a good price?

RAM will be 2 GB, no compramising. I run BF2, 'nuff said.

Looking at either Gskill's 2.3.2.5 kit or Patriot (I run the 2 x 512 patriot now and it rocks) but others have come down in price including the GSkill and Ive heard its a good of a part as the Patriot.

HDD I own them to the amount of 4-5TB now so I wont get more, maybe a nice SATA for OS but only if I get a good price. Would love a 400GB samsung or something.

WHat bout cooling? I got a chance to get a brand new sealed but 2nd hand TT Big Water kit (not the SE) for $85 + actual ship. Its a pretty good price but I'm not sure if its wroth it. I love my mini Aria case but thats gonna have to go. Maybe the Aspire here http://aspireusa.net/category.php?c...2148a0ea2f1212b but It woudl be hard at best to get a water kit in it without using an external resivior. It'll also limit my motherboards. I love minis though...

Maybe a good 120mm or 92 HSF like the big Zalmans or such with heat pipes. I want it quiet too.

Whats the opinions here?

Hide
 
The opinion is for you to make a thread on here that is not in the mATX forum...this thread is for discussing new mATX boards coming out..etc...if you want an opinion on the qpack and things that fit or good parts just great a thread titled "please help with new rig" or something like that.
 
sleepeeg3 said:
Set the frame buffer to "disable" to disable it. That was stupid how onboard is still stealing memory when you use an external vid card.
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Just a question but does stopping the onboard video improve performance?

Just thinking because in some reviews eg PCstats the Foxconn frequently scored a notch below other AMD ATX platforms and was wondering if that might be contributing.
 
Hi, my brother is planning on getting a new computer soon (his current one started smoking =/ ) and was probably get the Aspire case (or possibly the Aria - I haven't seen as many ravings about that case here though, so I'm not sure). I was wondering which of the 939 boards you guys would reccomend the most nowadays. I don't think we are planning on ocing much, if at all, so I'm more interested in features and stability. Support for the dual core AMD chips would be nice as well (though I'm sure most of them are nowadays).

edit: while i realize this is the wrong topic for this, but if you guys could reccomend one of those cases over the other, that would be great (and kill two birds with one post).
 
For recommendations please start another thread...these one is for kinda discussing the boards instead of making recommendations.
 
Im not sure if its available in the States, but here in Singapore we have a Gigabyte GA-K8N51GMF. It has the 6100, but im not sure about biios options yet, I assume they are similar to the 939 version, but I think I will be getting one soon, so I will update you guys with what options are available.
 
Don't get the Gigabyte GA-K8N51GMF-9. I got this one in a barebones from Monarch. If you pull the power from the PSU, or change any hardware, board will fail to POST until you fuss with it (pull power cord again, cycle power switches, clear CMOS, disconnect 24-pin ATX power connector while board is on, etc.). This problem is rampant with this board. A check of newegg's user reviews of this board will confirm.

Many users, including myself, crash randomly in games with a Machine_Check_Exception error. This renders the games unplayable, as some games like COD2 will crash every few minutes!

I'm still in the process of RMA'ing this board, but in the meantime, I got an MSI K8NGM2-L board to replace the Gigabyte. Night and day, folks. Where the Gigabyte is constant headaches, the MSI, so far, seems to be running with none of the same problems in my system.

Apparently, not everyone is having the same trouble, but there definitely seems to be something physically wrong with the Gigabyte board. Be aware.

- chadt
 
Well i dont have any problems with this board, no blackscreens after bad overclock nothing. i also hacked the bios so i have the voltage options for vcore and vdimm. htt stable up to 304.
that board has only 2 flaws, and that is the 10% slower ram benchmarks, i can get only 7000mb/s at ddr533 3448 with my gskill. also if you have firewire devices conn. the sys wont shutdown.

if you look at the other bad lookin nf430 boards this is the best so far.

another question: this board supports voltage from 1.5v to 2.0v, 1.5 is standart. the cpu runs at 1.45 and i just cant change that, tools like cbid tell me 1.45 is max supported and i only can change in that room with the tool. so is that about c&q or what is that lock about?
 
Hi there. Got an asus a8v-mx agp running in my qpack.

Well, what a poor board.
My system in sign reaches at max. 222mhz (both cpu and ram)... :mad:

This bad mobo features:

- pci/agp locks
- predefined ram frequencies (133/166/200/216/233/250 and auto)
- all customizable ram timings
- NO vcore settings for ram and cpu :eek:
- locked multiplier :eek:
- HTT max only 4x (800mhz) but changeable (works @ 2x or 3x)

If u need an advice, don't buy it! :p

Going to pci-ex next week, i need to spread out my 3700's power!
 
Ok guys, I added a shitload of new boards. I need help on the MSI 939, DFI, and epox boards BIOS settings for 939. If anyone could copy and paste them here for me to update that would be great as i cant seem to find them.

Also i added a bunch of S754 6100 boards, i know a few of you have them so speak up!
 
Hmmm

So what would the conclusion be of Top rated OCing boards for 939?

Biostar #1?
Foxconn #2?
#3?

There are also other boards without many reviews like the Epox and the ASRock... any idea what the OC capabilities are on those on average?
 
Even though it hasnt been thoroughly tested- ide say the epox is #1. but the biostar is pretty nice and iwll oc, and the foxconn/msi ones will do good aswell.
 
I was leaning towards the Epox becasue of what there Ultra and above baords have done but... this is somehting a tad different. I'm looking and will be buying in about a bit over a month... we should see some more revies on them
 
Besides the chipset revision for ECS from RS480-M to RS482-M, have their been any other upgrades to this board. Does the RS482-M have the same bios options as the RS480-M? The reason I ask is I'm looking for ATI M-ATX overclocking motherboard?
 
Updated the epox/msi/bio boards, still waiting on 754 board options...

cbecknet said:
Besides the chipset revision for ECS from RS480-M to RS482-M, have their been any other upgrades to this board. Does the RS482-M have the same bios options as the RS480-M? The reason I ask is I'm looking for ATI M-ATX overclocking motherboard?
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Theres nothing major in the chipset that was changed, but newer revisions are always better it seems.
 
as posted by me in the DFI RS482 thread:

Angry_Games said:
well

I just received one of these today

I didn't even know we were making one (because apparently it was not going to be sold in N America, but now it is so they made sure I received one).

I didn't even know what it was lol

but after opening the box and then remembering a few emails that passed through months ago, I am hoping this is what I think it is (and if not, I bet it will still be a quality mATX board)

I'll be putting something up at DFI-Street about it when I get some time to drag it out of the box and put it together, hopefully this weekend.

The only other mATX board that I have from DFI is the Infinity K8M800-MLVF, a VIA chipset solution for socket754. It was a decent board honestly, but since it was a VIA chipset, you know it was not an overclocker at all (this was even before the supposed 'lock' on PCI that no one can really confirm if VIA has done correctly since we all use Nvidia/ATI/Intel stuff now).

If this is one that was talked about in emails then it should be a pretty darn good overclocker, and possibly the video might be a very good overclocker (though an X300 gpu...I have a couple X300SE PCI-Express cards and they are great for a workstation that doesn't involve 3d Graphics, but very useless for gaming)

anyway, give me a few days to check this baby out and see what it'll do (I've got a 3200+ Venice and Opteron146 and plenty of RAM that I know exactly what they do together in NF4 and ATI RS480 Crossfire boards we make)
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MC FLMJIG said:
Hmmm

So what would the conclusion be of Top rated OCing boards for 939?

Biostar #1?
Foxconn #2?
#3?

There are also other boards without many reviews like the Epox and the ASRock... any idea what the OC capabilities are on those on average?
Click to expand...

Jetway A210GDMS Pro must be included.
The 6 boards I have all do 300MHz FSB. 100% success in all 6 running 24/7.
5 running Opteron 144's@300x9 and other is Opteron 146@ 281x10 because CPU can't handle higher without very high vcore.
Plus hits 2100 in 3dm2k3 with onboard. Not great, but better than other onboards.
Details in other threads.
 
The Gigabyte board is fine. I had the same problem just RMA the board to Gigabyte and they will get you a new board below I have pasted the email reply to my RMA submission. You can submit the RMA online and get a quicker reply. They even ship the new one to you before you have to ship the bad board to them.

Dear Customer,


We regret to hear GIGABYTE product is not functioning right with you at this moment. Due to some factory errors, there are some products of the model number you currently own defective in the market. Although they account for a small portion, we at GIGABYTE wish our customers to have a better experience with us. An exceptional advanced replacement will be granted. You may send the defective item back to us after you receive the replacement and get your system back on running. You have 30 days to return it after you receive it. The attached form is to secure the transaction due to there was no such between you and GIGABYTE before. Please kindly fill it out and either email us back or FAX it back at 626-854-9326 and we will arrange the shipment for you.



Note: There will be ONE dollar involved for this service and an additional processing fee will be charged if the defective item is not returned within 30 days.
 
Well, the new Epox is overhyped, a user from another forum bought one and it didn't go past 223, just like in the spanish review.

He tried diferent CPU's and MEM's and it was a NO GO above 223.
 
Golias said:
Well, the new Epox is overhyped, a user from another forum bought one and it didn't go past 223, just like in the spanish review.

He tried diferent CPU's and MEM's and it was a NO GO above 223.
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do you know the link to that user from another forum?
 
thanks but i found out the hard way with is crap mobo. can't do anything over 223fsb oh wells, looks like it'll just go on ebay or keep it to use for a low budget system.
 
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