Please recomend me a good AM2 mobo

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flowerpower

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I'm building my first system around AMD 64 X2 5200+ (or FX-62) processor and i need someone to recomend me a good mobo. There are several things i'm looking for in this board: 1) It has to be stable, thats my top requirement, i dont want to constantly fight the board to get it working properly. 2) I need SLI/Crossfire support (Though i admit i like ati cards more) when i go with that down that road. 3)It has to have a PCI 2.1 slots, since i already own X-FI extreme gamer card (and speakers that go with it) and would like to use it, but it requires 2.1.

I've looked at several boards and reviews, it seems that these boards are rated quite highly: Asus crosshair, M2N32-sli nforce 590, M2N-sli nforce 570, Foxconn nforce 590, Gigabyte nforce 590, and MSI K9A Platinum (crossfire board). Can anyone recomend one of these or may be there is something better out there?
 
I haven't heard about this one yet, but i will look into it. Is this mobo better than MSI's crossfire board and more stable? I also visited the Asustek site, and i didnt see any info on the PCI slots, are you sure it supports 2.1?

I also forgot to mention that i would like to have an option to upgrade to aquadcore processor in the future (may be 3 years down the road), will this board (or any other AM2 mobo) be good for that?

Edit: Any more suggestions? i'd like to hear more opinions.
 
M2N32 SLI-Deluxe is the Nvidia/SLI version of the motherboard sghiznaneck linked, just for if you decide to go with an Nvidia card.

And if you want to get an Nforce board, it won't work with corssfire, and it would be best to get an Nforce590 board as that is the best chipset in the Nforce5 series.
 
Yep, i know that mobo won"t support crossfire, but since i have no real preference for either i'm just looking at all options right now, if i find that a crossfire motherboard is better i'll get one, if nforce mobo is better i'll get nforce.

So nforce 590 is the best chipset for SLI motherboards, huh? then i'll look into those. By the way, M2N32-SLI received a great review from this site, may be this is the one?
 
It does look very respectable, and most importantly, stable. Does anyone here has any personal experience with this mobo? I'm curious to hear how is it working?

I was also looking at Asus Crosshair, it is more expensive, is it in anyway better than this?
 
The Gigabyte nForce-590 is my choice. Why because its Gigabyte and I am very loyal to companys that give me great expierences. So go with that one.

P.S. In my opinion I pefer nVIDIA video cards more. SLi is better then crossfire.
 
That Gigabyte also looks like a good mobo. I've been reading various AM2 boards comparison and roundups and it looks like these 2 boards (asus and gigabyte) seem to be the favorite. Also MSI K9A Platinum is up there as well. Gigabyte is known for making great boards so its definately one of my options.

As far as SLI and crossfire, i've had both ATI and Nvidia cards and was happy with both, each has its stronger and weaker points. Like i said earlier i'm just concerned with finding the most stable and good performing board, thats why i'm considering both chipsets nforce and ATI/AMD
 
I have an ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition, and its superb, very quiet, very good for overclocking, even tho i dont overclock that often, is very stable (have had absolutely no problems so far) is very easy to set up, its my choice for sure.

I was wondering:
MetalX said:
M2N32 SLI-Deluxe is the Nvidia/SLI version of the motherboard sghiznaneck linked, just for if you decide to go with an Nvidia card.

And if you want to get an Nforce board, it won't work with corssfire, and it would be best to get an Nforce590 board as that is the best chipset in the Nforce5 series.

I'm not much of an SLI or Crossfire person, so i was wondering if the R600 will fit into my motherboard, just as a single card. Maybe in the future when i can afford 2 cards ill use SLI
 
_FAKE_ said:
I have an ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition, and its superb, very quiet, very good for overclocking, even tho i dont overclock that often, is very stable (have had absolutely no problems so far) is very easy to set up, its my choice for sure.

I was wondering:


I'm not much of an SLI or Crossfire person, so i was wondering if the R600 will fit into my motherboard, just as a single card. Maybe in the future when i can afford 2 cards ill use SLI
Yes, the X2800XTX (R600) will fit in an Nvidia board. It's just that you won't be able to use crossfire. Which will be a shame since ATi/AMD has finally done away with the external dongle for crossfire. Now it works like SLI with the crossfire bridge except that crossfire uses TWO bridges so technically it has twice the bandwidth of SLI's one bridge. So crossfire is actually better than SLI now (or it will be when the cards that work like that come out).
 
crossfire consist of 2-3 cards in the one motherbaord, will i still be able to use 2 R600 cards? in the same way as using 2 nvidia cards in SLI?
 
The best most stable crossfire boards don't support AM2. That is the i975 chipset.
C2D? ?? ???
 
Mirob said:
The best most stable crossfire boards don't support AM2. That is the i975 chipset.
C2D? ?? ???

I think you are wrong about that. There are 2 good crossfire Am2 boards, they were mentioned in this thread: MSI K9A Platinum & M2R32-MVP

May be i should get crossfire instead? afterall r600 is coming out. Does anyone know if those 2 AM2 mobos will support r600 in crossfire?
 
Also, check out the Foxconn 590SLI board in my signature. Stable, OCs like hell, SLI (2 full x16 slots)... PCI slots are most likely 2.1, after all it's a high-end mobo.

It's actually NVidia's reference 590SLI board, and is the same board that EVGA sells as its 590SLI (they make it for EVGA).

Oh, and did I mention how good it looks?

Yeah, I have it. I'm in love.
 
Thanks for all the input, guys! I've been doing a lot of reading on the AM2 mobos in online publications so here's how the best mobos rank:

SLI:

1.M2N32-sli
2. Gigabyte nforce 590 and Foxconn suggeted by agi_shi


Crossfire:

1. MSI K9a Platinum
2. Asus M2R32-MVP

I'll be picking out of these, M2N32-sli is the highest rated from what i've seen
 
agi_shi said:
Also, check out the Foxconn 590SLI board in my signature. Stable, OCs like hell, SLI (2 full x16 slots)... PCI slots are most likely 2.1, after all it's a high-end mobo.

It's actually NVidia's reference 590SLI board, and is the same board that EVGA sells as its 590SLI (they make it for EVGA).

Oh, and did I mention how good it looks?

Yeah, I have it. I'm in love.

Can you tell me if that board supports 2.1 PCI, can i use my X-FI extreme gamer on it?
 
I tend to see Gigabyte as being more stable than MSI, and those are really the only two enthusiasts brands at the top end. Biostar makes a good SLI model but it's more for users who don't want to fiddle with settings.

That being said, I'd probably recommend this Gigabyte board.
 
foozy said:
I tend to see Gigabyte as being more stable than MSI, and those are really the only two enthusiasts brands at the top end. Biostar makes a good SLI model but it's more for users who don't want to fiddle with settings.

That being said, I'd probably recommend this Gigabyte board.

Yep, thats a great board from what i keep hearing. I decided to go with SLI so i'll get either Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe or that Gigabyte SLI board you suggested.

Edit: After doing more research decided to go with Gigabyte GA-M59SLI-S5, it looks like the most stable AM2 board at the moment.
 
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