Mobo feedback

[Mark Young]

I'm currently in the process af getting a new pc. I currently have a, now dont laugh, celeron 533.
I'm looking to upgrade to an XP 2200+ with 512Mb ram, Seagate barracuda lV HDD. MSI K7N2G-ILSR mobo and windows XP as the OS.
Has anyone heard of the mobo that I've chosen and if so what do they think of it? I choose it because it has mmx400 intergarted graphics which saves me buying a graphics card, for now.
Any feedback would be much appreciated.

 

[ubannoying]

Personally I've always steered away from motherboards that have integrated graphics. I've had a difficulty installing a video card in a motherboard with integrated graphics. It just refused to use the video card no matter what we tried. It kept reverting back to the integrated video. Personally I'd rather buy a motherboard WITHOUT integrated video and buy a cheap video card at first. That would make upgrading to high-end video card later much easier.

That said, [H]ard|OCP can't find enough good things to say about it.
pcstats, viperlair, and FiringSquad all seem to agree. A few of the sites tried dropping in an AGP graphics card and didn't report any problems, so maybe my bad experience was just a fluke. There are some overclocking issues with this board, so if you plan to take that route, make sure you thoroughly research what limitations and dangers are present.

 

[dannyevilcat]

Integrated graphics BAD!!

 

[Mark Young]

ubannoying
What mobo was it that you used?

dannyevilcat.
Can you elaborate a bit more?

 

[nihilistic]

Typically, you can get better video/sound cards than integrated video/sound. That's all. If you ask me, I have integrated sound because I really can't tell the difference, but I made sure I ahve a good video card.

 

[Mark Young]

Having the latest ati radeon card isn't such a big deal as the only game that I play is civ3. The IGP with my current celeron has a 4mb memory capacity and it shows everything up quite well.

 

[ubannoying]

Originally posted by Sir Eric
ubannoying
What mobo was it that you used?

I don't really know, it was a friend's computer. I believe it was a compaq, but I'm not sure. It had integrated sound and video and we were trying to add a PCI video card as the MB didn't have an AGP slot.

I've personally always steered away from integrated video motherboards, mainly because of that experience, but it helps that the things I'm looking for in a video card don't come integrated. (I have an ATI all-in-wonder 7500 -- T.V. tuner, RCA/S-video in, video capture, hardware DVD decoding, T.V. out ... makes for a fun toy)

 

[dannyevilcat]

Originally posted by Sir Eric
dannyevilcat.
Can you elaborate a bit more?

As game requirements become more demanding, you may find your integrated graphics a little lacking down the road. An Athlon 2200+ will be plenty fine for games for years to come, but without the ability to upgrade your video card, you're limiting your new computer's effective lifespan, and you'll probably be looking to replace it sooner than you othrwise might.

I'm guessing it comes with something like 64mb DDR video memory? There are already some games out which that is barely enough.

Of course, if all you play is Civ 3, it won't matter too much, but still, onboard graphics are so terribly wrong.

 

[Mark Young]

Thanks ubannoying and dannyevilcat.
I only ever play civ3 but I might get the matrix when it comes out which may mean a graphics card in the future anyway. The MSI mobo does come with a AGP slot for future upgrades if I do choose to do so.
But I think that it will be plenty enough for civ.

I was also wondering if anyone had experience with that particular mobo?

 

[HAND]

Originally posted by Sir Eric
I'm currently in the process af getting a new pc. I currently have a, now dont laugh, celeron 533.
I'm looking to upgrade to an XP 2200+ with 512Mb ram, Seagate barracuda lV HDD. MSI K7N2G-ILSR mobo and windows XP as the OS.
Has anyone heard of the mobo that I've chosen and if so what do they think of it? I choose it because it has mmx400 intergarted graphics which saves me buying a graphics card, for now.
Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Hey I've got a celery 533 too! I know how bad it is! Still im holding off upgrading for a few months at least. Since the Athlon 64 is being lauched in Sept. and ALL the cpus will tumble in price(they usually are anyway). I might be tempted to get an Athlon 64 + Nforce3(if thats correct)...

 

[HAND]

Anyway going back to your question of mobos, ive heard an Nforce 2 chipset mobo is the way to go with an AthlonXp system....I couldn't say which though..Asus or Abit are usually good names to go for...i think Asus is better out of the two.

 

[Mark Young]

Originally posted by HAND
Anyway going back to your question of mobos, ive heard an Nforce 2 chipset mobo is the way to go with an AthlonXp system....I couldn't say which though..Asus or Abit are usually good names to go for...i think Asus is better out of the two.

Nforce 2 chipsets are currently the choice of chipsets for Athlons at the moment.
Before settling on the MSI mobo that I've chosen I did a bit of research to find out which mobo's were the good ones and which ones weren't and nearly all, if not all, of the top boards are Nforce2.
A couple of boards that have had good write up's are the Soltek SL-75FRN-L and the Leadtek K7NCR18D, both Nforce2 boards.
Definetly research before you buy as some boards really stink or just dont have much in the way of features.