Which systemboard do you recommend?

So far I've gone through 3 different motherboards in the past 6 months. First, no matter what you do, don't buy any motherboard with a VIA chipset. The VIA chipset was put in place to support the 133MHZ bus motherboards. I installed it and everything worked great except 3D applications! (not good for your gaming system however) I would receive intermittent lock ups in 3D games. Usually between 5-15 mins. ->very frustrating<-

After going through numerous newsgroup messages I discovered that it was the VIA chipset. Their web page had updated video drivers but they were of no help.

Maybe they have new drivers now that better support the chipset but I would ONLY buy an Intel chipset on my motherboard.

Unfortunately for you, though, asking for a motherboard made today that will range from 800MHz to 1.5 GHz will be difficult. The reason for this is that the current generation of motherboards ranges from ~133Mhz to ~1Ghz. You may have to wait for the next generation motherboard to really get what you want.

Stay away from FIC, and ABIT. If you want to know why, first try to find ABITs web site, then try to find a tech support section. All they tell you is "check the internet newsgroups" 'good luck american joe'.
If you want to get one today, I would highly recommend the ASUS P3BF. It has an nice Intel BX chipset, (very standard), and supports overclocking, jumperless settings, and can go past 1Ghz. I have 3 PCs and in 1 years time ended up putting the exact same motherboard in all 3 PCs. I've started with a 233Mhz, gone to a 550 (overclocked to 733Mhz) and finally a 800Mhz (overclocked to ~900Mhz)

Take it from an avid Quake1/2/3 player, buy ASUS! http://www.pricewatch.com

The Asus motherboards are are the choice of users with a Intel chipset,stay away from the VIA chipset which has its faults with gaming.The 810e and BX-chipset are good.
check these sites for motherboards and specs
Guide to PC MotherBoards and Tom's Hardware Guide,both these sites provide great info and in depth specs on motherboards.

ASUS with an Intel chipset, definitely. Here's a link to the *newest* MB:

http://www.asus.com/products/motherboard/pentiumpro/cuc2/index.html

Hmmm...I have a Tyan Trinity 400 with a VIA KX 133 chipset, and I have had no troubles with any of my games (Rogue Spear, Half-Life, Tribes, Total Annihilation, Starcraft, etc.), nor have I had any difficulty with any programs. I had minor difficulties at first, but that was resolved by dowloading the VIA 4-in-1 drivers, easily accesible and dowloadable on the Tyan website, along with BIOS updates and such - not all VIA chipsets are the same - I haven't heard anything good about the KT 133 chipset, for example.

http://www.spacewalker.com/english/mainboard_detail_info.asp?number=88

I love these spacewalker boards.

This is a good question. So far my experience with the VIA chipset has been pretty in-depth. The first wave of VIA chipsets were extremely bad. Many hardware compatibility issues arose, and was just a general headache. I have been using both the Intel and VIA chipsets.
Lately, the second wave of VIA chipsets has been rock solid. Especially the ABIT KT7. It is a AMD board, for use with the Athlon series. Be it Athlon, Duron, or Thunderbird. The latter is also the processor I would recommend. The 1 Gig Thunderbird is a relatively inexpensive processor, and, coming from someone who knows the Production company for Intel's chips, this is the way to go for gaming. I am in many different markets; the Music Industry market, the IT market,and the Cable market. Also, the networking and gaming fields. I would recommend for AMD, the ABIT KT7, the ABIT KT7R(Raid 0+1)-http://www.abit-usa.com/english/index.htm, or the IWILL KV200 or KV200R(Raid 0)
For Intel, I was using the MSI BX-Master,or the ABIT BE6-2. Any overclocked Celeron or Pentium will work. I hope this helps, and if there are any questions, please e-mail me.

Dave

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