I want to get a mobo that support AMD Athlon XP, but don't know a good brand name to get and what requirements should it have. Any help?

Mobo's, where to start?

There are so many different variables to consider so we'll give it a go.

With regards to brands they are a few I would recommend. Abit, Asus or MSI are the ones I would go with. They tend to be the most reliable and fairly priced for what they offer.

With regards to what requirements the following are my first choices to look at.

Processor Support, yes you will need to check XP support and how far up the scale you will be able to upgrade in the future.

Memory Support, this depends on whether you have memory at present or whether you are happy to buy new. They are two main types you will encounter, either 168 pin or 184 pin dimms. The 184 pin modules are ddr-ram and are the newer faster variety but only the latest mobo's will support it. If you have older sdram then you will either need an older style mobo which supports it or to buy new ram.

Addon cards, the options vary between manufacturer but basically some mobos may have any one or none of the following: onboard sound, graphics, modem or lan. Depending on how you wish to use the machine will determine what you need and also how many pci slots you will need to plug in further expansions cards such as capture cards.

Drive support, the main two options are whether you are going to filling your machine up and using a raid configuration. Some mobos will have raid ability and some won't. Otherwise in general you will get 2 ide controllers supporting 4 ide devices, be that hard drives, cdrom, cdrw or dvdrom/r. If you have raid then this will in general double the amount of drives you can use. The newest Abit mobo will support up to 12 drives.

Other, the are other things to consider such as whether you use infra-red, usb etc and how many connectors the mobo has. If it doesn't have what you need you would have to buy an addon card.

Well, hope that helps for a start,

T.

i have the ecs k7s5a

£50 from ebuyer.com and supports the full xp range

no probs with this board

shouldnt this be in the consumer opinions forum ?

anyway i have a K7AMA Mobo and works fine for me

;)