Motherboards
ASUS A7N8X (Revision 1.06)
This motherboard is the one I used with the Athlon XP 2500+ three years ago. It still works, but the onboard sound and LAN are a bit flaky if I recall right. May or may not have a problem with one of the IDE channels but I know at least one of them works just fine. It has an aftermarket heatsink on the southbridge as the board has been modified with a pencil to run a higher voltage to the chipset. I can undo this modification to return it to default if desired. I did it originally to overcome an issue with the boards not being able to run solid at FSB speeds greater than about 185MHz. This mod allows the FSB to run with stability up to about 205-210MHz. Overall, it's still a nice board. Socket A, AGP x8/Pro, PCI slots, 3 DDR DIMM slots, 2 onboard IDE, onboard network and sound. It also has 2 USB 2.0 ports, 2 USB 1.1 ports, onboard LPT and COM, and PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse. It takes a 20-pin ATX connector and doesn't have room on it to accomodate a 24-pin ATX connector unless it is a split one (20+4) or you buy a $5 adapter. These retail for $80 from what I can tell (becoming rare in the retail arena), but I would accept about half of that considering the deteriorating onboard sound, LAN, and possibly IDE.
ASUS A7N8X-X (Revision 2.0) (sold to Justin for $45)
I used this motherboard after the onboard sound started pissing me off with the board above me. It hasn't been modified, as the 2.0 revision fixed the problem with getting the FSB up to 200MHz and above. Everything on it works as far as I know and it otherwise is as the board above is described, except for I'm pretty sure all of the USB ports are USB 2.0. If you want me to make a definate list of features, I'm more than happy to do so. The A7N8X-X series is retailing for about $65, and I am once again willing to take less as it is used.
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
This is the motherboard that I've used for this last year. It's got a nifty black PCB (the color of the board itself) with platinum colored stuff on it. It's been a good board for the most part, except for the onboard sound (which sucks now). I can include a PCI sound card if preferred--probably a Sound Blaster Live! Value. Anyway, this board is a Socket 939 board for the Athlon 64 and Opteron 100 series processors. It has four onboard USB 2.0 ports, onboard LPT and COM, PS/2 for mouse/keyboard, two onboard gigabit LANs (one of which has a built-in hardware firewall if desired), AGP 8x/Pro, PCI slots, two onboard IDE, four SATA channels with RAID ability, and four DDR DIMM slots. As with my first A7N8X, the LAN has issues (mainly if overclocked) but I can include a gigabit PCI LAN card if desired. These currently retail for $130, which is weird because that's what I paid for mine a year ago. Seeing as how the sound is annoying and I may or may not have a spare sound card for anybody who wants it, I'm willing to take offers somewhere around 1/2 to 2/3 of its current price. More than that would be a rip for a consumer since they'd probably have to pay for a sound card.
