suggestion needed

Hi all,

I am trying to find the absolute CHEAPEST motherboard models from
Gigabyte and Asus that fulfil the below criteria. If they are
obsolete, but still available that's no problem!!:

1. Onboard RAID1 (SATA drives)
2. Onboard LAN (1GB)
3. Onboard VGA
4. Support for a single CPU of Pentium 4 3Ghz OR equivalent AMD
(cheaper=better)

This is going to be for an extremely low end Windows Small Business
Server. I have tried searching the Asus/Gigabyte websites, but can't
find a way of narrowing down based on the above criteria. Can anyone
advise what they would pick? Am thinking around GBP20 to GBP 40 mark
ideally.

Alternatively, if I should be looking at another m/b mfr, please let
me know

Thanks in advance,
Rajiv

abd08 wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I am trying to find the absolute CHEAPEST motherboard models from
> Gigabyte and Asus that fulfil the below criteria. If they are
> obsolete, but still available that's no problem!!:
>
> 1. Onboard RAID1 (SATA drives)
> 2. Onboard LAN (1GB)
> 3. Onboard VGA
> 4. Support for a single CPU of Pentium 4 3Ghz OR equivalent AMD
> (cheaper=better)
>
> This is going to be for an extremely low end Windows Small Business
> Server. I have tried searching the Asus/Gigabyte websites, but can't
> find a way of narrowing down based on the above criteria. Can anyone
> advise what they would pick? Am thinking around GBP20 to GBP 40 mark
> ideally.
>
> Alternatively, if I should be looking at another m/b mfr, please let
> me know
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Rajiv

Since you're price driven, find a web retailer that lists products
by price. Newegg, for example, has 100's of motherboards. You should
be able to find the cheapest one that way. With their advanced search
function, you can also specify some of the things in your list, to
narrow the search.

Paul

"abd08" <dejaonly@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:25b47410-97c7-40a1-94eb-e7c0c82e6d26@s37g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
> Hi all,
>
> I am trying to find the absolute CHEAPEST motherboard models from
> Gigabyte and Asus that fulfil the below criteria. If they are
> obsolete, but still available that's no problem!!:
>
> 1. Onboard RAID1 (SATA drives)
> 2. Onboard LAN (1GB)
> 3. Onboard VGA
> 4. Support for a single CPU of Pentium 4 3Ghz OR equivalent AMD
> (cheaper=better)
>
> This is going to be for an extremely low end Windows Small Business
> Server. I have tried searching the Asus/Gigabyte websites, but can't
> find a way of narrowing down based on the above criteria. Can anyone
> advise what they would pick? Am thinking around GBP20 to GBP 40 mark
> ideally.
>
> Alternatively, if I should be looking at another m/b mfr, please let
> me know
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Rajiv

Suggest you go to www.newegg.com , select Motherboard from drop down list,
enter your criteria and see what pops up.

You'll be paying about $50 for a Gigabyte GA-M61 SME-S2 or any similar
board. FYI, most new boards include all 4 of the items you list so you
should have no problem finding what you're after.

If you're after lowest price consider other manufacturers and/or open box
specials.

Thanks for the tips, will scour newegg now!!! =)

Rajiv

abd08 wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I am trying to find the absolute CHEAPEST motherboard models from
> Gigabyte and Asus that fulfil the below criteria. If they are
> obsolete, but still available that's no problem!!:
>
> 1. Onboard RAID1 (SATA drives)
> 2. Onboard LAN (1GB)
> 3. Onboard VGA
> 4. Support for a single CPU of Pentium 4 3Ghz OR equivalent AMD
> (cheaper=better)
>
> This is going to be for an extremely low end Windows Small Business
> Server. I have tried searching the Asus/Gigabyte websites, but can't
> find a way of narrowing down based on the above criteria. Can anyone
> advise what they would pick? Am thinking around GBP20 to GBP 40 mark
> ideally.
>
> Alternatively, if I should be looking at another m/b mfr, please let
> me know
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Rajiv

If cost is really important, then RAID1 is questionable. RAID1, by
itself, does not protect your data (other than from failure of a HD);
so, backup is still needed if your data matters.

I like ASUS, but I've also had reasonable luck (in the USA) with ASROCK
MBs.

{Good luck finding a 1GB/s LAN chip; best I have is 1Gb/s. :-) }
--
Cheers, Bob

> If cost is really important, then RAID1 is questionable. RAID1, by
> itself, does not protect your data (other than from failure of a HD);
> so, backup is still needed if your data matters.

Exactly.... will still be using an external HDD for backup

> I like ASUS, but I've also had reasonable luck (in the USA) with ASROCK
> MBs.

Have settled on an ABIT NF-M2S now. 30 GBP in the UK - a steal!! =)

> {Good luck finding a 1GB/s LAN chip; best I have is 1Gb/s. :-) }

rookie mistake - won't happen again! ;-)