What is the best of the cheapest motherboards out there? Not a model in particular, but brand?

Just posted the Albatron review on news. I've been interested in these Albatron mobos since last fall, I'd go for this

Abit is reliable but not so cheap.

My recommendation: don't skimp on the mainboard. It is the grunt of your system and hardest to detect when problems arise. Name brand MB's have a better knowledge base and support, use better parts etc. I had a cheepo Shuttle board and the auto power down switch went out on the mainboard had to replace the whole thing.

Albatron, and some Gigabyte boards are cheap ...Asus's cheapest seem to be around 140 lol ... but all 3 rule and are excellent boards

Gigabte are usally cheap and nice boards, MSI, has a couple of nice boards, but remember look for some core features liek 8x agp, the type of ram you want, and ect (ata 133/raid onboard) onboard lan, number of pci slots, number of motherboard supported usb's usb 2.0 support ect

...talking about cheap mobo's here... probably, if you can afford a display adapter supporting 8X Adv Graphics Port, you can afford a quality motherboard I think almost every mobo in the shops contains the USB 2.0 already.

I've had this Biostar for many months now. Amazing - the Asus before this didn't last even a week... and the MSI before Asus broke/burnt after couple of weeks usage. I like MSI motherboard colors, they're nice

I tried to get a Gigabyte P4 mobo from an aunction recently, I made the highest offer, but it was slightly under the seller's limit. so he decided not to sell it to me

Then I bought a Thunderbird processor, and started to search for a suitable Socket A -motherboard, and I found out that they sell Socket A -mobos (used ones!) in aunction requesting the same price as retail stores! And stupid people do pay! I'd rather buy from a shop (with warranty) if I can't get it cheap. After few months' search I found, however, a cheap, used MSI with Socket A... now I need the case and PSU...

HI,

good and cheap boards

MSI 648max (with hyperthreading)
Asus p4s8x-x (HAS to be the -x version)

Both are about £60/$90 and have AGP8x, ddr400 and all the bells and whistles. Based on the SIS 648 chipset.

Stu

i found mine for 88 bux, with 3day fedex.....MSI K72N-L has AGP8X, supports amd athlon 3000, supports ddr-400, supports 333FSB....can go higher..... has nforce2 chipset, plenty of usb 2 ports.....fully overclockable also....

VIA has many cheap boards that support overclocking and multiple frequency jumperless i have had no problems with any that i have used
MSI also has a wide range of reasonably priced boards

Yes, MSI/VIA make very good boards and low price, however; I think MSI/VIA are one in the same now, not sure about that -- someone correct me if I'm wrong