recommend me a motherboard please

titewad_2

I am intending having a a go at building a new pc however I am now not sure which motherboard to use.It's going to be a 64bit compatible pc using an athlon 3500+ cpu.I want it to be as futureproof as possible.I'm not into overclocking.My main concerns are reliability and ease of use as this is to be my first time.I was going to get an ASUS A8Nsli deluxe on my mates recommendation,until the same mate recently told me that his had burnt out because the built in cooling wasn't up to the job.The same has happened to the replacement he got.I vaguely remember reading about this some time ago on the net aswell.
I'm looking at around the hundred pound mark so anybody recommend anything please that fits the bill.could you also please tell me what your choice supports aswell please as I do not completely understand the abbreviations that go along with some of them.thanks in advance

CIS

According the Asus website, the deluxe model doesn't have the inbuilt cooling , only the premium version has it. So it could still be suitable.

http://uk.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=0&model=375&modelmenu=1

wolfman

MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum.

Has won numerous awards, as have most of the MSI K8N range. It'll support right up to the likes of 4400+ dual core I think, and will be able to handle the 3500+ you mention.

It's got a built in Soundblaster Live! 24 chip too as opposed to the cheaper codec other boards may have. It'd be what I would go for were I to upgrade from my MSI K8N Neo2 (which I don't need to).

BenL

Check out the Pc Pro A-List and reviews on their website

Online suppliers like ebuyer have reviews by real people who have used the products.

Ben

drlight_2

It has a Realtek ALC850 sound codec, it's 16bit with 8 seperate hardware channels which will give it quality & true seperation.
The SBlive is similiar but processces all sound through a 8 channel 32 bit signal processor & has similiar clarity but is better at processing a higher number of channels. (not really needed for 7.1 +effects)