Nforce chipset boards: Were they ALL risky?

[zapp22]

Friends I was working on a Pavilion Slimline s3300f a few days ago and it suddenly died. The mobo is defunct: will not POST. Tried the usual debug things but it does appear the mobo will not read BIOS anymore. This has an AM2 Socket board from Asustek using the Nforce chipset, board model M2NC61-AR so-called Acacia [hp]. In doing way too much poking around in forums, it is not unusual to find failing Pavilion Slimlines, and many of them due to mobo failures in this same family using the same Nforce chipset. What's more disturbing however and prompts this inquiry is that folks don't seem to find any GOOD solid mini-ITX board to replace the failed one. There were a number of revisions in this board family using the same chipset, AM2 socket etc, but lots of grief accompanying the line.

I would like to reuse the processor if possible [athlon 64 x2 dual core] but its not essential that I do so - it would be way better if I could get a dependable board to go in there, regardless of the processor.

Any suggestions?

The form factor of the existing board is 170mm x 190mm

 

[crjdriver]

Are you buying a new case as well? Since hp, dell, etc their cases, boards, etc are proprietary. That is they are made to hps specs NOT industry standard. Quite often when you attempt to use a big box case like dell, hp, etc you have problems with standoffs lining up, pci slots lining up, etc.

IMO that is way too old of technology to invest any money into. If you really really want to reuse the old cpu and memory, then you can go with a board like this gigabyte board I have used this on a build for myself and I am very pleased with the board. It will support AM2, AM2+, and AM3 cpus and it uses ddr2 memory. You can use your old cpu and memory AND if you want to upgrade to a am3 965 at a later time, it takes all of a few min to swap cpus.

You will however most likely need a new case and pw supply.

 

[crjdriver]

As for nforce chipsets, it is my opinion that if you are doing an amd build, then you use a quality board using an amd/ati chipset. Same goes for an intel build; quality board using an intel chipset. When you use a third party chipset, you add an extra layer of complexity to the issue.

 

[zapp22]

crj
thanks so much for the thought. I'm just trying to do the fix/punt equation. The case is like new, the chassis like new, the P/S so far as I can tell like new, the processor pristine. I don't want to keep it. Just wondering if a GOOD fix is available and if so, I'd build it, then Ebay it. Best I can tell, all I would need if it can be done is the mobo and memory [mobo-dependent] and a hard drive, and I have several here that are doing nothing but getting old. The sys has a valid COA, so loading the OS is no biggie. The thing that is throttling me is that ever HP-spec'd board for this form factor that I have been able to run down is seemingly flaky, or uses a diff processor. None of the 'quick fix' boards I see seem to have a pristine track record. I just don't sell junky systems to ebayers....

I think you're confirming my suspicion: nforce as core-logic is a no-fly zone....