[PLUG] [OT] Motherboard selection - any advice?

[Mayuresh]

Do not know how relevant this mail would sound to many. Possibly most
people use laptops. I do as well, though I continue to use an old
assembled desktop for family use.

At present I have Intel DG965RY motherboard which is (/has been) getting
overheated and spontaneously shutting down due to heating.

Tried replacing SMPS, fan, on trial basis, tried removing several
peripherals to see what exactly causes heating, it is nearly confirmed
that it is the motherboard that is responsible.

Thinking of replacing the motherboard now, though if I search for options
there are too many of them. So solicit some opinions / experiences:

Some "requirements":

Main usage: home desktop.

Form factor: No constraint, though ATX preferred (so that I can reuse the
cabinet and leave the way drives are fit untouched. It's a bit tricky
placement.)

PCI cards: A wifi and a TV card. Would prefer one odd free PCI slot.
PCIe cards: an nvidia graphics card

Onboard sound, ethernet and VGA output needed.
Not sure whether onboard wifi exists. Will be welcome if some board has
it, though I doubt.

Have couple of IDE and a couple of SATA drives. Seems newer boards are not
supporting IDE at all. Will have to write off IDE drives if I get such
board. Open to doing that, though will be nice if IDE support is present.

Now the tough one. Brand - Asus? Gigabyte? Intel? - Web searches show
preference in that order.

Processor: Prefer i386 as likely to face fewer problems with applications
on the OS I am using. A dual core should be good enough.

OS: NetBSD. Will find out chipset support from shortlisted boards based on
above needs.

Budget: 8k, flexible.


Mayuresh.