stef80 wrote on 2023-08-17, 11:34:

For i815, I'd say Intel Desktop Board 😀. Totally non-overclockable but usually high quality Japanese caps and decent build quality. Some of them came with integrated Creative sound chips.
For slot-1, I'd say Asus is trouble-free in most cases. Abit had BH-6 that was not affected by capacitor plague. AOpen boards were also OK in that regard.

I agree here for Intel and ASUS, but for the rest I have not enough own experience to comment.
On the other hand I can say that to my knowledge all manufactureres were hit by the capacitor plague to various degree, even though the former mentioned companies have been almost clean of it.

Even TYAN, who did lots of boards for the server market and at some time had a good reputation for reliability, did use inferior components for some boards (my Tiger 200T as an example had pretty bad caps and needed the soldering iron).

So, no matter which board you intend to buy: always check the photos for bulging and/or leaking capacitors.
Leaking caps doesn't necessarily mean that the board is not a possible candidate: it just tells you that if you still want to get that board there is some additional work to do and money to spend.
But with the additional uncertainty of not knowing if the repaired board will work, there must be a good reason (or just enough money) to justify such a purchase.

Skorbin wrote on 2023-08-17, 11:05:

Well, it is not a big deal to put a mainboard name into the search engine of your choice and check for unusual high amount of complaints.
You also might ask on forum like Vogons here or DosReloaded for experiences with certain boards.
Chances are high that there are people owning such board and can give you a heads-up on the typical properties and quirks.

That's a solid advice as well. Lots of research had been done already by my buddy. He wants to focus on local seller in order to be able to see the boards with his own eyes befor purchasing. Sounds like a goo plan to me but it limits the availabilty of pontial boards. He is als looking for computer repair stores near him that would be able to replace bad caps.

Sounds like a rather decent plan to me.

He is going to check out 2 potential boards for purchase.

a Asus P3bf in the 440bx range

and a socket 370 mainboard from Asus Cuv4x from Medion.

Does anybody here has some experience with such boards?

Asus P3B-F is considered a very solid board and recommended by many retro enthusiasts. For this board you can get plentiful of information and help.

If I remember right, the Medion version of the CUV4X (Medion 2001) can be reflashed with an original ASUS rom, but i guess there are other people here who know first hand and might confirm or deny this.
Correction: according to an info at HardwareLuxx, the bios version of the Medion board seems to be NOT compatible.

Edit: check if the Medion board has a suffix at the end. There seem to float different versions around.
Edit 2: seems like the Medion version is actually a CUV4X-CME or CUV4X-CM, but in an OEM version (different memory slots, etc.)

Skorbin wrote on 2023-08-17, 13:45:

Asus P3B-F is considered a very solid board and recommended by many retro enthusiasts. For this board you can get plentiful of i […]
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Asus P3B-F is considered a very solid board and recommended by many retro enthusiasts. For this board you can get plentiful of information and help.

If I remember right, the Medion version of the CUV4X (Medion 2001) can be reflashed with an original ASUS rom, but i guess there are other people here who know first hand and might confirm or deny this.
Correction: according to an info at HardwareLuxx, the bios version of the Medion board seems to be NOT compatible.

Edit: check if the Medion board has a suffix at the end. There seem to float different versions around.
Edit 2: seems like the Medion version is actually a CUV4X-CME or CUV4X-CM, but in an OEM version (different memory slots, etc.)

Thanks for the info about the different versions auf die Asus Cuv4x. The mobo in question is indeed the Asus CUV4X-CME .

Ok, anybody see there Tualatin support?
https://www.asus.com/supportonly/cuv4x-cme/helpdesk_cpu/

Would probably be called TUV instead of CUV. Like CUSL / TUSL i815 models.