Advice on choosing mobo for new P4 system ???

[Winjer23]

Greetings,

I'm thinking of putting together a new system with a P4 (maybe a 2.53 mHz monster), and want some advice on a good mobo to use considering:
1) I am not planning on overclocking it
2) I want onboard LAN and Sound [in part for stability]
3) Stability, Stability, Stability
4) want to use DDR SDRAM, at least I think I do (any comments)

I've lost touch with the mobo world since the days of the 1.2 mhz athlon, and it seems there are multiple chipsets and numberous mobos out there for the P4. Any good mobo review websites that have all the P4 boards together and grouped by some relevant measure? Anandtech has various reviews, but it's hard to piece together (quickly!) what's important. I don't even know which chipset is the newest, and which is the best.

Any particular boards people like? Anything else I need to consider (overheating? extra IDEs? new AGP issues?)

Thanks a lot for any help at all,
Winjer

 

[halkebul]

i845PE is the best P4/DDR chipset in my opinion. I suggest Albatron PX845PEV PRO motherboard ($95 at newEgg.com) if ya don't need RAID and GIGABYTE GA-8PE667 ULTRA motherboard ($146 at newEgg.com) if ya do need RAID. Ya might not want to overclock now but overclocking may save you from buying a new cpu in the future. Both of these motherboards are good overclockers. Pick Pentium4 2.4B over Pentium4 2.53 as the price/performance ratio is much better for the P4 2.4B.

 

[Vette73]

Well if you don't want to overclock and you want a lot of features then look at the VIA P4PB
It has 6ch sound, Lan, USB2.0, and firewire. Also the sound has digital inputs and outputs.
The board can be had for $125 at newegg.com and maybe cheaper else where,but I trust newegg.

The Board......

 

[oldfart]

If stability is #1 concern (as it should be), stick with an Intel chipset. The i845E/G/PE boards are very good. Which one to get depends on what you like. I would say go with an 845PE board from Asus, Epox, or even Intel since you are not overclocking. The Intel D845PEBT2 Blue Mountain 2 (845PE): Intel's Enthusiast Board was just reviewed here and it looks like a nice board. Intel boards are as solid as they come.

By far the biggest selling point of the D845PEBT2 is the fact that it comes with Intel's top notch reliability and stability record when it comes to motherboards. Very few manufacturers have come close to matching Intel's performance in this regard, which has always been why Intel's motherboards have sold so very well.

If you want to go 845G, the Epox 4G4A+ is a really nice one that is under $100.

 

[LouPoir]

I agree - I845PE chipset is the newest / most mature. THe Asus is the high end at $163 at Newegg. Feature rich board.

For the I845G, the Epox 4g4a+ is stellar in performance.

I would shy away from the SIS 648 chipset.

Lou

 

[SuperSix]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Well if you don't want to overclock and you want a lot of features then look at the VIA P4PB
It has 6ch sound, Lan, USB2.0, and firewire. Also the sound has digital inputs and outputs.
The board can be had for $125 at newegg.com and maybe cheaper else where,but I trust newegg.

The Board......

VIA? He said stability was important.

For the P4, non-overclocked, STABLE solution, there is no better than an Intel mobo.. The board that Maxumium PC uses in all of it's baseline testing systems.. To quote them "If it won't work in an Intel motherboard, it won't work in any board"

The new i845PE is what I would be looking for..

Intel Mobo Matrix

I might actually use an Athlon.. If Intel made motherboards for them.. There's a reason Dell, ALienware, et al use them in their systems.

If you want to overclock/tweak, ASus is your best bet.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: SuperSix

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Well if you don't want to overclock and you want a lot of features then look at the VIA P4PB
It has 6ch sound, Lan, USB2.0, and firewire. Also the sound has digital inputs and outputs.
The board can be had for $125 at newegg.com and maybe cheaper else where,but I trust newegg.

The Board......

VIA? He said stability was important.

For the P4, non-overclocked, STABLE solution, there is no better than an Intel mobo.. The board that Maxumium PC uses in all of it's baseline testing systems.. To quote them "If it won't work in an Intel motherboard, it won't work in any board"

The new i845PE is what I would be looking for..

Intel Mobo Matrix

I might actually use an Athlon.. If Intel made motherboards for them.. There's a reason Dell, ALienware, et al use them in their systems.

If you want to overclock/tweak, ASus is your best bet.

Show me a honest/fair review that said this board was NOT stable?

Just because you hear this or that about VIA, does not mean you know anything. I have built over 50 systems with VIA chipsets and only had minor problems, and those were not related to the chipset.

 

[SuperSix]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975

Originally posted by: SuperSix

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Well if you don't want to overclock and you want a lot of features then look at the VIA P4PB
It has 6ch sound, Lan, USB2.0, and firewire. Also the sound has digital inputs and outputs.
The board can be had for $125 at newegg.com and maybe cheaper else where,but I trust newegg.

The Board......

VIA? He said stability was important.

For the P4, non-overclocked, STABLE solution, there is no better than an Intel mobo.. The board that Maxumium PC uses in all of it's baseline testing systems.. To quote them "If it won't work in an Intel motherboard, it won't work in any board"

The new i845PE is what I would be looking for..

Intel Mobo Matrix

I might actually use an Athlon.. If Intel made motherboards for them.. There's a reason Dell, ALienware, et al use them in their systems.

If you want to overclock/tweak, ASus is your best bet.

Show me a honest/fair review that said this board was NOT stable?

Just because you hear this or that about VIA, does not mean you know anything. I have built over 50 systems with VIA chipsets and only had minor problems, and those were not related to the chipset.

I don't have that documentation. If you can sit there, and tell me that a 3rd party chipset is better designed to run with a Pentium4 than a chipset made by the company that MAKES THE PROCESSOR, I envy you. The one thing Intel boards are known for is stability, how can you possibly argue against that? Is there a significant cost difference? Not to mention Via isn't even licensed to manufacture chipsets for the P4, there's a good chance they weren't privy to a lot of processor-specific documentation they would need to produce a stable, efficient, and RELIABLE chipset.