AMD->Intel switch - now what MB for these purposes (P4/533)

[DocACE]

Well, I am going to switch to Intel after all. The new performance is incredible.

I am going from a 1.33 athlon/Epox760 DDr system and want to build a P4/533 system with say the 845E or G chipset.
The P4x333 seems not out and I am not sure when the USA will get these.

1. I have a Antec 350W AMD approved ATX 2.01 PS - is this sufficient
2. Any recs on a MB (I have been rading the threads and it sounds like peopel are having problems with all the MB)
I rank these in priority
a. Stability!!!!!!!!!!!
b. 133mhz FSB(533) with DDR333 RAM support
c. Ideal to run FSB at say 150mhz (planning on getting a 2266mhz(533) chip)
d. RAID onboard
e. 1GB ram support
f. USB 2.0
g. Legacy support
h. IEEE1394
i. Bluetooth

 

[oldfart]

a. Stability!!!!!!!!!!!
Stick with an Intel chipset

b. 133mhz FSB(533) with DDR333 RAM support
For 133 FSB, DDR333 support, you need a board based on the i845G since it has a 4:5 mem ratio. Some i845D/E boards can do 3:4 ratio for a DDR354 setup. IMHO, this is your best bet. The 845G boards have not been very good overclockers so far.

c. Ideal to run FSB at say 150mhz (planning on getting a 2266mhz(533) chip)
150 FSB would get you to 2.56 GHz which should be a very easy overclock. I like 150 FSB since a 3:4 mem ratio gets you to DDR400, which is pretty much the limit of most available DDR ram. Samsung PC2700 will get there. This will give you a big performance boost. Be sure to get a board that allows 3:4 @ 150 FSB. Not all will do that.

d. RAID onboard
e. 1GB ram support
f. USB 2.0
g. Legacy support
h. IEEE1394
i. Bluetooth
Some of this will be hard to find and is best added in with PCI cards.

IMHO, the best board to run 150 FSB and DDR400 is the EPOX4BDA2+. Great board. Runs perfectly stable. No hacks required to get that config running. Just set a couple simple BIOS options and away you go. From your list above, you would have to add in f, h and i.

 

[Gogga]

You could try the Asus P4B533-E motherboard. Unfortunately it doesnt have DDR333 support but it does run stable, even when overclocked. It has RAID onboard, Firewire onboard is optional too. Has 6 USB 2.0 ports. I'm running my system fine on a 350W Enermax PSU so I don't presume you will have any trouble with yours.

I also heard that MSI was coming with a new mainboard based on the i845E with RAID and bluetooth integrated on the board. Haven't seen any of those in the shops yet..

Gigabyte supposedly also has a very stable mainboard with RAID and quite a lot of USB ports.. I'm not too familiar with the specs but there is a thread around here about the Gigabyte I8EXP..