Best motherboard for a P-4 3.2C?

Subhuman25

Senior member
Aug 22, 2004
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I'm looking for the best home for a P-4 3.2C.
From I've seen it's down to Abit IC-7 max3 , ASUS P4C-800-E Deluxe , DFI 875B LanParty Pro
Or have I missed anything?Seems the 875P chipset is the ideal,no?
Or should I be looking at 865PE chipsets? I'm not sure what the differences are.

I'm putting together a shopping list for an entire system and here is what I've come up with sofar.

Antec P-160 case w/ Antec 480W TruePower PS
P-4 3.2C Northwood (retail HSF)
OCZ PC3700EB 1GB(512mb x 2)
WD Raptor 74GB SATA 10,000rpm x 1
NEC DVD RW ??
6800GT or X800 pro ??

I would welcome any suggestions concerning the rest of my system.I know this is the motherboard forum,but might as well just shoot for it since I'm already inquiring about motherboard suggestions for my new system.
 

stevennoland

Senior member
Aug 29, 2003
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Subhuman25,

Welcome to the forums. Kudos for building your own system. Lasly, thanks for being an Intel fan (there are so few of us). Anyway, to your mobo (and system):

Your mobo choice: go for the Abit max3 board. I have one and I love it. If money is an issue then go for the 865x boards. I would try and afford an 875x board though. The main diff is that initially the 865x boards didn't offer PAT (look it up), but this has been circumvented by some MOBO manufacturers. Still, the price on the 875x boards continues to drop. Every day you wait adds a buck or more to the purchase of another HD (see next).

If you really want a performance boost, opt for another WD raptor and run a RAID 0. It SMOKES!

As for the vid card, go with the 6800GT. It's more future proof than the ATI, shader 3.0 .

Every thing else looks good. You might want to opt for a better HS and fan combo for you CPU.

Good luck. Let us know what you decide. If you want, email me a pic of your rig @ stevennoland0146@msn.com.
 

hsfnewbie

Member
May 19, 2001
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Hi,

I am planning a similar rig to yours cept I dont have the 480 watt power supply. I have a 400 watt power supply. Is that good enough for running the 6800 GT and all that ohter stuff you got listed there?
 

Subhuman25

Senior member
Aug 22, 2004
370
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Thanks for your recommendation Steve.I put together an order at ZipZoomFly.No time right now but I'll try posting it later while at work.The Abit IC7 Max3 was on backorder there.I'm still hesitant about wich motherboard to be honest.Mainly I'm considering the Abit vs ASUS.ASUS was in stock.
hsfnebie:Considering the price difference between a 400W & 480W PS I'd just opt for the higher to be on the safe side.Also it would leave room for future expansion.You'd rather be oversupplied than under.And who knows what components you might add in the near future.Some may be power hogs.480W should cover most home systems,including enthusiast systems.550W is probably a bit overkill for a home system.Choose a good standing name brand PS though.Can't go wrong with Antec,although there are some other good brands as well.
One more question for all.I decided on a Pioneer DVD R/W ..the 108 something.Should I add a regular DVD rom /CD rom or something for just reading i.e. games etc Or will the one drive suffice?
Do I really need a floppy anymore?I have not used a floppy in years.
 

hsfnewbie

Member
May 19, 2001
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just a note to that.... I plan on gettin the retail version of the 108 (because i like the bezel) and on top of that get a 52x CDRW drive and a 16x dvd rom for reading standard disks. I'm sure it's overkill, but I dont want to wear out my 108 and i have enough bays to support such a thing
 

Subhuman25

Senior member
Aug 22, 2004
370
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Oh in that case I'd definately recommend going with the 480W PS to suppport all the components and have some extra ummpphh left for any additions in the future.
As far as bezels go,I'm not particular since the case I'm putting them into has it's own bezels/faceplates to match the case(push buttons and LED window included) :)
I guess I'll add a DVD ROM then too.I don't know if a 3rd optical drive is neccesary though.

My dillemma still remains wich motherboard at this point Abit IC7 Max3 or ASUS P4C800-F Deluxe.
 

Subhuman25

Senior member
Aug 22, 2004
370
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I'm not interested in overclocking at all.I just remembered to add that,as that would would be a major factor in consideration of a MB and you beat to the question lol
 

Bar81

Banned
Mar 25, 2004
1,835
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Then your choice should be the Asus P4S800D-E Deluxe. As stable as an Intel 875 board but faster and cheaper to boot.
 

Subhuman25

Senior member
Aug 22, 2004
370
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Should I add an optical drive to my existing choice of the Pioneer 108 DVD burner?
Any cons to the EVGA 6800 GT video card?
How about wich memory .. I was considering the Corsair XMS PC 3200 2-2-2-5 dual channel platinum?
And HD's I was considering a pair of Seagate Barracuda's 120GB 7,200 SATA yay or nay?
 

Bar81

Banned
Mar 25, 2004
1,835
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No need for a second optical drive.
The GT is a very nice card.
The Corsair is fine although there's really no need to spend extra on lower latency RAM, it provides a negligible performance increase. Purchasing some quality CAS2.5 PC3200 from say Mushkin is a more prudent option.
Hard Drive, if you're thinking about RAID 0, don't. If you have the cash the best call would be a Raptor for a boot drive and a 120GB Samsung SP80 SATA drive for storage. Otherwise look into the newer deskstar as a boot drive.