Best motherboard for a P4 1.6a?

[paulboogie]

I'm running a P4 1.6A in an Intel D850MV motherboard, which is having problems now. After reading this thread here and some other reviews (googled), I see that the EPoX 4G4A+ is a big favorite amongst P4 1.6a overclockers. But before I order it, I wanted to see if anyone had more success with another motherboard.. please leave comments.

Also, where can I order the EPoX 4G4A+ if I finalize my decision? It's not on eBay and only a few results on Froogle.. help

 

[Hacp]

How much does it cost?

 

[paulboogie]

I think it's in the $160 range, but I can't find it in stock anywhere. Nothing on Pricewatch either... have any alternatives?

 

[Hacp]

Buy a new mobo/processor.

 

[paulboogie]

Good idea. What mobo/cpu/cooling set up would you recommend?

 

[Hacp]

How much you willing to spend? I'm guessing your looking to spend around 100 bucks?

 

[paulboogie]

Yea.

 

[Hacp]

Maybe a sempron 2600+ Chaintech Nforce3 250.

 

[stevty2889]

$160 motherboard for a chip thats not even worth that much?!?!? I picked up an Aopen AX4GE Max on ebay for like $40, and got my mobile 1.6 northwood to 2.5ghz on it.

 

[Hacp]

Originally posted by: stevty2889
$160 motherboard for a chip thats not even worth that much?!?!? I picked up an Aopen AX4GE Max on ebay for like $40, and got my mobile 1.6 northwood to 2.5ghz on it.

Problem is that the power supply might not like mobiles xps.

 

[paulboogie]

What do you think about the ASUS A7N8X-X motherboard?

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: Hacp

Originally posted by: stevty2889
$160 motherboard for a chip thats not even worth that much?!?!? I picked up an Aopen AX4GE Max on ebay for like $40, and got my mobile 1.6 northwood to 2.5ghz on it.

Problem is that the power supply might not like mobiles xps.

Huh?? What do mobile xps have to do with anything, or the power supply? He was asking about a motherboard for a 1.6ghz northwood. The board I have is a desktop board, but I am using a mobile northwood on it via the bent pin trick to get the proper voltage. The board has decent overclocking features and it was really cheap, not too bad for an older chip like that without spending more than the CPU is worth on the motherboard.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: paulboogie
I think it's in the $160 range, but I can't find it in stock anywhere. Nothing on Pricewatch either... have any alternatives?

So, really, your budget is more like $160 than $100. For $160 you might be able to get a low end socket 939 CPU and disposable motherboard from Fry's. Otherwise, your best bet would be to do what Hacp said and get a Sempron and Chaintech socket 754 board, but perhaps get a faster Sempron with the extra $60 budget. Still, even the slowest Sempron (BTW, there is now a 2500+ model available) would be faster than your P4 setup.

I'm not too familiar with your motherboard, but could it be an 850 chipset board using RDRAM? If so, no matter which route you go (new motherboard for the P4 or a Sempron/mobo) you will have to buy new RAM. You might be able to get a low end socket 754 Sempron with Chaintech board and 512MB RAM for $160 out the door.

 

[stevty2889]

Oops, missed that the first time, that is an RDRAM based motherboard. The only good RDRAM based board I can think of is the Asus P4T-E, I had a 1.6@ 2.1ghz on one of those, but it will be hard to find. Probably easier to ditch the CPU, motherboard, and ram on e-bay and buy a new motherboard, ram, and CPU.