Best P4 DDR board

[ahsia]

I am looking to get a P4 DDR board, should I get something with the Intel 845G chipset, or SiS 645DX? And specifically which board performs the best?

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

i845 if you want integrated graphics, usb 2.0, intel chipset and you want to spend the extra $20-50.
SiS 645dx if you want great flexibility and ease with overclocking and are on a budget Has much more flexiblity when overclocking compared to intel chipsets.
i845e if you don't want hte integrated graphics of the i845g.

Performance wise, i845g takes the lead (but not by much). The i845gs are modest overclockers, i845e's are a little better, 645dx is pretty good too but is hampered due to its lack of a pci/agp lock setting in the bios.

So i suggest you get some samsung pc 2700, the P4S533 or Abit BD7II and oc the hell outta your northwood.

 

[Sukhoi]

The EPoX 4BDA2+ is good (i845D) and so is the Gigabyte 8IEXP (i845E) although not too many people have the 8IEXP. I just got mine but don't have it running yet.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

oh yeah forgot about the i845 D chipsets. They are nice and stable and can attain very high FSB speeds (P4B 266-c). However, they are limited in FSB ratios and cannot run memory speeds very high. THey make up for this with the insanely high fsb speeds though.....

 

[Sukhoi]

? The 4BDA2+ has a 4:3 ratio at any speed...150 MHz FSB will be DDR400 with that ratio.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

ummm 150 FSB at a 4:3 ratio is definitely not 400mhz. I think you mean at a 3:4 ratio.

 

[Sukhoi]

It doesn't matter, it's the same ratio. Depends if you use FSB:RAM or RAM:FSB. Doesn't matter as I don't know of any boards with 3:4 step-down ratios, and nobody would use them if they existed anyway.

 

[NanoMem]

Sukhoi, good point! Who cares 3:4 or 4:3? As long as you know which is which...LOL
Peace.

 

[MangoX]

hahaha bump... damn why didn't Abit implement that on the AT7?? And I thought Abit were the best overclockers..... (I got one)

 

[mschell]

4:3 and 3:4 are not the same memory ratios. Any divisor starting with 3 is used mainly for 100-132 MHZ FBS. The 4 divisor is used from 133 - 166 depending on the memory's speed.
Here's how to figure the ratio jazz -

Example for a CPU running a 100MHz FBS with a 3:5 ratio. 3 into 100 = 33 times 5 = 150MHz times two (DDR) = 300MHz memory speed.

Example for a CPU running a 150MHz FBS with a 4:5 ratio. 4 into 150 = 37.5 x 5 = 187.5 times two = a 375MHz DDR memory speed.

DDR 400 support is obtained with a 4:6 ratio - 4 into 133MHz = 33 x 6 = 199 or 400MHz DDR

Simply double the FBS for a 1:1 mem ratio memory clock.

Hope this clears the confusion.