Can anyone please recommend a STABLE and fairly fast LGA775 mobo? (Or even AMD platform)

computer

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Nov 5, 2000
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Hi all. I'm new to LGA775 mobo's and I'm shocked at their prices. Best top rated ones seem to be over $200. The two at motherboards.org that got top ratings (Asus P5ND2-SLI Deluxe and Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI Royal) are over 200 bucks. The next best is the P5AD2-E Premium, but it too is bit high @~$189, (and I can't find out how it differs from the P5AD2-E Deluxe which is about $165 but still too high).

I've wasted hours on this and I thought I'd just ask here since I'm sure many have already done the looking.

Mobo needs to have two IDE ports, floppy, 3 or more PCI slots, PCI-x16 for video, FireWire, (and good audio and LAN which I assume they all have now). This is for a customer's custom PC and he mainly does digital photography on his PC. Only thing for sure is the video card he wants will be the 6600GT. Stability is more important than being the fastest.

I know what "SLI" stands for, but I don't know if that's only for AMD boards or Intel as well, and I don't think that feature would be necessary. If there are better cheaper AMD platform boards out now, then he's open to that instead of a P4 but the mobo still has to meet what I mentioned above.

Appreciate any recommendations. ;)
Thanks.
 

NotquiteanooB

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Apr 14, 2005
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Check out the ASUS P5P800. It's a 8xAGP mobo without raid or some of the other bells and whistles (firewire?); but has DDR dual channel. It's about $119 Canadian, which would make it less than $100 US. I've never used the 6600GT, but from what I read on 'google'; it's an AGP card that can be used in a PCI-E slot ??? If that is true; perhaps this mobo would suit his needs. With the LGA775 slot there are lots of P4 choices available now. It's an easy overclocker with the AI-NOS utility that's included.
 

stevty2889

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Dec 13, 2003
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The hard part about finding a motherboard that meets all of your requirments is that the newer chipsets support 4 or more SATA ports, so only have 1 IDE port. You could always get an add on IDE controller if you really need 2 PATA ports, and there also PATA to SATA converters that allow you to use a PATA hard drive on a SATA port. That will give you a lot more options for motherboards. This motherboard appears to meet all of your requirements, but it's $144, not sure if thats more to your liking.

On the AMD side there are a lot more choices such as this one. If you go the P4 route go with a 600 series, as they run a bit cooler than the 500 series, although they are still too hot for my tastes. If you go with AMD stick with motherboards that use the Nforce4 chipset, I have had stability problems with every VIA chipset motherboard I have had, so thats why I would avoid them.

And Notquite..AGP cards and PCIe cards are not compatible, they make both AGP and PCIe versions of the 6600GT, but the AGP version is usualy a little more expensive, and runs the memory at 900mhz, while the PCIe version runs the memory at 1000mhz.
 

NotquiteanooB

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Stevty: Thanks for that 6600GT explanation. The google article wasn't clear enough. Made it seem like the one card could be used "either/or".
 

jdogg707

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Jun 24, 2002
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I would check out the Asus A8N-E motherboard if you are looking on the AMD side, that paired with an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ would be a mighty combination for digital photography, especially in programs that are multi-processor aware, like Photoshop.
 

computer

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Nov 5, 2000
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Thanks for the replies guys.

NotquiteanooB you had me a bit confused there for a moment. ;)

jdogg707, I checked on AMD CPU's and they are just too slow. 2-2.2ghz speeds for the same price as the 3.2ghz P4's and he wants a 3.2ghz CPU. The AMD ~3.2ghz is just way too expensive. :Q :frown: So it looks like it's a P4 platform.

stevty2889, The CPU I think I'm going to use is the P4 640 3.2ghz (2mb Prescott). That Gigabyte GA-8I945P-PRO looks nice, there's some good reviews on it and I found it for $135 which is cheaper than the NewEgg price. But I can't find out if its SATA connectors support optical drives. Can anyone tell me that, or if all of these new mobo's now support optical drives on the SATA connectors? He wants to go with the Plextor 712 SATA.

 

computer

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Nov 5, 2000
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Something I don't understand about these LGA775 CPU's......are they actually a 200mhz bus like the P4 HT s478 CPU's? They claim "800mhz FSB" like the s478 CPU's do, and they need at least PC3200 memory for the 200mhz bus bandwidth speed. The Gigabyte manual says "667mhz memory must be installed for 800mhz bus CPU's" or something like that. I think it was "in order to use 667mhz memory, an 800/1066mhz FSB CPU must be used". So this is confusing on what memory is needed for the P4 640. Must it have PC2-5300 or will PC2-3200 work?
 

jdogg707

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Jun 24, 2002
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Originally posted by: computer
Thanks for the replies guys.

NotquiteanooB you had me a bit confused there for a moment. ;)

jdogg707, I checked on AMD CPU's and they are just too slow. 2-2.2ghz speeds for the same price as the 3.2ghz P4's and he wants a 3.2ghz CPU. The AMD ~3.2ghz is just way too expensive. :Q :frown: So it looks like it's a P4 platform.

stevty2889, The CPU I think I'm going to use is the P4 640 3.2ghz (2mb Prescott). That Gigabyte GA-8I945P-PRO looks nice, there's some good reviews on it and I found it for $135 which is cheaper than the NewEgg price. But I can't find out if its SATA connectors support optical drives. Can anyone tell me that, or if all of these new mobo's now support optical drives on the SATA connectors? He wants to go with the Plextor 712 SATA.


Ok, I don't think you quite understand here. Since you may have been living under a rock for the last 2 years or so, and missed the fact that AMD chips are almost always faster than P4's, especially the X2's, then I will clarify for you.

Points of Interest:

- AMD Athlon 64 processors are more efficient than Pentium 4 chips, they have shorter pipelines and better branch predictors, making them faster at slower clock speeds.

- Pentium 4 processors run hot, and I don't mean a little hot, I mean boil an egg on your HSF kinda hot. If they get too warm, they tend to throttle themselves, this happens under load.

- Dual Core is the way to go, especially in areas like digital photography, where the programs are multi-threaded.

Articles of Interest:

- Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Review

- Intel Pentium 4 670 Review

- Intel Dual Core Review Pt. 1

- Intel Dual Core Review Pt. 2

- Athlon 64 X2 4200+ and 4800+ Preview

Hope this sheds a little insight. X2 is the way to go with digital content creation, and will absolutely destroy a 3.2GHZ Pentium 4 at it.
 

computer

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Nov 5, 2000
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No. ;) What I meant was the AMD CPU's per dollar are too much slower, not that AMD PC's are slower! ;) You'd have to pay hundreds of $ more for a ~3.2ghz AMD. The AMD 3800+ I believe is only 2 or 2.2ghz and it's like $380, where as the 3.2ghz LGA775 P4 640 is only about $222.
 

jdogg707

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Jun 24, 2002
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Originally posted by: computer
No. ;) What I meant was the AMD CPU's per dollar are too much slower, not that AMD PC's are slower! ;) You'd have to pay hundreds of $ more for a 3.2ghz AMD. The AMD 3800+ I believe is only 2 or 2.2ghz and it's like $380, where as the 3.2ghz LGA775 P4 640 is only about $222.

Get the 3700+, it will beat a 3.2GHZ P4 in just about everything and costs about $270.
 

stevty2889

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Dec 13, 2003
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Originally posted by: computer
No. ;) What I meant was the AMD CPU's per dollar are too much slower, not that AMD PC's are slower! ;) You'd have to pay hundreds of $ more for a 3.2ghz AMD. The AMD 3800+ I believe is only 2 or 2.2ghz and it's like $380, where as the 3.2ghz LGA775 P4 640 is only about $222.

There is no 3.2ghz AMD. Per dollar, AMD's performance blows Intel's away. If you want to compare similar proccessors, you should compare an A64 3200+ to a pentium 4 3.2ghz..now see which one is less expensive. In almost all cases the 3200+ will outperform the P4 at 3.2. A 3800+ is far beyond a 3.2ghz P4, it's meant to compete with a 3.8ghz P4, but again, the 3.8ghz P4 can't keep up. You can not compare the clock speeds of the 2 chips, the architectures are entirely differant, the AMD's slower clock speed means nothing, because it's a far more efficient design.

And as somebody else mentioned, Intel has heat problems. I had to water cool my 3.4ghz P4 just to keep it from throttling, even underclocked to 3.2ghz. Throttling is when the CPU gets too hot, it pauses itself every 2-3 clock cycles, causing considerable slow downs. My P4 was running at 72-74c under load on air cooling with a thermalright XP-120, my dual core A64 runs at 51c with both cores under full load, on the stock AMD cooler.
 

the cobbler

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Mar 8, 2005
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Originally posted by: computer
No. ;) What I meant was the AMD CPU's per dollar are too much slower, not that AMD PC's are slower! ;) You'd have to pay hundreds of $ more for a 3.2ghz AMD. The AMD 3800+ I believe is only 2 or 2.2ghz and it's like $380, where as the 3.2ghz LGA775 P4 640 is only about $222.


:confused:
oh boy
 

computer

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Nov 5, 2000
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Originally posted by: jdogg707
Originally posted by: computer
No. ;) What I meant was the AMD CPU's per dollar are too much slower, not that AMD PC's are slower! ;) You'd have to pay hundreds of $ more for a 3.2ghz AMD. The AMD 3800+ I believe is only 2 or 2.2ghz and it's like $380, where as the 3.2ghz LGA775 P4 640 is only about $222.

Get the 3700+, it will beat a 3.2GHZ P4 in just about everything and costs about $270.

If you mean the Athlon 64 3700+, I see one for $263. They are 2.4ghz....which doesn't make sense since the 3800+ is listed at P'watch as 2.2ghz! Some vendors are saying 2.4ghz for it as well, and the "64 X2 3800+ DUAL-CORE" they are saying is only 2ghz. Rather confusing. But we all know how "accurate" the vendors are at Pricewatch. :disgust: At any rate, in short, please explain how a 2-2.4ghz CPU w/1mb cache can outperform a 3.2ghz CPU w/2mb cache. (Looks like stevty2889 may have explained that).
 

computer

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Nov 5, 2000
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Originally posted by: the cobbler
Originally posted by: computer
No. ;) What I meant was the AMD CPU's per dollar are too much slower, not that AMD PC's are slower! ;) You'd have to pay hundreds of $ more for a 3.2ghz AMD. The AMD 3800+ I believe is only 2 or 2.2ghz and it's like $380, where as the 3.2ghz LGA775 P4 640 is only about $222.


:confused:
oh boy

??????
 

computer

Platinum Member
Nov 5, 2000
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Originally posted by: stevty2889
Originally posted by: computer
No. ;) What I meant was the AMD CPU's per dollar are too much slower, not that AMD PC's are slower! ;) You'd have to pay hundreds of $ more for a 3.2ghz AMD. The AMD 3800+ I believe is only 2 or 2.2ghz and it's like $380, where as the 3.2ghz LGA775 P4 640 is only about $222.

There is no 3.2ghz AMD. Per dollar, AMD's performance blows Intel's away. If you want to compare similar processors, you should compare an A64 3200+ to a Pentium 4 3.2ghz..now see which one is less expensive. In almost all cases the 3200+ will outperform the P4 at 3.2. A 3800+ is far beyond a 3.2ghz P4, it's meant to compete with a 3.8ghz P4, but again, the 3.8ghz P4 can't keep up. You can not compare the clock speeds of the 2 chips, the architectures are entirely different, the AMD's slower clock speed means nothing, because it's a far more efficient design.

Ok I see what you're saying, thanks. (Never mind jdogg707). We have few requests for AMD platforms and no 64bit so far, so I don't keep up on AMD much. I knew the architecture between them a P4 was different, but I didn't know it accounted for that much of a difference where a slower AMD clock speed could outperform a faster Intel clock speed.

And as somebody else mentioned, Intel has heat problems. I had to water cool my 3.4ghz P4 just to keep it from throttling, even underclocked to 3.2ghz. Throttling is when the CPU gets too hot, it pauses itself every 2-3 clock cycles, causing considerable slow downs. My P4 was running at 72-74c under load on air cooling with a thermalright XP-120, my dual core A64 runs at 51c with both cores under full load, on the stock AMD cooler.

Yeah I know about "throttling". ;) Apparently it depends on the batch and "silicon characteristics". I was reading some reviews on the P4 640 at NewEgg and some were saying it ran cool for them, and others were saying it was overheating.

Strange, I've always had the opposite issue--AMD overheating and Intel running cooler. When we've built AMD platforms (32 bit 3500+ and below so far) for customers I always have to replace the retail HSF unit. Whereas on s478 Intel platforms, the retail HSF unit was fine. The exception was a 2.8ghz 1mb Prescott which really "cooked" and it still ran hot with AS5 and a Ttake HSF unit.
 

computer

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Nov 5, 2000
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So can anyone answer this please?

That Gigabyte GA-8I945P-PRO looks nice,........but I can't find out if its SATA connectors support optical drives. Can anyone tell me that, or if all of these new mobo's now support optical drives on the SATA connectors? He wants to go with the Plextor 712 SATA.
 

the cobbler

Senior member
Mar 8, 2005
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Originally posted by: computer
Originally posted by: jdogg707
Originally posted by: computer
No. ;) What I meant was the AMD CPU's per dollar are too much slower, not that AMD PC's are slower! ;) You'd have to pay hundreds of $ more for a 3.2ghz AMD. The AMD 3800+ I believe is only 2 or 2.2ghz and it's like $380, where as the 3.2ghz LGA775 P4 640 is only about $222.

Get the 3700+, it will beat a 3.2GHZ P4 in just about everything and costs about $270.

If you mean the Athlon 64 3700+, I see one for $263. They are 2.4ghz....which doesn't make sense since the 3800+ is listed at P'watch as 2.2ghz! Some vendors are saying 2.4ghz for it as well, and the "64 X2 3800+ DUAL-CORE" they are saying is only 2ghz. Rather confusing. But we all know how "accurate" the vendors are at Pricewatch. :disgust: At any rate, in short, please explain how a 2-2.4ghz CPU w/1mb cache can outperform a 3.2ghz CPU w/2mb cache. (Looks like stevty2889 may have explained that).


in short? hahaha

AMD 9 instructions per clock cycle vs. 6 Intel
AMD are more efficient processors
on-die memory controller on the AMD runs at CPU SPEED

you really should just do a search. this is the deadest horse ever.

BTW, you are comparing an X2 dual-core at 2.2ghz to a single-core at 2.4ghz, so it actually makes perfect sense that the dual-core is clocked slightly lower.

use the number system until you get a better grip on the current chip situation:
3200+ means 'faster than Pentium 3.2ghz'
4400+ means 'faster than 4.4ghz pentium'
etc.

right now the 4800+ is the fastest chip around by a long shot.
 

imported_killuminati

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Jun 12, 2005
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ASRock 775Dual-880Pro ( AGP 8x & PCIe x16 ) :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157080

DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D ( Teh best Most Stable & fastest Nforce4 mobo ) :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136152

ABIT AW8 ( Teh Cheapest Intel 955X mobo ) :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813127213

AMD Athlon64 CPUs has Intregrated Controller Buit-in and Hyper Transport , thast why at low Core Clocks they easy Beat Intels Hell Out .

Cut the crap
AMD = is for Gamers
Intel = Multimedia Geeks .

Peace & ciao !!!
 

Fox5

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Jan 31, 2005
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Just check out the benchmarks and decide...
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2456&p=6

Note that this review doesn't include AMD's X2 cpus and Intel's Pentium D's, which are cpus that have two chips on one chip. They run at slower clock speeds so their performance in single applications is slower than cheaper chips, but are faster in multitasking.
 

stevty2889

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Dec 13, 2003
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Originally posted by: computer
So can anyone answer this please?

That Gigabyte GA-8I945P-PRO looks nice,........but I can't find out if its SATA connectors support optical drives. Can anyone tell me that, or if all of these new mobo's now support optical drives on the SATA connectors? He wants to go with the Plextor 712 SATA.

The 945 and 955 chipsets are the newest from Intel, so I can almost gurantee they will support optical drives on SATA with no problem, I believe the 915/925 chipsets do as well.
Same for Nvidia's Nforce4 chipsets for AMD.

I still recomend getting an A64 over a P4. My X2 4200+ with 2 chips running in one package runs at 51c, while my P4 was running at over 70c with one of the best air coolers available. For SMP aware photo editing or video editing software I highly recomend you get an A64 X2. At 2.475ghz I was encoding DivX faster than a Pentium-4 @4.4ghz(vapochilled).
 

computer

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Nov 5, 2000
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Thanks for the info guys. :beer:

stevty, I started a thread on the SATA connectors & optical drives to be sure. I'd hate to get them in and the Plextor not work on the SATA connector. :roll:

This guy is set on an LGA775 P4, however the next time I upgrade I think I'll be going the AMD route from what you guys have said, possibly 64bit. ;)