Choosing a new mobo - waaaay too many choices! - solved

[kranky]

Looks like it's time for a new motherboard, and I figured I'd stick with Asus (always had good luck with them) and an Intel CPU. Should make it easy, I thought? Go to the asus.com site and - whoa! What the heck happened? There have to be 20 different mobos just for Intel CPUs!

Socket 478 or LGA775?
15 different chipsets...overwhelming!

All I want is something extremely stable that will carry me for a few years, so I suppose that means getting a board with PCI Express while being able to use the MX 440 with AGP 8x video card I have now. I'll get the cheapest P4. I do very little gaming but want to be able to do video editing.

Any insight on why I would care about any particular chipset? Socket?

[edit] Thanks to mechBgon, Hanpan and edelbrock for their assistance. [/edit]

 

[mechBgon]

I have a couple sticks to throw on the pile here:

1. don't get the 2.4GHz P4 with the Prescott core. No Hyperthreading, and some boards don't work with it where they work with other Prescotts.

2. watch your power supply types. Some new boards use ATX 2.2 (24-pin main power cable, not 20-pin).

3. If it were me, I'd avoid Prescott-core P4's if the Northwood C's are available at about the same price. Less current draw and peak heat production, generally faster per MHz, more compatibility at this point... seems like (bwuahaha) the next-best thing to an Athlon64 :evil:

4) If you want PCI Express then maybe get a board that features PCIe x16 for graphics, but also onboard Intel Extreme Graphics 2 video. This would eliminate the need to worry about getting your GF4MX onto it. Lessee here... doing a Newegg search for boards with PCIe x16 and onboard video, I found a whole stack of them ranging from $104 to near $200. Asus one with a plethora of features. Some of the least-expensive are Intel-branded and should have 3-year warranties, if you find one that has the features you want.

HTH

 

[mechBgon]

*waits for kranky to switch this to a why-not-a-Dell thread* edit: oops, and I beg your pardon kranky, I was thinking of Ornery. Similar usernames... my bad.

 

[Hanpan]

With all respect to mechBgon, if all you need is a relatively stable cheap computer and intel is your drug of choice, Dell may well be your best option. Especially if you take one of their entry level servers such as the 400sc or the 420SC and use it as a regular computer. If you wait for a special you will almost assuradly come out cheaper than self-built as well. Of course it takes the fund out of building it yourself, but can save you time and money. I personally use a combination of both, Some dell and some custom build, and truthfully both work well for what they are desifned for.

 

[kranky]

mechBgon, understandable confusion with the usernames. Actually, I have recommended Dell to lots of people also.

Specs on the P5GDC-V Deluxe say:

Intel® ICH6R South Bridge:
- *1 x UltraDMA 100/66/33
- *4 x Serial ATA with IntelR Matrix Storage Technology with RAID 0, 1 support
ITE® IDE RAID controller:
- * 2 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 with JBOD, RAID 0, 1, 0+1 support

I can't decipher that with respect to attaching IDE drives. There's no mention of primary/secondary IDE channels. I'd like to have four IDE drives (2 hard disks, a CD-R and a DVD). Doable? I don't need SATA or RAID at the present time.

Looks like the onboard video would be a step backwards from what I have now but that's not the end of the world. Would be nice to get some more mileage out of the card I have now, though.

Hanpan, I'm sure a prebuilt Dell would be cheaper but I won't give up my case (full tower Supermicro SC750).

 

[edelbrock]

Originally posted by: kranky
mechBgon, understandable confusion with the usernames. Actually, I have recommended Dell to lots of people also.

Specs on the P5GDC-V Deluxe say:

Intel® ICH6R South Bridge:
- *1 x UltraDMA 100/66/33
- *4 x Serial ATA with IntelR Matrix Storage Technology with RAID 0, 1 support
ITE® IDE RAID controller:
- * 2 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 with JBOD, RAID 0, 1, 0+1 support

I can't decipher that with respect to attaching IDE drives. There's no mention of primary/secondary IDE channels. I'd like to have four IDE drives (2 hard disks, a CD-R and a DVD). Doable? I don't need SATA or RAID at the present time.

Looks like the onboard video would be a step backwards from what I have now but that's not the end of the world. Would be nice to get some more mileage out of the card I have now, though.

Hanpan, I'm sure a prebuilt Dell would be cheaper but I won't give up my case (full tower Supermicro SC750).

Yes you can attach your IDE drives. Put the CD-R and DVD on the Southbridge IDE channel. Put the 2 hard drives on the ITE IDE controller. Set the ITE controller as your boot device in the bios and configure which drive to boot from in the ITE menu at boot.

 

[mechBgon]

Yeah, that one would still be able to run your four IDE drives, it has the traditional pair of IDE channels in addition to the SATA stuff. edit: oops, edelbrock called it right on this

My rationale for the onboard video is that you could have your PCI Express x16 upgrade slot while still having rudimentary 3D-accelerated video that's suited to light-to-moderate 3D gaming if you don't go wild with the resolution and eye candy. If you can find a board that features PCIe x16 but still takes AGP cards, then go for it.

I was trying to find some benchmarks on AnandTech for the onboard video, which I mistakenly called Extreme Graphics 2 as it turns out. It's the GMA900 and the closest I got to nailing down its performance level is that it is about twice as powerful as Extreme Graphics2 and features DirectX 9 support. I'll bet it's at least a match for a GF4MX plus offers DirectX 9 support.

 

[kranky]

If the GMA900 is even in the ballpark of the GF4MX, that will be good enough.

I guess a new power supply is in order as well (have you noticed that you can never do just one thing? )because mine is 6+ years old, so I scoped out an Enermax EG495AX PSU which supports both 20 and 24 pin connectors for motherboards and has a PCIe video power connector if it's needed later on.

Do I need to be worried about the PSU fitting in my existing case? Or if the cables on the PSU will be long enough to reach everywhere in the (full-tower) case?