I've pretty much decided on everything in my new computer other than the motherboard. There are so many good boards available out there, each with conflicting reviews, so I appeal to you guys to set me straight on which one I should go for.
My system is going to be a 1.6A Northwood system with the following specs:
Northwood 1.6A 512kb cache
X Motherboard (see below)
Visiontek Geforce 4 ti4400
Samsung 256mb pc2700
Maxtor FDB 60gb
Creative Audigy OEM
Enermax 350W
Lian-Li PC65
Sony 16x10x40 CDRW
I'm looking at the following boards:
Abit IT7 - Max
A legacy free board, I've heard many positive reviews about this mobo. It's fairly new and expensive, so I want to know is it worth the extra price for less options? And is the onboard LAN and sound actually useable? I probably wouldn't use the onboard sound, but I am seriously thinking of just using the onboard LAN.
Asus P4S533
Missing some of the latest additions and using a sis chipset, this board is cheaper than the rest but still includes onboard sound and LAN. This board is really confusing me. From many people I've heard that it's an extremely stable board and provides great stability and overclocking performance. But from others I've read that they've been having tons of problems with cold boots, etc.. Now it seems this might be resolved by not using the third power cable to the motherboard, but again I've heard conflicting reports about this being true or not. How is this board?
Asus P4B533
A fair bit more expensive than the P4S533, only difference seems to be the inclusion of an intel chipset. Is the SiS chipset really all that bad? And is the $30 premium worth it for an intel chipset?
Epox 4BDA2+
I've heard a lot of good reviews about this board. Especially the fact that it is an overclocker's dream with the PCI/AGP locks as well as increased voltage options and other great BIOS features. But again I've heard that it has a flakey voltage controller on the 12V line so it'll have a lot of problems. I've had experience with the 8KHA+ and the 8K3A+ both of which have been great boards. But I've never had experience with an Intel Epox board.
So which of these four boards would you recomend? I've been scouring the web for reviews of these boards, but the more info I find out about them the more conflicting information that I uncover and the more confused I become. I will be overclocking and trying to push the board to its limit with the 1.6A Northwood, so I need a board that will stand up to the punishment. I may do a bit of voltage tweaking, but not much since I personally believe it greatly decreases the cpu's life. I'd also like PCI/AGP locks as well as a few choices of dividers.
My system is going to be a 1.6A Northwood system with the following specs:
Northwood 1.6A 512kb cache
X Motherboard (see below)
Visiontek Geforce 4 ti4400
Samsung 256mb pc2700
Maxtor FDB 60gb
Creative Audigy OEM
Enermax 350W
Lian-Li PC65
Sony 16x10x40 CDRW
I'm looking at the following boards:
Abit IT7 - Max
A legacy free board, I've heard many positive reviews about this mobo. It's fairly new and expensive, so I want to know is it worth the extra price for less options? And is the onboard LAN and sound actually useable? I probably wouldn't use the onboard sound, but I am seriously thinking of just using the onboard LAN.
Asus P4S533
Missing some of the latest additions and using a sis chipset, this board is cheaper than the rest but still includes onboard sound and LAN. This board is really confusing me. From many people I've heard that it's an extremely stable board and provides great stability and overclocking performance. But from others I've read that they've been having tons of problems with cold boots, etc.. Now it seems this might be resolved by not using the third power cable to the motherboard, but again I've heard conflicting reports about this being true or not. How is this board?
Asus P4B533
A fair bit more expensive than the P4S533, only difference seems to be the inclusion of an intel chipset. Is the SiS chipset really all that bad? And is the $30 premium worth it for an intel chipset?
Epox 4BDA2+
I've heard a lot of good reviews about this board. Especially the fact that it is an overclocker's dream with the PCI/AGP locks as well as increased voltage options and other great BIOS features. But again I've heard that it has a flakey voltage controller on the 12V line so it'll have a lot of problems. I've had experience with the 8KHA+ and the 8K3A+ both of which have been great boards. But I've never had experience with an Intel Epox board.
So which of these four boards would you recomend? I've been scouring the web for reviews of these boards, but the more info I find out about them the more conflicting information that I uncover and the more confused I become. I will be overclocking and trying to push the board to its limit with the 1.6A Northwood, so I need a board that will stand up to the punishment. I may do a bit of voltage tweaking, but not much since I personally believe it greatly decreases the cpu's life. I'd also like PCI/AGP locks as well as a few choices of dividers.
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