Good P4 ddr mobo at a decent price?

[drake6]

Ok as you guys know from my previous post and sig I'm a amd man, but I got a good friend whos got a slow PII 350 system and needs to upgrade and feels more comfortable with Intel than amd . Personally I told him, he could get a amd xp1700 or 1800 a ecs k7s5a or ak31a and ddr still have a faster system than most p$ oops P4 systems *until you get to 2.0gig* especially sense he has zero plans to OC. Well whats a good socket 478 P4 mobo that runs ddr he wants the upgrade to stay under 350.00 usd if possible(ie mobo+cpu+ddr) . Some of the canidates I though of are ECS SiS645 P4S5A , EPOX EP-4SDA SiS 645 , SHUTTLE AV40 P4 P4X266 DDR ,VIA P4XB-SA P4X266A ,DFI Intel 845-D nb 70sc Chipset ,MSI 645 Ultra , asus P4S333 or what ever else is a good choice? Keep in mind he's look for stablity, quickness with a decend upgrade path (so no 423 mobos). Has anone had any experences with this mobos, what the best deal in P4 ddr mobos? I'll be helping him with the upgrade so a fairly stable trouble free mobo would be nice . Ok Fellow AMDer's please refrain from flame posts (atleast i was able to move him off a P$ dam P4 sdram solution but no go on amd xp ). So All you P4'ers out there any Ideas on a good reasonably price P4 ddr mobos? Please feel free to post constructive replys.

 

[THUGSROOK]

Asus P4S333

 

[DAPUNISHER]

<< Asus P4S333 >>

I concur, the price is excellent for an Asus board, it overclocks well, and has good on-board sound. Also, since your helping set it up, just change the FSB to 133, you most likely wont have to touch the Vcore or anything else to run@ that speed either as the majority of us with this board have gone farther yet@default Vcore. You'll be giving him added value without the usual need for better cooling and fine tuning issues that go along with the overclocking.

 

[Athlon4all]

Asus P4S333, or even cheaper is MSi 645 Ultra.

 

[Buz2b]

A review for you!
Some additional assistance!

 

[ahsia]

ABSOLUTELY the Gigabyte 8SRX. Best performing SiS645 board, and only $80 at mwave.com. Second choice would be ASUS P4S333, but that's like $30 more. The MSI 645 Ultra33 is decent, and is the cheapest since they sell for like near $70.

 

[dbwillis]

Asus P4S333 gets my vote!

 

[Buz2b]

While true that the Gigabyte is $20 less, I'd pay the $$ for the ASUS. Worth it IMHO.

 

[senior guy]

FWIW, bingo13 (who is well known around here) reports his P4 1.8A is running extremely stable at 2.52GHz on his GA-8SRX. ....If I recall correctly, his FSB is at 140 with Samsung PC2700.

 

[drake6]

Cool thanx guys , and one else with any ideas please feel free to post.

 

[VivienM]

If he's not planning to overclock at all, you might want to look into Intel's boxed motherboards. No overclocking or much tweaking features, but they're rock solid in terms of stability. (at least, I've had no problems with my RDRAM-based D850MVL, and I know people with D815Esomethings who haven't had the slightest problems either, so I don't see why their DDR ones would be any different)

 

[drake6]

Ok There got to more oppions out there on good P4 mobos? Please feel free to post more oppions

 

[Underclocked]

From Prometheus at AsusBoards:


<< Gigabyte Is Now the Clear Choice
In the Computer industry, yesterday's conclusions can be as dead as yeaterday, so I think I need to be clear on today's recommendations. With the latest update to F8 Bios, the Gigabyte 8SRX is my clear recommendation as the best performing DDR board. It is the fastest SiS645 board, is the most flexible overclocker on the market, and the fact that EasyTune III allows you to now adjust OC values IN Windows (including XP) is icing on the cake.

Currently I boot my 2.2OEM at 117, then load 484 (121x4) and 360 (180x2) memory with EasyTune III in the XP load. The Auto-Optimization overclock feature and Dual Bios are also truly unique and VERY useful.

When you consider the 8SRX has 5.1 Digital sound with the Creative CT-5880 chip, 6 PCI slots , and the most incredible array of clock generator and voltage options, you have an incredibly FLEXIBLE overclocker. OC features just keep coming - FSB adjustable in 1MHz increments from 100 to 355 in the latest BIOS, Northwood voltage from 1.10 to 1.85V, memory ratios that almost always give you a 400 (200) speed option or better, and AGP and PCI voltage and SPEED adjusts in BIOS. The fact you can buy the Gigabyte 8SRX P4 Titan from www.mwave.com for $74 makes it a no-brainer.

If you want to squeeze the last bit out of your Northwood system, the Gigabyte is your choice. If you plan to use super high-speed memory, water-cool or use individual components you want to take to the limit, the Gigabyte is your only real choice. But even if you NEVER Overclock this board, you will still have the fastest SiS645 board I have tested so far.

For ease of use, including an easy 533 FSB option for chips, the Asus is king. Running a 1.8A at 2.4Ghz is child's play on the Asus - "on" the OC jumper, select the 2.4 preset in Bios and go. Your PCI and AGP will still be running at default for a trouble-free OC. The Gigabyte 8SRX will go to this same place - in fact you can select stock AGP/PCI values at almost any overclock - but there are more options to set to get there. >>

AsusBoards thread

 

[senior guy]

The degree of success in OC'ing any of the P4 DDR boards also depends (to a large extent) on the type and quality of DDR333 memory used!