Good reliable and stable motherboard for P4 boards?

[NleahciM]

Hi - I'm building a new server for a local non profit. It will be used to host a database and be used for roaming profiles. Anyways currently I'm thinking about a P4 2.8E, 2x512mb PC3200 ECC, 2x37GB raptors in RAID1 (mirrored), and an Asus P4800-E (oh and some random video card - haven't chosen that yet). The thing that I'm really indecisive on is the motherboard. That P4800-E was reccomended to me - that is the only reason why it's currently on my list. Would there be a better board out there for us? Essentially - all we need is stability. It would be nice if it had a good SATA RAID chip on it - but we could add that on if needs be. Onboard video and sound would be nice - but again not necessary. Gigabit ethernet would be nice - but we can add on PCI cards if we need it. I think that's about it. What do you think? The important thing is that it be fast and that it is very very stable. Thanks for your time!

 

[Aries64]

Hi NleahciM,

You can't go wrong with the P4C800-E Deluxe. I have two - one running a P4 2.8C (800Mhz FSB) and another with a P4 3.4C. The P4C800-E Deluxe has onboard Intel CSA Gigabit Lan which is one of the fastest (if not the fastest) gigabit solutions out there.

The P4C800-E Deluxe is vey stable AND fast so it will serve you well for your intended purpose (server). The board also has onboard SATA RAID (Promise PDC20378) which supports SATA 150 and UATA 133 drives in RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 0+1 so you should be set there. I can't comment on the RAID performance as all I run is SCSI.

Also worth mentioning (although you probably already know this) is that the P4C800-E Deluxe supports Hyper-Threading (P4 2.8C and above) which will also bode well for a server application. Add to that support for up to 4GBs' of dual-channel DDR400 memory (PC3200/2700/2100 ECC or non-ECC) and you have a fast and stable machine.

Just two things: If you will be using a P4C800 or P4C800 Deluxe (as opposed to a P4C800-E Deluxe which came out later and shipped with a later BIOS supporting the Prescott core) make sure that the board you get has a BIOS that already suppports the Prescott or you may not even be able to boot up. Also, the P4 "E" (Prescotts') have a tendency to run rather hot. Just make sure to get a case with good airflow. Hope this helps.