Granite bay: Good, bad, or wait?

[emobobo]

I dont understand why on www.tomshardware.com and www.hardocp.com they seem to believe that the granite bay chipset isnt worth it. The Asus P4G8X would satisfy all my needs and gives me even more than i could ask for. The price will probably be high, but the ddr266 is not that expensive. I dont want to wait for the springdale chipset. So the final question is, wait till the P4G8X is actually available, or buy a P4PE right now?

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

IMHO, the best mobos right now are:

Athlon: Asus A7N8X

P4: Asus P4PE


Yeah, I'm partial to ASUS, but their boards are rock solid, loaded with features, overclock like mofos and offer great support on their website for drivers and BIOS'.

 

[emobobo]

i would be happy to wait for a P4G8X, do you think its worth it?

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

From what I've read on the GB, the only performance increase comes from overclocking. I can't say enought good things about the P4PE. I'm gonna pick up an A7N8X to mess around with.

 

[Kowan]

The 850E out performs the GB at stock speeds.
I'm getting either a P4 and GA-8INXP or AMD XP and nForce2, (not the Asus) maybe Epox.
Plenty of reviews showing P4PE as decent if you're waiting for Springdale or Canterwood.
Granite Bay: Memory Technology Shootout

Should start seeing better pricing/availability on the GB boards in a few weeks.
You should wait and get the board you're looking at, P4G8X.

 

[poldi1]

Do you really need the Firewire support? If not I would suggest the GA-8INXP, its a bit better than the P4G8X from what I have read. Might want to look into it.
GB is the imho the best P4 mobo atm and I would not wait for springdale, it will still be a while till it arrives and people are not even sure that it will be an improvement over the GB, yes it will support 333DDR but the 266DCDDR has exactly enough bandwith for the P4 333 is not needed. and it will run asynchonous, which might decrease perfomrance...

hope that helps a bit.

 

[nealh]

I would put up the IT7 Max2 Rev 2 from Abit against the Asus P4PE...no problems with using onboard raid chip very easy to install winxp

 

[emobobo]

thanks for the help. I do need the firewire support, so i'll wait for the P4G8X.

 

[Marine]

As Kowan writes above, the 850E boards are faster than GB and you can get one now with Firewire.

 

[boyRacer]

Originally posted by: Marine
As Kowan writes above, the 850E boards are faster than GB and you can get one now with Firewire.

That's what i was thinking... dunno why so many people want it sooo much over the 850

 

[o1die]

I've seen one picture of an sis 655 board (aopen). Looks very promising. I'd skip granite bay just because of the high price.

 

[Junkman]

I have just worked through a similar dilemma...wether to upgrade to a GB or wait. I think it depends on what you are currently using that might make the difference.

IMO the GB doesn't offer a real increase in performance over the rdram boards at this time. It seems to be a stopgap implementation of a dual channel ddr solution untill the Springdale and Canterwoods boards are ready .....not to mention the processors that will be implemented for those boards. (if the intel roadmaps hold true).

I don't mean this as a harsh criticism of the GB board or any that think its the way to go.....if I had the cash I'd probably be first in line to buy one if I could.

"To PE or not to PE that is the question, whether tis nobler to GB or suffer the outrageous wait for Canterwood"

 

[emobobo]

what 850E boards have firewire? i havent heard very good things about the boards like a T-533 from asus.