looking for the best Motherboard

[tweeve2002]

Im looking for a good P4C motherboard.
It needs to have built in LAN, Sound, SATA, and RAID.
Price is not a problem.

I just want the best that money can buy.

 

[dexvx]

Asus P4C800 Deluxe.

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: dexvx
Asus P4C800 Deluxe.

You forgot the E at the end.

P4C800-E deluxe.

 

[tweeve2002]

whats the E for,

I heard that gigabit is good. is it?

 

[fredtam]

The "E" means it has the ICH5R southbridge which supports sata raid instead of the ICH5.
I recommend the Abit IC7-G. I use it and its great.
Or the Abit IS7 if your on a budget. About a $100 dollars and will perform as good/better than any other 875/865 board.

 

[arrow008]

What's the better board:

ASUS or ABIT? Again, money is not an object.....

Also, do I want to go w/2.8, 3.0, or 3.2?

Lastly, what's the best memory config (1GM) to put in this baby?

Thanks in advance, afm

 

[fredtam]

Abit IC7-g Or IS7

 

[Cypherdude1]

Most built-in sound on mobo's suck. Even dedicated sound cards aren't 100% perfect. Although my Hercules GTXP (w/external connector box) is good, the equalizer only works for the front channel! Sound has just never really been implemented that well, especially when built into mobo's. Creative Labs never even bothered to create a hardware equalizer on their sound chips.

If I was forced to choose, I'd pick either a Gigabyte, Asus, or Abit board. After going to their web sites and reading independent reviews, it shouldn't be that hard to choose one. The problem you will have is finding a mobo which gives you quality sound, not just good benchmarks. Very few online reviews will write about quality of features. If you want to use your mobo 24/7, you will also want a mobo which has rich power-saving features. Not all mobo makers implement the full spectrum of power-saving options. They are usually limited. You will want a mobo which doesn't utilize a huge amount of CPU cycles when using the onboard LAN. Some LAN mobo implementations will utilize up to 40% of your CPU cycles. Finally, you'll want a mobo which implements SATA directly on their southbridge, not as an extra chip. If implemented on the southbridge, SATA can access memory without using CPU cycles or going through the PCI bus. If the mobo only has an extra SATA chip controller, it must go through the PCI bus and use CPU cycles. Again, very few mobo reviewers will mention these features because they are too in-depth and require too much time. It is far easier to simply create benchmark charts.

Originally posted by: tweeve2002
Im looking for a good P4C motherboard.
It needs to have built in LAN, Sound, SATA, and RAID.
Price is not a problem.

I just want the best that money can buy.

 

[Ionizer86]

Regarding sound, unfortunately, the intel boards don't have good built-in sound. Most boards are using a C-Media 8738 variant (ie those $10 sound cards). If, after getting a board, the sound doesn't please you, then you'll have to pick up a PCI card.

Good thing Santa Cruzes can be had for under $10 on occasion with a price match and rebate

 

[EnderNine]

If you want to overclock... ABIT IC7-Max3 has some extreme voltage

If not... go with the ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe for good preformance ratio...

for arrow.. I would say most computers dont need over 1 gb of ram really... Kingston HyperX PC4000(ddr 500) is some of the best memory ive ever seen.. Mushkin is fine too

On the otherhand.. if you like to benchmark alot and want the best out of that... I would get two chips of 256mb.. they dont soak up as much when you overclock the FSB..

So.. Average Computer user/player=1 gb is fine(two 512 chips).. Overclocking guru=512(two 256 chips) I would recommend.. but keep in mind.. 1 gb will run faster for games and Such..

Hope that helps.. my grammar sucks today.. so I replace comma's with periods.. yay