Motherboard misery!!

[Hardtarget]

Hey guys, I've been around for a while lurking on the forums and it seems like you guys know a ton.
I've currently got a p3 500 (yikes!) with 384 sdram, vanila old intel mobo, albatron geforce 4 mx440, lite-on 16xdvd, lite-on 24x cdr.

Anyways i'm basically looking to upgrade my processor. It seems like the best deal over in vancouver canada is something along the lines of a p4 2.4. Thats fine but I'm really stumped as to what motherboard to purchase, there are just way too many options. I have never overclocked before but might if it was easy to do through the bios. On these older pcs you have to solder stuff etc.. so i never did it. All I really care about is solid performance and good bios options. I want all the latest features though, agp 8x, 333mhz ram support, usb 2.0, etc... The kick though is that i really don't want to spend very much money. I'm on a budget and i would need to buy a new mobo, ddr ram, and processor. I added up a couple choices and got to $800 canadian, i would really like to push that down by at least a hundred though. Even if I can't can anybody recomend a good motherboard that meets my specifications?

Any advice/recomendations would be appreciated. I'm good with everything except motherboards! my achilles heal if you will :-D
Thanks

 

[Hardtarget]

well this is a little dissapointing :-(
no suggestions from anybody?

 

[Yzzim]

check the FS/FT board here for a good deal on a combo processor/motherboard/memory

I got a 1.8a/msi 845 utlra/256mb pc2400 corsair memory for $225 about 6 months ago (a hot deal at that time) from the board

 

[Hardtarget]

hmm.. i checked it out but most processor/mobos/ram seems like it's been sold up already heh. any suggestions from anybody??

 

[arcenite]

The best thing I would do since you're not getting a whole lot of insight is goto Mwave.Com and scroll down a little till you get to the Pentium 4 533 section, and setup your combo there This is a great site, highly recommended.

Bill

Edit: Best brands to look at would be Abit, Asus, Gigabyte, Epox, MSI, and Soyo. Price/Need is most important.

 

[Justorq]

in vancouver, don't you have ncix there too ?
anyways ... i'd get the Asus P4PE (you choose the flavor), cuz it's pretty good motherboard, and fast too. Don't forget to get good quality RAM too ... that's very important.
Justin

 

[BentValve]

I have heard the P4PE is a good foundation for the P4 as well.

P4 Set-up from NCIX,

P4PE $207.20
P4 2.4ghz $330.40
(2) 256mb PC2700 DDR $210.18

$747.78 + taxes





An AMD setup will get you alot more bang for your buck from NCIX,

Asus A7N8X Motherboard $235.20
Athlon XP 2100+ retail $166.11
(2) 256mb PC2700 DDR $210.18


$611.49+ taxes


Or if you really want to save some money.......

AMD ATHLON XP 1800+ OEM & ECS K7S5A MOTHERBOARD W/ HSF $228.48
256MB PC2100 $87.32

$315.80 +taxes

 

[Justorq]

I think that the second choice is great, but it isn't the best bang for the buck ...
Actually, if you want to get more for your money, go with a lower end nForce 2 motherboard and a faster proc (ie. 2400+) that'll give you better performance that would be pretty close to the P4 2.4Ghz. the 2400+ is 5$ less than the p4.

Justin

 

[Hardtarget]

hey cool thanks guys
ya in vancouver we have ncix
i also go to atic quite frequently, they are super cheap. www.atic.ca
also anitec, www.anitec.ca
also micro concept, www.mconcept.com but they're page is all outdated
those are the usuals.

 

[Hardtarget]

ok here's what i rounded up -
Atic
Asus P4PE-L Motherboard -$195
Pentium 4 2.4B - $308
512M DDR-PC2700 Samsung - $190
$693 + taxes

NCIX
Asus P4PE-L Motherboard - $207
Pentium 4 2.4B - $330
512MB DDR-PC2700 Samsung - $196
$733 + taxes

Anitec
Asus P4PE-L Motherboard - $195
Pentium 4 2.4B - $309
512Mb DDR-PC2700 Samsung - $179
683 + taxes

I also need a new power supply i think? I currently only have a 200w on my p3 500 and I've been told thats not enough to run the newer systems. Any recomendations? I don't really want anything too expensive.