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Need MB advice.

hypeMarked

Senior member
Hi everybody, I have bought an p4 2.4 + ECS motherboard combo from fry's a long time ago, and now I am thinking the mb is dying on me. The mb doesn't complain but I notice slow down of the OS and freezes. Anyway, I need your help. I am planning on buying a new motherboard. The most important point is this motherboard needed to support PC 133 memory and have around 5 or 6 pci slot. I have used and trust Asus, so how is this motherboard? I am looking for stable like a rock performance.

ASUS P4S533-X Motherboard for Intel P4 478 SDR and DDR Retail
Specifications:
Supported CPU:Socket 478 for Intel Pentium 4/ Celeron
Chipset:SiS 645DX + SiS 962L
FSB:533/400 MHz
RAM: 2 x 184-pin DIMM Sockets support max. 2GB PC2700/PC2100/PC1600 non-ECC DDR SDRAM memory
2 x 168-pin DIMM Sockets support max. 2GB PC133/PC100 non-ECC SDRAM memory
NOTE: Both type of memory cannot be used at the same time
IDE:2 x UltraDMA 133/100 / 66 up to 4 Devices
Slots:1x AGP (4X) 6x PCI
Ports:2xPS2,1xLPT,1xVGA,4xUSB,1xLAN, and Audio Ports
Onboard LAN:10/100 Mbps Realtek
Onboard Audio:ADI AD1980 6-channel CODEC
 
You owe it to yourself to switch to DDR memory while you're at it, particularly while the price is low. Running a P4 on PC133 memory is going to inhibit its performance badly.

As far as the basic problem, have you confirmed that your heatsink's fan is still running? Slowdowns and freezes could be symptoms of the CPU overheating and engaging its thermal throttling features. You might also want to scan for viruses and try a full reformat of the hard drive and reinstallation of Windows.
 
I am pretty sure the heatsink fan is still running, done reformatting. Does pc133 runs that bad with the p4? You don't think it's because of the mb?
 
It might be because of the motherboard, true. Is your power supply a good respected brand with a healthy wattage, say 300W or more?

Regarding the P4 on PC133, maybe I'm overstressing the importance of DDR. The P4 does work best with a lot of bandwidth, though. Even single-channel DDR isn't really enough to let it do its best in some situations, which is why the latest chipsets for the P4 have dual-channel DDR.

A benchmark, the P4 on PC133 is the dark blue bar
That had to hurt: The Pentium 4 with SDRAM is very lucky to have the Duron 950 in here, otherwise he would have scored last. Even our projection {the orange bar} was too optimistic by far.
 
The power supply that I have is 350W, plenty of power for my system, and comes with the case. Is there any stable as a rock mb out there for the p4 and pc133?
 
But is it a good-quality 350W? Quality counts.

Anyway, I will defer to the Pentium4 owners as to what's rock-stable, but first decide if you're going to switch to DDR or not. 😀
 
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