Need Motherboard advice

[thxturtle]

I'm getting a new MB for my p3 700 fcpga. I was wondering first what type I should get ... i815EP or VIA Apollo Pro 133A? Also which board in particular? Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[shiznut123]

bx133-raid
it is a very nice mobo.

 

[acroig]

I agree with shiznut123 about the Abit BX-133 RAID, great performance and a great oveclocker. If your peripherals can handle it the BX-133 will give you the best performance.

 

[acroig]

I agree with shiznut123 about the Abit BX-133 RAID, great performance and a great oveclocker. If your peripherals can handle it the BX-133 will give you the best performance.

 

[AndyHui]

ASUS CUSL2 or CUSL2-C if you want to keep all of your peripherals in spec.

 

[Mem]

Asus CUSL2 or MSI 815E PRO both boards are the best top two so take your pick,btw they use Intel chipset.

 

[Zedfu]

or you can go with the via apollo pro133 based Asus P3V4X

 

[thxturtle]

I don't want to go the BX route. I have a be6-II right now. It's ok but I'm looking for something with built in supprt for udma66 or greater. Don't like the highpoint controller on board and stuff. Gives me problems with certain things.

how big is the performance difference between the 815 and the via?

 

[novice]

I love the MSI 6309 boards. As my sig shows I am running two of them. You can order one from mwave.com. Take a look http://192.216.185.10/mwave/doc/6309.html.
Just my opinion.
Chuck

 

[acroig]

I don't blame you for not liking the HighPoint 366 controller on the BE6-II, I have the same board. You should know that the BX133 has the HighPoint 370 controller and from what I've read it does not have any of the problems that the 366 has, but I don't know if it delivers on performance.

 

[thxturtle]

I really don't want to use a BX Chipset now. I'm trying to get to higher bounds with my o/c'ing but the 2/3 agp divider won't cut it anymore. I can get my geforce2 upto 136fsb with a 2/3 divider but i can't get it stable any higher. i'm hoping something with the 1/2 divider will help.

 

[SuperSix]

MSI 6337 i815E/P

Awesome reviews, great UDMA100/Win2k compatibility, overall Intel chipset stability, the ONLY board I will be using.

 

[thxturtle]

I've heard good things about the MSI board. Do you know if it has jumpless fsb settings and voltage (ie. change it in the bios)?

How well have you guys been able to overclock on the MSI board?

 

[acroig]

I don't mean to beat a dead horse But.... My VisionTek GeForce2 GTS was running very nicely on my BE6-II at 150FSB (100 AGP 2X) oveclocking a P3 500e to 750MHz with no problems. If you are having problems overclocking higher I suggest that it's not your vid card (unless you have a Leadtek with sidebanding enabled). The BX chipset, while lacking the 1/2 AGP divider, usually (not always) beats the 815 and the Apollo chipsets in raw performance.

Sorry if I keep on this, if you've made up your mind I won't post any longer.

 

[thxturtle]

acroig:

I'm pretty sure that it's my vid card (elsa gladiac) that craps out on my. I stuck my old v3 3000 pci card and was able to get to 146fsb (cpu won't take more than that) vs. on 136fsb on the agp and even then I have to use agp1x.

I've made up my mind to change the board (still not sure to what yet though) but it's got more to do with other things than performance. I cannot get a stable win2k installation (not o/c'ed) on the be6-II regardless of what components I have in it (except ram, and MB). Tried 3 vid cards, 2 sounds, 2 nics, 2 cpus. By not using the htp366 controller it was more stable but still couldn't work with it reliably. I may just be ulucky with it.

BX is a performance powerhouse. My current win98 install is speedy to say the least.

No need to stop posting, all is good. Discussion is good. That's what the forums are here for.

 

[Sunny129]

i would go with either an ASUS CUSL2-C (i815EP chipset)or MSI 815E Pro (i815E chipset), those being two of the most reliable and stable boards makers on the market. my personal opinion is the CUSL2-C. i have the CUSL2 and it is the best mobo i have ever used. reliable and rock solid when it comes to stability. i have a P3 700 also, and its running @ 1050 mHz. i know its the luck of the chip, but i would be reluctant to try another mobo if i had to give up my CUSL2 for it. if you do go with CUSL2, get the CUSL2-C since its i815EP chipset disables the onboard video that was standard in the original 815 and 815E chipsets. nobody likes onboard VGA anyways, and i'm assuming you wont be using it either...

 

[acroig]

That's really strange. My GeForce 2 is from VisionTek and they make some of the Elsa cards. I don't understand why you'd be having problems with it. I've read in several forums that BE6-II users had to use the PCI HD controllers to install Win2K.

Sunny's pitch for the Asus board is right on. It seems to be the best 815 board around.

 

[AndyHui]

acroig: As usual, people's mileage may vary when running peripherals out of spec....

It could just be that you got a card that performs especially well while thxturtle's card just won't do so well.

Again, I would go with the ASUS CUSL2-C. Performs very well, ATA100, top BIOS support, and it's the only i815E/P board (along with the CUSL2) that will run 3 DIMMs at 133MHz.

 

[Sunny129]

hey Andy, you know quite a bit about the CUSL2-C...do you happen to know if the BIOS v1005 beta 7 for the CUSL2 is any good? i went from the original 1001a to 1003 final, and i am very satisfied with it. i was just wondering if it is worth it to update the BIOS again. i wouldnt want to if there are no new worth while fixes or features...

 

[AndyHui]

Performance and stability seems to be most successful on the 1005 Beta 006 BIOS rather than the Beta 007. There are several people who lost a few points of performance between 006 and 007. There is quite a large jump in speed between 1003 Final and 1005.006 though.

If you had device detection problems, the 1005 series of BIOSes seem to fix it.

 

[kengsim]

I would highly recommend the 815E chipset. The only variable here is the brand. I personally prefer Abit, but after using MSI, I would recommend it without any hesitation. Besides, it's cheaper. Overclocking wise, it loses a bit to the Abit boards, but it's not like you'll be fiddling with the board everyday, rite?

 

[thxturtle]

I've decided on going with the CUSL2-C. It's got good reviews from the people here and it's great for overclocking. I'll be purchasing it next week. Thanks to all you guys that helped out with your opinions. It's much appreciated.

 

[Sunny129]

hey Andy, do you know of a link that i can DL the 1005 beta 6 from? www.cusl2.com doesnt even have it for DL...go figure.

 

[ginfest]

Sunny, I can e-mail it to you as an attachment if you want (256k)?
LMK,
Mike G

 

[Sunny129]

Ginfest, thanks but no thanks...i already got emails with the file attached from a number of people...i appreciate it though, Eric.