Need some suggestions on a Intel based motherboard.

[Dreadogg]

putting together a system for a friend and I have decided to go Intel just because it will be less head ace for me in the long run, I am not saying that AMD is bad but its just hard to explain the rating system. Ok big thing is stability, and all the goodies onboard sound, 1394, usb 2.0, SATA, and nic. I was looking at the ASUS P4PE Motherboard for Intel P4 478 Retail w/ Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, SATA, Gigabit LAN, Firewire IEEE1394 but its kinda upthere, I also have been not really paying been following the intel based motherboards, I will also be using to sticks of pc2700 ram with this setup not sure about the brand also but I was thinking kingston hyperXseries. Also the processor I have decided on will be the 2.53 from newegg and I will not be OCing, all suggestion are welcome.

 

[ChefJoe]

If it's for a friend who couldn't build the computer on their own, they'll never use some of the advanced features of the P4PE with gigabit.... you could save money with the 10/100 ethernet version with no SATA. The reason I suggest the SATA isn't so important for this board is because it's using a Promise PATA to SATA converter.... which has been shown to perform like an "SATA" patch (it's not as fast as native SATA... generally only as fast as PATA and still hoses the PCI bus with data).

newegg - $109.99 for the P4PE/L (onboard sound and 10/100) vs. $149.99 for the one with SATA and gigabit..... you may even find one in their refurb section for cheaper too..

In any event, I think this is a great board. I was going to build a hyperthreading based computer on it for my home system, until I decided to wait for springdale.

[EDIT] Yes, hyperthreading gives a small boost to whatever you do. Even if it's not a multiprocessor task (though, my recollection is that Photoshop is) it will get some sort of boost because your processor is going to get other system processes through during the blank clock cycles. I'm not saying "no hyperthreading", I'm trying to say that you don't need SATA or gigabit on this board. SATA will just end up costing more on a motherboard that will not showcase what SATA is supposed to be able to do (because it's a patched in PATA converter card) and gigabit... well, unless they'll have another gigabit computer and gigabit networking hardware, it's just overkill.

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: Dreadogg
putting together a system for a friend and I have decided to go Intel just because it will be less head ace

"head ace?" Oy....

 

[Dreadogg]

Originally posted by: jaeger66

Originally posted by: Dreadogg
putting together a system for a friend and I have decided to go Intel just because it will be less head ace

"head ace?" Oy....

um not sure what your saying but we all know that building any system for anyone besides yourself ushally will turn into some sort of headace, unless you own a business doing this and you build the same system over and over again, not saying it will be unstable just saying you tend to end up being thier 24/7 tech guy and parts could always be picky about playing with each other. I have built numerous system, but I have been stuck in the DVD forums for the last 5 months and I have had not much time to research. Now I ushally would not do this but I have known this kid this kindergarden and he is my close friend he kinda just came buy and drop a grand on me and left it in my hands to decide on the system, plus he always does favors for me considering he is a professional photographer and is a wiz in photoshop. He saves me tons on DVD Covers, Family photos and work pics.

 

[Dreadogg]

Originally posted by: ChefJoe
If it's for a friend who couldn't build the computer on their own, they'll never use some of the advanced features of the P4PE with gigabit.... you could save money with the 10/100 ethernet version with no SATA. The reason I suggest the SATA isn't so important for this board is because it's using a Promise PATA to SATA converter.... which has been shown to perform like an "SATA" patch (it's not as fast as native SATA... generally only as fast as PATA and still hoses the PCI bus with data).

newegg - $109.99 for the P4PE/L (onboard sound and 10/100) vs. $149.99 for the one with SATA and gigabit..... you may even find one in their refurb section for cheaper too..

In any event, I think this is a great board. I was going to build a hyperthreading based computer on it for my home system, until I decided to wait for springdale.


hyperthreading will not help in photoshop? also what the cost of a giagbit lan? and yea SATA (Guess most onboard SATA bites) was a thought but I am more concerned with getting 1394 and usb 2.0 and lan and sound outa the way thanks so far and keep um comin!

 

[Dreadogg]

anyone else have some suggestions?

 

[floccus]

For one, its head ACHE...

The Athlon rating system isn't that hard to understand. Hell, you don't even need to understand it, all you need to know is that pure clock speed doesn't dictate how fast a computer is. With everything that you say you want integrated into the board, I would seriously suggest you look into the Athlon using A7N8X delux. It has everything you want integrated and the Athlon's run very stable. The 2500+ line is based off the newest core which uses a 333mhz FSB and are very fast and kepp pace with their P4 relatives.

But whatever, i'm just on a rant because you say the naming scheme of the Athlon's gives you a "headace"...

 

[Audiofight]

Second on the P4PE/L for $119

I built 2 systems around that board now and they scream. The audio quality is nice, the 10/100 NIC works good too. No noticable difference between the integrated versus a stand-alone PCI Nic.

PC2700 support, which the P4 loves memory bandwidth. The more you give it, the more it will use.

Save $30-40 for him and use the lower costing model. SATA isn't that useful right now, but SATA2 will be nice in the future when it supports 300 MB/s transfer rates instead of the current 150 MB/s transfer rates. Plus, if he isn't going to be using it immediately, then why buy it? If and when he decides to upgrade to a newer hard drive, then make him either buy a controller card or else more upgrades will probably be in the schedule anyways, which could upgrade the motherboard again.

Just .02