P4 Motherboard recommendations

[Gumby16]

I'm making a list of parts for a friend who is looking to build a new computer, both a P4 system and an AMD system. I am not too familiar with P4 motherboards. Any recommendations out there? Any personal favorites? I'm looking for a board that is robust and reliable. There will be no overclocking, so OC ease isn't a priority. Thanks!

 

[Egrimm]

I have an Asus P4B533-E (Intel I845E with raid) and I'm very satisfied with it. It's rock stable, as I've come to expect from Intel-based mobos, and it performs well. That it's a great board for oc'ing, especially with the 3/4 hack, makes it even better, that was the main reason I got it. But even if you don't oc it's a great if quite costly board.
I've heard good things about Asus Sis-based P4-boards too, but again Asus is a bit costlier than other manufacturers but usually rock-stable.

 

[o1die]

The asus p4x8s with sis 648 chipset (eta sept 12 or 13) may also be a good choice if you want serial ata or agp 8x support. Reviews of this board are at ocworkbench and guru of 3d.

 

[CraigRT]

I really liked the MSI SIS 645 I used with a P4 1.6 @ 2.2

It's cheap (very) and it works like a charm... I really like this mobo.

 

[IntelConvert]

Originally posted by: Gumby16
I'm making a list of parts for a friend who is looking to build a new computer, both a P4 system and an AMD system. I am not too familiar with P4 motherboards. Any recommendations out there? Any personal favorites? I'm looking for a board that is robust and reliable. There will be no overclocking, so OC ease isn't a priority. Thanks!

Depends a lot on what your friend will be doing with his comp and on how much he wants to spend. But for the very best P4 performance with rock-solid reliability, you really can't beat an i850E board with a 533MHz P4 and PC1066 RDRAM. However, it will cost $100-$200 more than any of the DDR platforms mentioned.

 

[Sharpedge]

In reading this thread it brings up a question for me. Is there really that much of a performance gain with RDRAM versus DDR? Or are you also saying that to take full advantage of the P4.

Would this be correct?
So for the best performance P4 with RDRAM.
The 2nd Best P4 with DDR and 845G chipset
The 3rd Best P4 and DDR and 845E chipset.
Alternate less expensive AMD XP and DDR.

Thanks in advance

Also thanks for letting me add to this thread.

 

[IntelConvert]

Originally posted by: Sharpedge
In reading this thread it brings up a question for me. Is there really that much of a performance gain with RDRAM versus DDR? Or are you also saying that to take full advantage of the P4.

Would this be correct?
So for the best performance P4 with RDRAM.
The 2nd Best P4 with DDR and 845G chipset
The 3rd Best P4 and DDR and 845E chipset.
Alternate less expensive AMD XP and DDR.

Thanks in advance

Also thanks for letting me add to this thread.

As I said, it all depends on how the comp is going to be used. RAMBUS (RDRAM) has superior bandwidth than any DDR platform, so if the apps, games, etc can take advantage of its 'wider pipe', the i850E platform will outperfom all others!

BTW, benchmark testing of the SiS648 Reference board as well as the soon-to-be-released Asus P4S8X (the first of the SiS648 production boards) clearly shows that it outperforms the i845E/G boards (but runs 2nd to the i850E's with PC1066).

 

[Sharpedge]

Thank you very much IntelConvert for the information.

The information is quite helpful in determining my next upgrade.

Thanks also to everyone else in their assistance as well.

 

[GrimReefer]

Rambus is very fast... but not anymore. The gain it has over the new pc3500 DDR has now been leveled.

Check this out, is your RDRAM really worth that much more money?

Go with DDR

edit: btw, what's the best DDR p4 mobo for overclocking capability? Onboard LAN/sound a plus