P4 Motherboard recommendations

[Phil21]

Okay, I've done some research (not a ton) and am now utterly confused.

What Pentium 4 Motherboard (or chipset) is "the best" out there these days?

I'm sure there are 50 answers to that question, so let me narrow it down a bit.

I want something that will not be obsolete in a year.. I tend to hold on to my base systems for a LONG time comparatively. To illustrate, I'm still running an Abit bx6r2 w/ a PIII700 in it. When I first got it, it ran a celeron 300a..

So looking for 8X AGP I think.. USB 2.0 is a must, and firewire is a huge plus. The CPU I have is a P4 2.26ghtz 533fsb. So I need a mobo that will support that (and hopefully more).

The thing that has be utterly confused in the memory. From what I've read Rambus PC2700 is the way to go right? So the mobo would have to support that as well.

Other plusses but not neccessaries would be on-board IDE RAID (just for the extra ports), and onboard intel or 3com ethernet.. Serial ATA may be cool, but I have a suspcsion that by the tim I'd be getting a SATA drive, the controller on the mobo would be outdated allready.

Anyways, ideas helpful! Looking for something in the less than $175 pricerange, btw.

peace,

-Phil

 

[vm]

If you want a board with usb2.0/firewire/serial ATA, I'd go with Asus' SiS648 board, or abit's.

i went with Soltek's p4x400 board, because it was alot cheaper than the Asus mobo. but no serial ATA.

 

[Phil21]

Is the SiS648 chipset okay?

Or rather.. between the i845, i850 and the sis chipset.. which one to use?

i.e. what in the devil is the difference?

I feel rather outdated here.

-Phil

 

[Tates]

From what I've read regarding the SiS648, it has been a little disappointing. I'm waiting for the SiS648DX or the SiS658 Dual Channel boards.

 

[vm]

Originally posted by: Phil21
Is the SiS648 chipset okay?

Or rather.. between the i845, i850 and the sis chipset.. which one to use?

i.e. what in the devil is the difference?

I feel rather outdated here.

-Phil

i845e is the flagship intel chipset (DDR)

i845g has integrated graphics (DDR)

i850 is for RDRAM (RDRAM)

SiS648 is a rather new chipset from SiS. from reviews: it has alot of features, great performance, but lack in OCing ability (from what i've read)

P4X400 is a new chipset from VIA, not supported by Intel. doesn't mean it doesn't work well, it does. legal issues I think...there's very few of those boards out, but a very good one is: the SOLTEK 85ERV. Review


SiS648/P4X400 "unoficially" support DDR400, but all of them are unstable when using the 400 setting.. (again, from what I read)


Personally I'd go with either SiS648 or P4X400. it all depends on what boards interest you..there's not a big performance different between ANY of those chipsets, DDR that is.

 

[Phil21]

Which gives the best performance on P4 architecture? DDR or Rambus.. I thought it was rambus?

If so I'll go rambus, even though it is a bit on the expensive side to do so.. (alright, double at least)

So if Rambus than i850 if DDR the SiS648?

-Phil

 

[vm]

Rambus is better, but the difference between RDRAM and DDRAM is getting really small...

if you have money to toss out of the windows, then by all means get RDRAM

i850 is RDRAM

sis648 is DDR

 

[Telinar]

Rambus does perform better than DDR, but it is really expensive. Like vm said, if you have money to toss out the window, then go ahead and get Rambus, it will give you better performance. However, I don't think the minor performance boost for Rambus justifies it's price. You will not get 2x the performance with Rambus for 2x the price. You'd perhaps notice a percentage of performance boost using Rambus over DDR on the same CPU. You'd do much better just buying the best P4 proccesor you can afford with a DDR board. Asus P4S8X, which uses the Sis 648 chipset, is a good board.

Save money on the board and ram to get a better processor.

 

[o1die]

If you don't need serial ata or agp 8x (which may be worthless at this point), I would save your money and go with an sis 645dx board such as the msi 645e-max or mine, an asus p4s533. With the money you save, you can get a better video card, or more ddram.

 

[MIGhunter]

I put an Asus P4T533-C in my computer and love it. Has onboard 6 channel digital sound. 4xAGP slot and RAMBUS memory capability. My scores are in my sig. It integrates well with my video card and other stuff. Not to mention it is the one that everyone is using in their reveiws and overclocking projects.

 

[CPerret]

From what I've read regarding the SiS648, it has been a little disappointing. I'm waiting for the SiS648DX or the SiS658 Dual Channel boards.

Speaking of the SiS648DX/658... Does anyone have any idea when boards with either of these chipsets are supposed to start showing up? I'm in the same boat as Phil, trying to figure out what to buy, although I don't have a processor in my hands yet. I'm interested in several of the same features as Phil (8x AGP + USB2.0), but I'd also like to have SerialATA if possible.

I know the first rule of buying a computer is "As soon as it shows up on your doorstep, it's out of date.", but this seems to be doubly true right now. I'm trying to decide when to buy as much as what to buy, because of several things coming "real soon now": (1) the SiS 648DX/658 chipsets, (2) the 3.0GHz P4 with HyperThreading, and (3) the nVidia NV30 GPU. So, not only are there several good chipsets available with several good boards available for each, plus a really good new video card, plus 2.8GHz processors, I know there are really good (and beneficial) alternatives coming soon.

Thanks,
Chris