P4 rambus boards

[trueblue]

Hi all.

I am new to the forum but have been reading the posts from you guys and gals for months. I would like to say thanks to all who make this such a great site especially given you all take the time to answer questions from people like myself who are learning.

Anyway, don't laugh but, I made a mistake about 4 years ago and brought an new Aptiva 200MMX boat anchor which was impossible to upgrade reasonably.

What I am doing now is building (my first build) a new machine which is first stable, upgradable, quiet and also fast (but not the fastest). I have no plans to overclock, I am using the machine for normal home use, the net, plus for playing some of the later games out now. I still want the machine to be pretty quick and it will have a reasonable graphic card in it. I don't want any cooling problems.

I am looking at pentium 4 with rambus. About a 1.8a northwood is about the max i wish to pay for. I know you guys are recommending the Asus P4t-E but it is AU$399. Is there any other boards out there that you recommend as quality that are a bit cheaper or is the Asus board the only board to get. I have been told that Intel's 850MD and 850MV boards are ok and they are a bit cheaper??

One other question is-will rambus be around to stay or is it going to be phased out for DDR and if it is going to be obselete should I select a DDR p4 board. I know rambus does perform somewhat better with p4.

Any input is appreciated and you can bet I will post sometime again

Regards

murf

 

[Athlon4all]

Well, I dunno whether Intel's 850 mobo's are cheaper, but they are great, they just can't overclock at all. If you're looking for a cheap Rambus board, I would suggest ECS Boards, but all their Rambus boards are Socket 423 and don't support Northwood. I would wait until later this month when Intel releases 850e with 533fsb and PC1066 RDRAM support, and hopefully with the release of this chipset, manufacturers other than Abit, Asus and MSi will update their 850 boards to Socket 478. As for DDR vs. RDRAM, I definately say go RDRAM. As clock speeds increase to close to 3GHz, DDR won't cut it and RDRAM will be significantley faster, but I would strongly suggest waiting for 850E + PC1066. The fastest DDR systems with DDR400 can compete with PC800 RDRAM, but they can't touch PC1066. Good luck! And if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask ok? See ya!!!

 

[PowerMacG5]

Currewntly I am running the D850MVL and it is the most stable board I have ever used. The thing with waiting for the 820E chipset and PC1066 RDRAM is that, No. 1 PC1066 will be a lot, and i mean a lot, more expensive than PC800, No. 2 Because of its high price the official release of the 850E chipset by Intel will not support PC1066 RDRAM. Some Motherboard manufacturers like ASUS are incorporating the technology for PC1066 RDRAM into their initial 850E motherboards, but Intel does not officially support it. As for my opinion, I recommend getting the Intel D850MVL (Integrated LAN, and Audio, and ATX form factor), or the D850MDL (Integrated LAN, and Audio, and micro-ATX form factor). I would recommend using as much RAM as you are willing to spend money on. You can get 256 MB modules of PC800 for $70-$120 depending where you buy it, what company it is, and how many device RAM it is. But I don't see the point in waiting for Northwood "B" because be the beginning of next year Prescott is supposed to be released. There is a slight improvement between the 100 MHz and 133 MHz front side busses, but not enough to go out and spend the premium for a Northwood "B" processor and an 850E motherboard. So until Prescott comes I recommend getting whatever speed processor you want with an Intel D850MVL or D850MDL with as much RAM as you want/need.

 

[P4spooky]

I could not agree more with 'Kid'.

I just built a system for my friend based on Intel D850MVSE and P4 2.0A (Northwood) and 512MB RDRAM and a WD 120JB HDD. The System posted on first power up (my first system build) and has never crashed

The only difficult part of the build for me was mounting the bracket on the board over which the heatsink fan clips.

My advise: Go with INTEL board if you want stability and have no overclocking desires.

Thanks, Sri

 

[Athlon4all]

<< No. 1 PC1066 will be a lot, and i mean a lot, more expensive than PC800, >>

People keep on talking that, and I have yet to see any confirmation of these claims. We will just need to wait and see, but if you look at the recent DDR400 vs PC1200 article at THG, you'll see how much of a difference PC1066 makes, and you should try to get it.

 

[motojeff]

could you tell me the difference between : D850MVSE and D850MVL? I notice the SE is higher priced but
don't know the difference...

Thanks!

 

[Acanthus]

A few things i have to post as i see you are getting into this.

I highly reccomend the ABIT TH7II motherboard, its socket 478, supports northwood cpus, has RDRAM, and integrated sound, its a great overclocker, and will most likely run the new 533fsb cpus just fine, as some people have their TH7IIs running on a 708fsb today lol. (for those who are wondering its Macci at Madonion.com)

Another thing is to make sure you buy rambus ram in PAIRS if you buy one chip it wont work, at all, no post, you have to buy pairs for all I850 motherboards , beacuse they all use dual channel rambus memory.

Also note that DDR will decrease the performance of a pentium 4 rig slightly (with the exception of the Sis645dx chipset), and SDRAM will paralyze a pentium 4s performance. I would imagine you already know that though as you chose rambus.

Also make sure you get the best prices you can on parts in the retail market at http://www.pricewatch.com where you can search for your own computer hardware at dirt cheap prices.

 

[PowerMacG5]

The difference between the D850MVL and the D850MVSE is different integrated components. The SE denotes USB 2.0 compatibility. The standard D850MV series without an SE has USB 1.1. Currently their are 4 different versions of the D850MV series of motherboards. They are, 1. The D850MV with Integrated Audio and CNR, 2. The D850MVL with Integrated Audio and LAN, 3. The D850MVSE with USB 2.0 Integrated Audio and CNR, and 4. The D850MVLSE with USB 2.0 and Integrated Audio and LAN.

 

[PowerMacG5]

One other thing, if you want a good website with cheap prices go to www.googlegear.com. They had the best website I've seen. All of their info was accurate when it came to if things were in stock. Do not try www.fticomputer.com. I tried them before Google Gear and they really skrewed up. Their site said that the components I wanted were in stock, then they called me 3 days later (I asked for 2 day shipping so it was late) and said it was not in stock. So i found Google Gear from pricewatch and they have been great, never skrewed anything up and were cheaper for some reason when it came to shipping, and were also $10 - $50 cheaper when it came to the seperate components. What I'm getting at is go to www.googlegear.com for excellent prices and service.

 

[trueblue]

Thanks for all your posts people I really apperciate the help. Will do some searching for components at the right price.

By the way is there any Aussies out there who could point me to any online computer component dealers in Australia who are reasonable on prices, or even dealers in Perth WA where I live.

Parts in Aus are seem a bit more expensive than in the states and they are taking a slow boat from the US to get here. Less competition. I wish we had a new egg in Aus.

 

[motojeff]

Thanks KraziKid! Sounds like the D850MVLSE is the right one for me. Never understood the use of CNR...

 

[DoubleL]

I might be wrong but what you are all saying was true last year or 6 months ago, But from the reviews and more than one, I have seen, The P4S533 you have to over clock RDRam to even get it to run with DDR right now and we are talking pocket change for the P4S533 and DDR3000, Now yes RDRam PC-1066 will beat the DDR 4000 but at what cost and you will need to run a bench mark to even see the diff. Running any program even memory programs you are not going to see any diff. and I have read talk about phasing out RDRam so even if money means nothing at some point you have to stop and think about all this,

 

[PowerMacG5]

Currently on non-overclocked systems PC800 RDRAM will outperform all single-channel DDR chipsets. PC800 even outperforms the new Sis645DX chipset with DDR400. When the dual channel DDR hits the market for the P4 it will somewhat outperform the PC800 RDRAM, but by the time dual channel DDR hits the market for the P4, Intel will officially accept PC1066 and PC1200 RDRAM. PC1066 and PC1200 RDRAM have completely and utterly destroyed all DDR setups. Check this site out for the benchmark results on pre-production model of PC1200, PC1066, Some DDR solutions, and existing RDRAM and DDR soplution.

http://www.tomshardware.com/mainboard/02q2/020501/ddr400vsrambus-06.html

 

[dbal]

Simple things: Top mobos- ASUS P4T-E, ABIT TH7II w/RAID
Low price, no o/c features good stability&quality -------> Intel stuff

Check your wallet and go!

 

[CRZZZ]

Question?
Where do you find the D850MVLSE?..i have checked everywhere and can't find it ..was there a typo in that?..i am looking for it with both intergrated LAN and USB2.0

AND on Googlegear is Notes that you "may" have to flash the BIOS for the northwood to work ..is this true?..