Soyo Motherboards

[Savizzaviz]

Hi all.

I'm new here and am not sure how you guys run this place, but I figured if I was doing something wrong, I would be told.


So anyway, I'll start by saying that I am pretty new at this; just started building computers this last year (more so over the last couple of months, though), so I don't know much about brands and whatnot, though I think I have some of the basic stuff down.

This is what I am looking at building:

P4 2.4GHz 533FSB
Crucial 512MB DDR SDRAM PC2100
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 120GB (already have that)
Lian-Li PC-601B Aluminum Case
Enermax 350W Power Supply
MSI GeForce4 MX440 64MB

And I am looking at getting the Soyo SY-P4I Fire Dragon, but I'm not to sure of the Soyo brand. My friend has the same board, or pretty much the same board, and he says that it is really good. I have heard a lot of bad stuff here and there about Soyos, though, so I am a bit leary. If anyone could give some suggestions and help me with any stupid mistakes I may be making. As I said, I am new at this, and as far as brands go, I have been going with the few that I have heard of and my uncle had suggested (mainly Biostar Motherboards (which was my initial plan for this system, but then I thought I would look around a bit), Maxtor hard drives, Crucial Memory, and the likes.)

Thanks in advanced.

 

[Super6]

I think Soyo makes quality motherboards both for Intel and AMD. I'm using a SY-K7V Dragon Plus right now. They've been putting out good boards since the BX chipset days. Your component list looks good but the video card will be your bottleneck. It's marketing hype as it's a MX board not a true GeForce4.

Super6

 

[styrafoam]

I haved used Soyo boards in the past and been pleased with them. I cannot speak to the specific model you are looking at, but Soyo has a solid reputation as a brand name.

 

[Savizzaviz]

Cool. Thanks. If there is no one else who has had many problems with them, I think I just might get it.

And about the Video Card... Would the fact that it is an MX and not a true GeForce4 be that great of a problem? I'm not a super gamer or anything but I would like to be able to play the newer games, if I ever end up with one. I really cant spend any more then 70 bucks, so would this be good enough for me? Or is there a better card out there that is as capable for about the same price? Less would be nice too.

 

[GiLtY]

I also have the soyo dragon plus, and I just love it!

And yah, you might want to reconsider the Videocard.....

 

[UCDznutz]

if 70 bucks is your limit look for the Radeon 8500 LE for about 72 with free shipping on newegg

 

[butch84]

I think it would also be wise to go with pc2700, rather than 2100. P4s like all the memory bandwidth they can get!

butch

 

[Savizzaviz]

I think you're right.... Expecially since I just bought a PC2700.... I'm not thinking today.
The memory will work in that motherboard, right? It just wont reach its maximum potencial? Or can it still work up the 333MHz? If not, it looks like I'm going to have to do a bit more looking around... Or cancel my memory order.

And is the Radeon a good card? And would it be worth it to spend the extra 20 bucks and get the 128? And does having the S-Video thing on it mean that it has a TV adapter type thing, or would you have to buy a seperate card?

I'm just full of questions.

 

[liquidtech]

In terms of performance Soyos fall somewhere in the middle of the rest. In terms of price theyre always at the top (the most expensive). I consider the best brands to be Asus and Gigabyte in terms of both performance and price. You're video card seems to be the weakest component. You should consider a GeForce4 Ti4600 or 4200.

 

[Savizzaviz]

Hmm... It seemed to me that the Soyo was pretty cheap for what it had, compared to the rest of the ones I found. I cant actually find anything thats not 20 buck more with RAID and FireWire. Thanks for the tip, though, I will look into it.

And I barly have enough the afford the GeForce4 MX440, let alone a Ti4200.

 

[Savizzaviz]

Gah! Now I'm lost...

Where is a good site that has lists of motherboards and prices to go with it? PriceWatch is good if you know exactly what you are looking for, but when there are so many different types, how do you figure it out?

It doesn't seem like there are many boards out there that have LAN, RAID, FireWire, and PC2700 DDR slots. I guess I don't particularly need the LAN, but I would like to get the RAID and FireWire for the future. And the SY-P4I was perfect for what I wanted except for the Memory so now I have to find the exact same thing for PC2700...

Anyone have any suggestion? Any brands.

 

[Sushi]

Originally posted by: Savizzaviz
Gah! Now I'm lost...

Where is a good site that has lists of motherboards and prices to go with it? PriceWatch is good if you know exactly what you are looking for, but when there are so many different types, how do you figure it out?

It doesn't seem like there are many boards out there that have LAN, RAID, FireWire, and PC2700 DDR slots. I guess I don't particularly need the LAN, but I would like to get the RAID and FireWire for the future. And the SY-P4I was perfect for what I wanted except for the Memory so now I have to find the exact same thing for PC2700...

Anyone have any suggestion? Any brands.

Check out ASUS or EPoX Both are good brands. I have the ASUS A7N8X, and it has all those options

 

[tk149]

I like my:

Soyo 6BA+IV (BX chipset) --> replaced an Abit mobo that died.
Soyo Dragon Plus (KT266A chipset)
Soyo Ultra Dragon Lite (KT333 chipset).

I haven't looked at Pentium-compatible motherboards since the BX days, but in general, I don't think recent Soyo mobos are as expensive as Asus boards. I have no experience with Epox, but I think they tend to be lower priced than Soyo, but with fewer features. I don't know about the specific Soyo model you're considering. You may want to check out www.amdmb.com's motherboard forums. I'm not sure how much information they'll have on pentium-compatible motherboards, but it might be worth asking about.

I agree that the Geforce4 MX is the weakest part of your system. But if you're limited to $70, your choices are pretty minimal. You should be able to play any current games at a REASONABLE resolution and decent detail level up to and possibly including Unreal 2. I think you might find the upcoming Doom 3 too demanding, but you can ask in the Video or General Hardware forum about that.

 

[Savizzaviz]

Is there a reason no one is using a P4 compatable board, other then price? 'Cause the P4 I'm looking at getting is 163 bucks for a 2.4, which in comparison to the next closest Athlon XP that I could find (Like a 2.2 or something, isn't it?), it's way cheaper.

 

[ChefJoe]

I lost a Soyo 6BA+III because of either a power spike or the capacitor insulator thing. I didn't know enough about the capacitor issue to look for it at the time, I just smelled burned electronics smells. All other hardware was fine. I loved that board, it was very well built and had some of the best combinations of features available at the time. Soyo gets an A+ in my book (though the capacitor makers of the late 90s get an F-).

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: Savizzaviz
Is there a reason no one is using a P4 compatable board, other then price? 'Cause the P4 I'm looking at getting is 163 bucks for a 2.4, which in comparison to the next closest Athlon XP that I could find (Like a 2.2 or something, isn't it?), it's way cheaper.

The Price/performance ratio was my onlyy consideration for going with AMD over Intel.

 

[Rhombuss]

I remember my Soyo 6VBA+133 board served me quite well until I became familiar with MSI. IMO, MSI represents the BEST in price, performance, and features department. I've been through 3 MSI boards myself, and have been pleased with all of them. I've also probably built about 15 systems for friends/family using all MSI boards - haven't had a single problem/complaint yet. So although Soyo is a good brand, I still recommend MSI to anyone who asks.

People will tell you Asus and Gigabyte - but I find that motherboard chipsets change WAY too often to invest that extra money in a board you'll most likely replace in a year's time.

 

[Savizzaviz]

Okay, here we go.

I've decided that I didn't need to spend so much on a case, so I will have about another 30 bucks to spare. I'm thinking that the video card will be my best bet to spend the rest of that money on. So I now can spend about 100 bucks. I was thinking maybe a GeForce3 128MB something, but I'm not sure. What would you guys suggest?

 

[NeophytexDMD]

Before you continue, reconsider w/ soyo. I have the Dragon K7V plus and keep having issues with the GeForce 3 video cards. My system keeps crashing and I keep getting MUP.sys errors. I have gone through a solid month of WinXP Pro reloads due to the motherboard's instability. The onboard sound crashes, pci soundcards crash. I have received new bios chipsets from Soyo and they still do not fix the issue. I even had crashes with a Geforce 2 mx 400. These motherboards really lose it. It's all installed in an Antec case (old alienware case) and has temp issues, I believe. Next thing I am going to do is Peltier to try to resolve the issues it has. Win XP keeps getting errors that corrupt mup.sys. I have tried several different harddrives to no avail. I don't want to try a new video card because I believe it will cause the system to crash even HARDER. Beware of the Dragon K7V plus at least. Just warning you. I have only had good experiences with Gigabyte and Abit motherboards so far. Soyo has issues in my book.

 

[ChefJoe]

Yes, please reconsider this 2 month old thread.... sigh.

 

[kd2777]

Originally posted by: NeophytexDMD
Before you continue, reconsider w/ soyo. I have the Dragon K7V plus and keep having issues with the GeForce 3 video cards. My system keeps crashing and I keep getting MUP.sys errors. I have gone through a solid month of WinXP Pro reloads due to the motherboard's instability. The onboard sound crashes, pci soundcards crash. I have received new bios chipsets from Soyo and they still do not fix the issue. I even had crashes with a Geforce 2 mx 400. These motherboards really lose it. It's all installed in an Antec case (old alienware case) and has temp issues, I believe. Next thing I am going to do is Peltier to try to resolve the issues it has. Win XP keeps getting errors that corrupt mup.sys. I have tried several different harddrives to no avail. I don't want to try a new video card because I believe it will cause the system to crash even HARDER. Beware of the Dragon K7V plus at least. Just warning you. I have only had good experiences with Gigabyte and Abit motherboards so far. Soyo has issues in my book.

Don;t worry man I'm sure he didn't go with the gf3, by his sig I suppose he went with the 4200 and a asus p4pe w/ raid a firewire. In my opinion after two months of reaseach much better choices than his though of a soyo fire dragon and mx440.

 

[LordMorpheus]

As I understand it, Soyo has always been middle of the pack ish in performance, but (except for that cap thing) I have never heard of a Soyo board not functioning exactly as advertised. They are rock solid, they have loads of features (all of which work, I'm running a kt-333 dragon ultra platinum now, using my onboard LAN and Sound, and I have 6 or 8 usb ports set up . . using three of them, go my two floppy bay card readers . . . . ) all of which work. You don't have to worry about any major setup when building with soyo. I plan to use them for my next rig (not for a while . . . . I think . . . . )


Yes, Soyo is always what I recommend if you have the money . . if not, some other boards are cheaper but you might have to RMA it or risk it not working with all your stuffs. I don't think anyone is going to buy a gf3 on a new rig, so that problem shouldn't worry you. It works fine with a Ti4600.