Trying to narrow my MB choices; how are these two?

[poster]

I'm saving money to build my first computer (first I've built, not owned ), and although I consider myself pretty knowledgeable in comparison to the general public, and I've gotten just about everything else chosen, I'm having trouble finding a MB I want because I'm clueless about 'em.
The only thing I want so far is 533FSB and support for PC2700 RAM. Are there any other things I really should be looking for? Here's my potential final choice, thanks for any help!

http://www.asus.com.tw/mb/socket478/p4s533/overview.htm

http://www.aberdeeninc.com/abcatg/MB6239.htm

(I like the option to overclock from the BIOS in the ASUS one.)


Which would you recommend? ASUS or MSI? Or another?

Thanks

 

[bgeh]

i think you should wait for granite bay
but i recommend asus
if you do not want to wait

 

[poster]

Well, I'm hoping to have the system up and running within a few days after Christmas, so I dunno if they'll be out then, and if so I might not what to pay whatever Canadian I'd have to to buy a sweet new board. Are those two I mentioned fine? The guy at a local store recommended 'em.

 

[bgeh]

yeah,they're both fine
MSI and ASUS both can overclock from their bios
but granite bay should be launched on monday
and be in mass production on early december
by mid december you can get it already
shouldn't you wait???

 

[poster]

Mid Dec.? Well, when you put it THAT way... Maybe I'll wait and see then. Any ideas on price? US or Canadian will do. I hope it's less than 220$ or so. But with a brand new board..

 

[bgeh]

according to the Inquirer
it is twice the price of the i845pe mobos
but i believe that it should be around us$110-130(an opinion)

 

[poster]

Hmm, that makes it an option to consider, even if it's more in Canadian funds. Stupid exchange rate.. Thanks for your help.

 

[Enur]

Granite bay ?
I have not heard of this board before.
Plz drop a link.

 

[poster]

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1701

Found this right here when I searched Google.

Is more bandwidth the main advantage of these boards?

 

[THUGSROOK]

new granite bay boards are comin out soon....
if you need something NOW ~ get an Abit BE7, its much better then what ASUS has to offer.

 

[MithShrike]

Yup, more bandwidth is it poster. The Pentium 4 will definitely have a good time with Granite Bay. Go look at the Granite Bay thread, apparently Dual Channel Double Data Rate is Faster than Dual Channel RDRAM.

 

[Athlon4all]

Go look at the Granite Bay thread, apparently Dual Channel Double Data Rate is Faster than Dual Channel RDRAM.

We will see. I am not convinced....yet that GB will be significantly faster than 850. Although I do agree to wait. Granite Bay will be Launched on Monday, and boards should be available not too long after. It really is going to come down to price, which will be cheaper, 2 sticks of PC2100 DDR and GB or i850 and 2 sticks of PC1066.

Yup, more bandwidth is it poster

I seriously doubt this. 850e with PC1066 and Granite Bay with PC2100 will have identical theoretical bandwidth, and besides, the P4's 133MHz QDR fsb is maxed out by 850e+PC1066. The performance difference (if any) will be due to possibly latency, and superior memory controller. Below is the equation for the memory bandiwdth of Granite Bay and 850e with PC2100 and PC1066:

Granite Bay with PC2100: 64-bit bus width X 133MHz memory frequency X 2 (DDR signaling) X 2 (2 Memory channels) / 8 (convert bits to bytes= approx. 4200MB/S (or 4.2GB/s)
i850e with PC1066/RIMM4200: 16-bit bus width X 533MHz memory frequency X 2 (DDR signaling) X 2 (2 memory channels) / 8 (convert bits to bytes)= approx 4200MB/s or 4.2GB/s

Granite Bay is not a cheap chipset, and most will say I'm being harsh on it, but honestly, people think that GB is going to be the perfect solutuion, I am not convinced. It is going to be very expensive, and I still have my bet on that it isn't going to give the earth shattering performance that people are expecting. I could end up being wrong, but I just think that GB has just as much working for it as it does against it. We shall see in the coming weeks, regardless poster, just wait and see.

 

[poster]

Athlon4all:
I'm still thinking about getting one of the boards I mentioned at the top, especially after your post. If I used one of those MBs, and put in 256MB of PC2700, would that compare to the setups you just mentioned okay if, say, I put a 2.4 GHz chip in?
I figure that the new 3.06GHz plus the new G Bay boards being out may drive down the price of what I want a tad..

Ohhh it's gonna be sweet having a nice computer again! I remember when I first got this PII450, it was the best you could buy for a while, 'til the PIIIs came out. It's a good feeling, I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Athlon4all]

If I used one of those MBs, and put in 256MB of PC2700, would that compare to the setups you just mentioned okay if, say, I put a 2.4 GHz chip in?

Honestly, I would just wait til Monday. Evan should be comparing Granite Bay with 850e+PC1066, 845PE with DDR333. 845pe and SiS 648 with DDR333 come pretty close (close enough for me) to 850e+PC1066 levels, so honestly, I think that 845PE will still be a viable option. But again, just wait til Monday when Evan will have a GB Roundup at Anandtech, and will finally bring the scoop on DualDDR for the P4. Only a week or 2 after will tell in terms of cost for GB.

Oh and I would recommend for a DDR333 board the Asus P4S8X or Asus P4PE or a similar 845PE or 648 board. The P4S533 and 645E MAX-C both use the "old" SiS 645DX chipset. It's not bad, but the SiS 648 and 845PE both are faster and closer to 850e performance.

 

[poster]

"Oh and I would recommend for a DDR333 board the Asus P4S8X or Asus P4PE or a similar 845PE or 648 board. The P4S533 and 645E MAX-C both use the "old" SiS 645DX chipset. It's not bad, but the SiS 648 and 845PE both are faster and closer to 850e performance. "

Aah, I see. I should have asked earlier about the chipset differences. Just when I thought I had a board chosen..... I have to say, Ive got EVERY other component chosen, but the decision on the MoBo's drving me nuts!


Well, with this new data ya gave me, I'll try this one from the list the guy at the store gave me. It's got a better chipset, but I don't know about the RAM. I couldn't find it on the page, is it a DDR 333?:


How about this one?

I can get it for 169 Cdn. I still can't believe how cheap comuters are once you have the a few components, and isf you shop around. I shoulda built one a long time ago.

 

[Athlon4all]

Well, that board is not a DDR board. It's an i850e board, and supports only PC800 or PC1066 RDRAM which is expensive comparted to DDR333 here in the states. Honestly, with current PC1066 RDRAM prices, I find the price/performance ratio in comparision to 845PE and DDR333 to be very poor and I would stick with a Single Channel DDR333 board (845PE or 648). In USA prices (and I doubt they are any better in canada), here's a comparison between the Asus P4PE+256MB of DDR333 vs Asus P4T533-C+256MB PC1066:

Asus P4PE with least features (this ver includes On-board LAN, Audio, and USB2. more expensive versions add Serial ATA, Firewire and others) $124
256MB DDR333: $75
Total: $199

Vs:

Asus P4T533-C (with LAN, Audio) $179
2 sticks of 128MB PC1066 (must buy 2 identically sized sticks for Dual Channel): $72 x2=$144
Total: $323

You get the idea right? And in Anandtech's 845PE Review you see that the P4T533-C and P4PE with their memory are within 5% of each other on most benchmarks (except for Professional 3D).

With the latest generation of DDR333 chipsets, the difference between PC1066 and DDR333 is so small that, in my opinion, is dismissable, and honestly, I doubt that Granite Bay will change things significantly. Although only the next couple weeks will tell about GB.

Again, just wait until Monday and see how Granite Bay does against 850e and 845PE. Thats what it will come down to. Will Granite Bay provide a performance advantage of 10% or greater over 850e/845PE. If it does, then it might be worth the cost, but if there is 5% or less advantage for GB (which is what I am thinking it will be) then the cost bewcomes much less valuable. Throw me an emai and I will share my tbhoughts on Monday when Granite Bay is finally unveiled and I am more than willing to help you choose the parts and actually put the computer together. Throw me a email (its in my profile, the email is MSN Mesenger addy and my profiel also has my AIM sn). Jesus Bless ya!!!

 

[poster]

Okay, one last try. I think I found a board that supports DDR RAM at 2700, and is availible at a store near me as well. It says it supports PC2700 DDR, and it's relatively inexpensive too, so I think it fits what you recommend. Everything on their site uses 645DX though. I'll keep looking for another that doesn't use 645DX. At least I found a type that uses DDR though.
Here:

The discription at the Asus site didn't offer too much help, but the store's site told me what I need to know. At least I think.