Which is the Fastest and most reliable PIII board?

[shaz]

I can't seem to find anything like a comparative review on either TOM's hardware guide or AnandTech. I need something like a top10 seperated by reliability, performance and features or a simple recommendations list.

I'm looking for a good fast and reliable board. It must support AGP 4x and ATA100.
Also the best Video card for viewing DVD's and gaming for around $180.


Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Shaz.

 

[nateholtrop]

anything soyo is golden!!! serious. i would recommend mine but it is ata66

Nate

 

[Vegito]

I think the CUSL2 is pretty good with AGP 4x & ATA 100.. I have 2 myself with no problem and 1 for a friend. All using Crucial PC133 memory

 

[Valvoline6]

I agree the CUSL2 is great. Anandtech does have an 815e roundup article which determined the MSI and CUSL2 were the most stable. Read the manual, buy quality components and you should not have any trouble. As forcesho says the Crucial ram works great with this mobo.

 

[Supradude]

check out some of the threads on the MSI 815e Pro dude, people having problems like crazy... my friend had one and just sold it yesterday because it wouldn't work at all... none of the stuff they say works... it was stable at "stock" configuration, but none of the clocking features would work...

i've also seen reviews and forums where the CUSL2 has also been causing probems...

i myself just got a SA6R and i have be biased... ABIT is da bomb!, this board just started right up and reconfigured itself to my system (i had a BE6 II in it before)... all i had to do was reinstall sound and vid drivers... also, the onboard stuff turned off easily in the bios...

 

[Scarpozzi]

I just got an SE6 last week. I haven't read too many ratings to see how it matches up to others, but it is 4xAGP and ATA100. Plus it has onboard video and sound so you can use the onboard stuff until you save money to upgrade. I do have one gripe, but I think it's a driver problem. Win2k is working fine, but in Win98 my video has some slight lines in it...kinda whispy looking lines. I don't know if this is a general driver problem with Win98 and this video adapter or if I screwed up when I loaded it at 4 in the morning....who knows. But it seems to be a good board. Runs Award BIOS...

 

[pdo]

I use to have an Asus P3B-F and that board rock too.

 

[Zab]

An asus p3b-f or a msi bx master are great boards.

 

[Vamp Armand]

I used to be a die hard Abit person..... but after giving Asus a try I will never look back. I had always had issues with the PnP on Abit boards (I don't like sharing IRQ's unless I have to). I have had two Asus boards... the P3V4X and the CUSL2.... I blame the stability problems I had with the P3V4X on VIA. The CUSL2 that I have has been a dream since day one.... and I know two other people I work with that got them and are very happy.

 

[pen^2]

soyo or MSI gets my vote
btw, if you got a good nuff video card and ram, i would tell you to get a bx still...

 

[oneeighty]

The Intel mboards are tops in the reliability department if that's your #1 concern.

Intel® D815EEA Desktop Board - Product Brief

 

[Vegito]

True, Intel is the most stable P3 but offers no upgrade or features.. plain jane board.

Both CUSL2 and 815E Pro has it's share of problem.. I alway use crucial ram (higher priced) but I don't have time to trouble shoot memory problems. I believe that most of the CUSL2 & 815E Pro problem is due to ram and generic CDRom or such. But yes, they do have their share of problems... no mb is perfect..

 

[urbantechie]

Like I have been posting to every single thread like this.

Intel D815EEAAL. Nuff Said' (SERIOUSLY!! )

 

[Super6]

It may be a little retro but my Soyo SY-BA+100 running at 133MHz FSB is pretty fast and stable as a rock....PIII-550E @733, default voltage. No AGP4X but haven't seen anything to suggest it's better than AGP2X except on paper. Running ATA100 non-RAID with no problems. My Radeon 32Mb DDR seems comfortable at 89MHz.

Super6

 

[MulLa]

Personally I'd stick to boards from Abit and Asus. Reading some of the posts there seemed to be more problems with the VIA chipsets tho.