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You guys are the pros....give me some advice!

J

jyates

Diamond Member
Sounds like I'm sucking up huh? 🙂

I'm going to assemble a computer for a friend and we're going with a P4 socket 478 with
thoughts of starting off around a 2.0 ghz and moving up later.

Here is what I'm looking for: (I think)

Socket 478
I guess 533mhz fsb is the newest thing out there?

Something in the 8.5" x 12" board size (don't really like micro atx size)

Good sound onboard

Lan onboard

USB 2.0

Don't overclock......don't need Raid......

DDR Ram support

I've always liked Abit and Asus boards but there are so many to pick from I thought maybe
I could get a recommendation from someone who is actually using and satisfied with what
they are using.

Thanks,
Jim



 
first answer deleted, i should have read the question more carefully.
i have a friend who is happy with his abit bd7ii have you considered that.

im not a pro
Click to expand...

lol, me either
 
If you don't overclock, look into an Intel mobo with the p4 2.26 at 533 fsb, if you can get them at a good price. The newest ddram chipset is the 845G with sound and video, but the video is only good for word processing, not gaming. The soyo p4s dragon ultra with sis 645dx chipset is good for the features your looking for, but it isn't cheap at about $160. The cheaper version is the dragon lite with sis 645 chipset and has everything you're looking for except usb 2.0 (has extra headers on the mobo for hooking up 2.0 ports). It's about $100 with raid. Search pricewatch-motherboards-brands for the best deals. I just ordered an abit bd7 (refurbished with 30 day warranty) for only $33 shipped at newegg just to have a spare board.
 
Thanks for the information guys....I'll check out that Abit board and the others you listed.
I haven't kept up with the "latest and greatest" and don't even know where to start
looking at chipsets etc......

 
I checked on the Abit BD7II and I like what I see....it says it supports 400/533 system data bus
and pc1600 and pc2100 ddr ram.

Question from dumb me.........what is the difference between pc1600 and pc2100 and pc2700 ram?

Is pc2700 better than pc2100?

Thanks,
Jim
 
PC2100 is also called DDR266. It runs at 133MHz and is double-data-rate, so that's where the 266 comes from (133 x 2). It transfers data at up to 2100 megabytes per second, which is where the 2100 comes from. So as you would expect, PC2700 / DDR333 is better because it can be run at higher speeds if you want to.

I don't know if there are any motherboard companies that are truly customer service-oriented, but ABIT has not had a great reputation in that area. Last I knew, they charged $25 to warranty a motherboard directly, although you might get around that by RMA'ing it to the dealer. Maybe look at an Asus, which has a 3-year warranty. I've RMA'ed motherboards with them on the phone, it was relatively painless and they don't charge for it. Can any ABIT owners confirm/refute the $25 warranty charge from recent experience?
 
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