whats the best mother board for a P4?

Venom

It upgrade time again so Im looking for info on the better P4 motherboards out there

marauder

Are you just upgrading the motherboard and keeping existing RAM and Processor or doing it all

Venom

Im keeping the M/B but getting new ram. Iv a P4 2.4 Dell pc but only have 256 MB. Upgrading to 512 MB is going to be more costly than buying a new M/B with 1 gig DDR 3200 ram so Im going for the new M/B option.

BigEejit

as far as I know you will not be able to stick a different manufacturers mobo into a dell pc ... they have proprietry (sp?) power supplies etc in their machines ... you'll need a new case (and a new power supply if it does not come with one) ...

Also ... if your processor is an older version P4 .. it will have 423pins (or something around this number), current cpu's have 478 pins ..... in fact Komplett.ie do not have any of the older type P4 motherboards ....

Venom

Well Im getting one of these case's ........



...and was thinking of picking up a MSI NEO M/B.

I know my chip is a P4 2.4 with 533 FSB so that should fit the board.

strat

Originally posted by Venom


...and was thinking of picking up a MSI NEO M/B.

a rig build on that board holds the record for 3marks2001 atm, over 25k
www.futuremark.com/community/halloffame/

Venom

Well after running a exe from the Intel site, I got this info....

Intel(R) Processor Frequency ID Utility
Version: 5.5.20030402
Time Stamp: 2003/05/31 16:56:00
Number of processors in system: 1
Current processor: #1
Processor Name: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40B GHz
Type: 0
Family: F
Model: 2
Stepping: 4
Revision: B
L1 Trace Cache: 12 Kµops
L1 Data Cache: 8 KB
L2 Cache: 512 KB
Packaging: FC-PGA2
MMX(TM): Yes
SIMD: Yes
SIMD2: Yes
NetBurst(TM) Microarchitecture: Yes
Expected Processor Frequency: 2.40 GHz
Reported Processor Frequency: 2.40 GHz
Expected System Bus Frequency: 533 MHz
Reported System Bus Frequency: 533 MHz
*************************************************************
Intel(R) Processor Frequency ID Utility
Version: 5.5.20030402
Time Stamp: 2003/05/31 16:57:46
Number of processors in system: 1
Current processor: #1
Processor Name: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.40B GHz
Type: 0
Family: F
Model: 2
Stepping: 4
Revision: B
L1 Trace Cache: 12 Kµops
L1 Data Cache: 8 KB
L2 Cache: 512 KB
Packaging: FC-PGA2
MMX(TM): Yes
SIMD: Yes
SIMD2: Yes
NetBurst(TM) Microarchitecture: Yes
Expected Processor Frequency: 2.40 GHz
Reported Processor Frequency: 2.40 GHz
Expected System Bus Frequency: 533 MHz
Reported System Bus Frequency: 533 MHz
*************************************************************


And after cross checking on the Intel site it seems Iv got a 478 pin chip

halfab

Please dont go for an MSI 875P Neo, at the moment they are plaged with BIOS related problems..
On the MSI Forum there are countless people with problems.
Check our review here of the MSI i875P Neo2 FIS2R

If you are thinking of spending that kind of money you might choose an ABIT IC7 or the IC7/G
Check our review here

The ASUS P4C800 might be a good choice also but it does not have the ICH5R (which supports RAID natively on the intel chipset).

These are the fastest P4 boards available at present, if cost is a factor (it usually is) then I suggest going for a springdale board, like the ABIT IS7 or the ASUS P4P800 both are very good.

Unfortunately the MSI 865PE Neo2 is afflicted with the same bios issues as the 875P and the board I have wont go above 215MHz FSB stable , (the ABIT goes above 275Mhz stable). Most Springdale boards should get at least 250MHz FSB (1GHz QDR)

Venom

Thanks for that info halfab. I'll probley go for the Abit IC7/G so

halfab

Keep in mind that if you dont need the 3 and 4 SATA sockets (RAID 0+1) and the CSA Gigabit ethernet, then the IC7 would be a much cheaper choice.

Venom

Very good point

Thats probley the best option really as I dont need an eithernet card but Im not sure if RAID would be used, as I dont know what its used for

Also is the Corsair 3200 ran worth the extra cash, alot extra cash in fact as I was thinking of just getting 2x512MB 3200 mem chips?

Creamy Goodness

what is raid sorry if it is a newbie question but i was thinking of getting the abit ic7-g aswell?

Mountjoy Mugger

http://www.google.ie/search?q=RAID&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search First answer will explain it.

halfab

In a simple way, RAID allows you to use 2 or more disks to either increase speed or reliability or both.

The IC7 and IC7-G has whats called S-ATA RAID-0* build onto the southbridge chip (the ICH5R) , that means that you can combine two Serial ATA drives to make 1 big one with much faster data transfer rates. IE 2 x 40Gig = 80Gig RAID-0
RAID-0 will only be twice as big as the smallest drive.
For more on RAID-0 and RAID Migration on the ICH5R
Check here

*Since you ar using two seperate drives and a failure on any one brings down the whole array, the actual chance of failure is doubled.

The IC7-G also has an extra controller which allows the above RAID-0 or RAID-1.
RAID-1 (mirroring) allows you to combine two drives so that one is the backup of the other. (sometimes incurrs a small speed penalty , but doubles reliability) Chance of failure is halfed.

The RAID function on the IC7/G only works with S-ATA drives, not the normal P-ATA or the common IDE drives.

Corsair is normally recommended, but their are other very good makes out there.

Mushkin, I would put in close second place, especially the Level II black PCB memory.

Samsung is also highly rated.

Crucial also a big name in memory, has only got CAS(CL) 3 PC3200 memory available.

I would suggest getting at least CL2.5 rated memory , CL2 if possible.CL (CAS LEVEL) refers to the memory timings and if you are going for a Canterwood board (875P) then to take advantage full advantage of the chipset CL2 is recommended.

OCZ and Geil memory are sometimes not recommended by major websites, both had a bad name before but the newer OCZ Low Latency memory is quite good.

I have two GEIL stick and both didnt work at thier rated speed. NOT recommend.

EDIT
To get the benefit of the Canterwood chipset, you have to install the DIMMs in PAIRS, it will work in single channel mode but Dual Channel is recommended.

Venom

Thx halfab that explains things nicely

I dont need RAID as Iv got a 80GB 7200 RPM HD as it is, and after 6 months Iv still got tons of room left

Been checking on the peats website and there prices seem ok for the 512mb 3200 ram but it dosent say a make. I will be using 2 x 512MB 3200 chips so I take it this is using Dual Channel?

The IT Direct website for DDR ram lists NON EEC stuff? Like WTF is that?


Shopping list so far is......

Abit IC7 MB
Xaser III Super Tower V1000+ case in black

I also need to pick up a black floppy drive so if anyone knows where to get one please let me know

marauder

Heres a thought, if you are going to buy a new motherboard, new ram, a new case and a new psu, why not flog you old PC altogether and put that money towards a new system instead
shop around and you might end up with a better overall system..

byte

Komplett have a Sony black floppy drive for €16.17.

In fact, why dont' you get all yer kit from Komplett, maybe cheaper than Peats. They stock MSI and Abit mobos.

HTH

Venom

irishbyte your a gem

Iv ordered the ABIT IC7 Motherboard and the Black Sony floppy from them this morning

My case should be arriving today from Elara.

And Im now just trying to finish up the shopping list with a nice quite power supply so hopefully this weekend Ill have the new pc up and running.