upgrade advice

[gibverse]

I’ll be building a new system soon, and would like to ask some opinions of those on the forum:

First, what’s the overall view of dual CPU systems? I’m looking at an Asus P2B-D with 2 PIII-800s (yes, I know the 440BX is aging, but the i820/i840 are too expensive with Rambus involved, and VIA’s dual PIII chipset is horrid from what I hear). I run Windows2000 99% of the time, only rebooting to 98 to capture in non-MJPEG [hopefully new drivers will fix this *ahem*].

Second, any rumors about the “Marvel G450 eTV” from the Matrox driver release? And what about a G800 Marvel? Anyone have any dirt on this?
I’m trying to decide if I should keep my G200 Marvel or go up to a Marvel G400 (or maybe a G400 w/ RR-G). Any options on this?

Lastly, is the SoundBlaster AWE64 still the chosen child of the group? Or is there a PCI card that is worth a look at this time?

Thanks a bunch,
John

[miker]

Just to say that not all i840 mobo use rambus - my Supermicro mobo uses interleaved sdram - admittedly it was very picky with the memory that it would work with.

Got a dc1000 on order, can't wait...

Also you can't really lose with any PCI soundcard nowadays, although my pref is still a soundblaster, followed by aureal vortex chipset.

[dZeus]

the Asus P2BD is far too expensive for what it offers...

I would advise you to buy a Epox KP6-BS, or a DFI P2XBL/D

I think SBLive! is a fine PCI card, but I think all PCI cards interfere with capturing? (ask someone else on this)

[Frank Marshall]

The i815 chipset is out though BX still bests it in many of the benchmarks. Intel have done a backflip with this one and gone back to SDRAM. Unfortunately you'll pay a bit more for the on-board video which you'd be overriding (sigh) Tom's hardware http://www.tomshardware.com/
has a review of an early i815 mobo.

[gibverse]

Yes, I realized the situation with the i815. Right now, I've narrowed the playing field to a dual PIII-800, or single CPU, which I'll sell and get a dual later. For single CPU either a ASUS CUSL2 (i815) or A7V (KT133 for Athlon). However, I think I need to make the final call on my video card first. I have zero problems with my Marvel G200-TV, and the G400 doesn't look bad, but I don't want to put down $300 US for a board that the G450/G800 will make obsolete.

I use Adobe Premiere, Ulead MSP6, VirtualDub and LSX for most of my work, however I have been dabbling with DivX of recent. Any comments on how this may impact my decisions?

Thanks,
John

[gibverse]

Elie,
I read back on the message board that you at one point had a P2B-D, can you offer any advice?

Thanks

To the rest of the forum: Sorry about having to post this, but I don't have an email addy for Elie, so this is the only way I know to contact him.

John

[Dr Mordrid]

Actually the tests run at http://www.tomshardware.com show that the newer 440BX mainboards run at 133mhz are faster than the dualchannel RAMBUS boards by a lot. Anandtech http://www.anandtech.com came up with similar results.

Two 440BX boards used in these tests were the Asus P3B-F, AOpen AX6BC Pro and the MSI BXMaster 440BX.

Interesting point in Anandtechs tests: newer BX boards when set for 133mhz automatically select a 1/4 PCI multiplier even if one isn't available in the board settings. In Asus boards this has been the case since the P2B.

Dr. Mordrid

[gibverse]

How do the G400's like the 89 MHz AGP bus (BX with 133 fsb)? Does this mess them up at all? Would a Millenium RR-G combo be better than a Marvel in this respect?

And what's the opinion of the i815 chipset? I don't buy that it's BX part 2 as some sites are claiming. That's why I'm looking to replace my current P2B (its an early revision, that can't hadle the faster PIIIs due to the voltage regulators) with another BX board (esp. dual CPU one).

I already know Doc's opinion of Via chipsets, so I guess this rules out the AMD platform (atleast until the 760's done).

[ODiN]

If you like dual processor setups, I'd stay away from the Marvel G400... the drivers are horrible under Win2k. I also picked up recently that there's not going to be plans for taking advantage of SMP in the future driver releases... my 2 cents...