P4 Motherboard recommendation needed

[Ijon_Tichy23]

Hiya.

I have been using PIII and 440BX chipsets since '99 exclusively.

I just acquired a new P4 1.6A (400mhz bus/512k) and I have little idea what motherboards and ram to shop for.

I have read plenty of threads in this forum concerning P4 choices, however I still couldn't synthesize it all together to suit my needs:

1. Very stable

2. Can overclock the 1.6A (I assume 100mhz fsb to 133mhz fsb, so not a huge overclock)

(I know 1 and 2 can be mutually exclusive but stability is most desireable)

3. Can run a Matrox G400 16MB DH now and Parhelia or current ATI cards later (when I upgrade)

4. Does not have built-in audio (or at least one that can be disabled since I plan on using a M-Audio Revolution)

5. Intel chipset is preferable

Also, what kind of ram would be best? DDR? And what type would be fine for my overclocked cpu?

Thanks for the help.

[Ssin]

I would recommend that you wait another month untill the next Intel chipset gets out. It is rumored to sport AGP 8x, Dual Channel DDR400 and alot of USB 2.0.
If you can't wait go for Abit BH7 or Gigabyte PE800 (I would go for GigaByte.. more stable IMO). Those are the best performance/price/quality/stablity ratio that I can think of.

[Tjalfe]

Benchmarks are out ( yes it is TOMS hardware, but they always have the newest toys first )

Canterwood stuff




*edit - spelling

[Ijon_Tichy23]

Does the Gigabyte PE800 support the G400? (site says "supports 1.5v display card only")

Also, for a simple overclock of a P4 1.6a, do I need ram higher than PC2700?

Thanks again.

[WyWyWyWy]

1. 99% of motherboards are very stable now I think you mean "non-problematic"?

2. Intel, ECS, Pcchips (and some Aopen?) boards don't support overclocking. And make sure you buy one that support PCI/AGP freq locking if you want to overclock. Anyway, only 133Mhz? Push it 150!!

3. As far as I know, all recent Intel chipsets only support 1.5v gfx cards.

4. As far as I know, any on-board audio can be disabled... via jumper or BIOS, or, simply not using it.

5. The Sis655 chipset is pretty good too. All other Sis solutions are outdated now. Depends on your budget, you'd better wait for the Springdale (865PE or 865P) chipset which is going to release a few weeks later. If you HAVE to buy one now... go for 845PE!

DDR is your friend! SDRAM is way too slow (honestly), and Rambus is still too expensive at the moment... the highest memory ratio most Intel chipset boards offer is 3/4. So... if you *only* overclock to 133mhz, then PC2700 is fine. But since 3200 is so cheap now... why not?

[Ijon_Tichy23]

"3. As far as I know, all recent Intel chipsets only support 1.5v gfx cards."

So does this mean that I can use a Matrox G400?

Since I have used only Abit boards up to this point and overclock everything, I would like a board that permits tweaking all settings in the bios (like Abit's softmenu).

[Wombat]

Yes, the G400 will work. 99% of them will work without a hitch. The very earliest G400s will need to have a little coloring (use a pencil to short a resistor). It's a change even my mother could do.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

Originally posted by Wombat
Yes, the G400 will work. 99% of them will work without a hitch. The very earliest G400s will need to have a little coloring (use a pencil to short a resistor). It's a change even my mother could do.

Not mine

Yea... just watch out for the AGP 8X boards... no 2X cards... AFAIK ur G400 16MB can be one of those non-4X cards.

Good luck on purchasing.

People here will recommend the following brands: MSI or Gigabyte, probably SiS 655 based... (SIS655 has qualiy close to intel chipsets these days... and SiS655 can do Dual DDR333 (400 unofficially)

Oh yea... almost all motherboards these days have audio built-in. On my P4T533-C (i850E), you can disable it. Try to look for C-media chipsets rather than Realtek...

[LvR]

DDR800 MOBO/CHIPSET?

Running very happily on this Gigabyte SIS655 board

[The PIT]

Another nice item about these new intel chips is the sata is independant from the pci bus.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

Toms (yes toms ) has the newest preview on the Canterwood... pretty interesting review (considering it's toms )

[Ijon_Tichy23]

Thx for all the advice.

Last question however, will a board like the Gigabyte PE800 support a 8X agp card like the rumoured Parhelia LX cards?

I am looking for a quick solution now that will run a G400 but later take a Parhelia LX or Ati 9xxx.