Hi Guys :)

It's has been some time since I last came to this forum, any reason? Well, let just say, life can be rather difficult at times... :confused: . Well, I've better get to my point, I've decided to sale my old comp (a Duron 1.3Ghz) and get a new comp :D . While deciding on which m/b to buy, I came across 2 m/b that met my needs and now I have a problem :( , I don't know which one to get. The price for the 2 m/b are almost the same(even though they're not those expansive types, but with the budget that I have to spend...they seem to be quite expansive, I hope you know what I mean), so it kind of makes me feel like this board has to be worth every cents. The 2 boards that I have my eyes on are: ASUS P4P800-VM and GIGABYTE GA-8IG1000MK.

I know these 2 boards are almost exactly the same. I've download the manual for both of these boards. The ASUS m/b seems perfect, but it only have 2M bit flash bios while the GIGABYTE have 3M bit flash bios and comes with many other softwares :p . Other than that these 2 boards are exactly the same, I think. One thing that I came across with that bothered me was that the GIGABYTE manual said " 1 AGP slot 4x/8x (1.5V) device support ". As far as I know, aren't 8X AGP cards 0.8V devices :confused: ? Through out the whole manual, it said nothing about supporting 0.8V AGP cards, it only says it can't support 3.3V types cause the chipset cannot support it etc. So can anyone explain to me what this actually means? The ASUS m/b says it can support 0.3V and 1.5V AGP devices, so I have no worries for it.

So basically what I'm trying to ask is, what that that quote mean? " 1 AGP slot 4x/8x (1.5V) device support " And which m/b would be better to get? Even though they are both almost exactly the same, same Intel chipset, both can support 4GB of DDR400 Dual Channel :D ....sweet ^^ .


Thanks alot :D



ko9000

If it says its 8x then it does support 0.8V vido ocards. 1.5V is the maximum card voltage that the board will support, meaning its not compatible with AGP 2x or 1x, only 4/8.

I would'nt worry about the amount of flash bios, 2m vrs 3. I think either board will be good, although I would lean towards Asus. It is really personal preference it sounds like. Either one will do just fine, both are great boards. Don't sweat it.
V

You mentioned that two motherboards met your needs, but you didn't say what your need are.

If you specify what your are going to use the computer for and how much you want to spend, we might be able to help you select an economical but powerful solution.

Thanks alot for you guys help ^^ . Well, I mainly need the computer for games, I'm sort of perparing something that can possibly run Doom 3 with no worries. On the other hand, I'm also going to use it for photo editing and graphic design. And also something that can support new stuff in the future, eg the Pentium prescott cpu. I hope you know what I mean. I would get AMD m/b and athlon cpus...but with the graphic card that I have (Radeon 9000Pro), it is in-comptiable with VIA chipsets. I heard Intel chipsets are quite reliable and runs a lot cooler than AMD so...yeah. SIS types...not really interested.


Thanks again, for everyones help ^^ .



ko9000