motherboard advice

[mrmiagi]

Hello all, first post here http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

I'm going to gut the parts from my Gateway made PIII 933 and rebuild a new comp. I plan on getting a P4 1.9 combo motherboard with some better RAM (better than my current 133 SDRAM). The question is, what motherboard do I get? I am clueless because I know nothing about motherboards, I've been looking on pricewatch but really don't know the differences. I'm mostly using the comp for some heavy Quake action as well as some DV editing (with an old Miro DV 300 firewire PCI card). What should I get for under $400.00? I'm looking for something stable with 5 PCI slots and the usual, as well the possibility of expanding the mem further if needed. The other question is what mem do I get? RDRAM, DDR? If anyone can point me in an initial direction that would be nice.

Broad questions, but thanks for the advice!

[saphalline]

What should I get for under $400.00?

$400!? Holy cow, I could get two mobos for that price and still have some change left over to get some rounded IDE cables! Standard mobo price is in the $90 to $170 range.

First off, let's establish some basics. Micro PGA Socket478 is the newest P4 interface, so you'll need a MPGA478 mobo and P4 (preferably one of the "A" versions). Secondly, if you ever plan on upgrading from 1.9GHz to 2GHz or more then you'll be wanting RDRAM. Yes it is expensive, but the P4 has an enormous amount of bandwidth with its 400MHz bus and the benchmarks I've seen significantly favor RDRAM over DDR RAM as you use faster P4's (and QIII is among the prime programs used for benchmarking!). Remember that this means using a i850 chipset mobo and buying 2 sticks of RDRAM (RDRAM must come in pairs for the P4 and they must be of equal size and speed). Just about all P4 mobo's support at least 2GB of RAM, no matter what the type, so you shouldn't have any worries there, but I recommend you buy at least 512MB to begin with.

According to these specs, I found a good P4 & RDRAM mobo: Intel motherboard D850MVSE with 5 PCI slots and 5 USB 2.0 slots. I also found the Asus P4T-E board with 5 PCI slots. Both boards are $159 (+ shipping) on www.directron.com/ (http://www.directron.com/) and this was just a quick search on one website. Other websites to buy from are www.newegg.com/ (http://www.newegg.com/) and www.googlegear.com (http://www.googlegear.com) just to name a few sites that people in the forums shop at. Personally, I only pricewatch when I want to know the cheapest street price for any particular component, then I know about how much I should spend on it at my usual websites.

For RDRAM, I'd go with PC800 RDRAM (as if you can get any other kind!) made by either Kingston or Samsung. If you intend to get two 512MB sticks of RDRAM (1GB total) be warned that they will cost about in the $450 range! Obscene to be sure, but better than being saddled by slow DDR RAM.

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Windows 95: A 32-bit extension of a 16-bit overlay for an 8-bit OS that was originally designed for a 4-bit processor by a 2-bit company that can't produce 1 bit of good software!

[mrmiagi]

Wow, can anyone beat that post http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif ?

I'm going to do some wading through the mobos from directron.com and see what I can figure it out (if I understand any of it).

Thanks!

[iisbob]

For the $450 you'd waste on the RDRAM-you'd get an AThlon XP 1700+ or faster and over a Gig of DDR that would smoke the P4 system on any program you run. Especially Quake.

Stick with DDR, RDRAM is a dying propietary technology.

If i were you, i'd sell the P4-get yourself an Athlon XP ( better chip, less price )and go with a DDR board-you can get an XP 1700+ & the ECS K7S5A DDR board for under $200-i'll put that combo up against any P4 system anyday.

Just remember this, it's not how many frames per second you get; it's how many Frags per sec you get. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif








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iisbob

Computer-Show me the Enterprise; no bloody A, no bloody B, and no bloody C-just the original...Mr Scott { from a STNG episode }

[mrmiagi]

Yeah, I've dedcided not to waste the money on RDRAM, but I'm weary of getting an athalon for no good reason...I've just never had an AMD chip before. So, if anyone can give me a second opinion about the chipset I'll be set.

BTW: a few mobo combos I found last night in my price range... what does anyone think?
http://www.accubyte.com/applications/search/itemdetails.asp?sku=mbc-ty2-19&sc=pw http://www.allstarcomponents.com/combointel.html (the P4 1.9 pro package)

Thanks for the already good advice peeps, keep it up

Miagi

[rond36]

Hello, mrmiagi and welcome to The PC Guide Forums.

Soyo P4S Dragon Ultra (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=280&manufactory=1454&DEPA=1)
512MB Samsung PC2700 DDR (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=147&manufactory=1077&DEPA=1)

Here is my P4 system
Soyo P4S Dragon Ultra, BIOS date 1/11/2002-SiS-645-6A6IXS2AC-00
BIOS update P4SX2AA3 release date 1/16/2002
Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz 512KB L2 cache (Northwood)
768MB PC2700 CL2 (333MHz) DDRSDRAM (ME limited to 512MB)
IDE 1 Master Western digital 100GB 8MB cache Ultra ATA 100
IDE 1 Slave Western digital 100GB 8MB cache Ultra ATA 100
IDE 2 Master Plextor 40X12X40 CD-RW
IDE 2 Slave Pioneer 16X40 DVD-ROM
ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV 64MB DDR
Sound Blaster Audigy MP3 PCI Sound card
Creative Inspire 5.1 Digital 5700 suround sound system
Onboard SiS PCI 900 10/100 Fast Ethernet Adapter
Onboard Highpoint HPT 372 RAID UDMA 66/100/133 (disabled)
Duel-boot Win ME and Win XP Professional
MS Office Professional with Publisher

I also have an Athlon system that is next on the list for an upgrade which will include;
Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra (same as my P4S only with a VIA KT333 chipset)
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
768MB Samsung PC2700 DDR
And maybe upgrade the CD drives
Antec 1080 Plus tower case
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How to Use the Fdisk Tool and the Format Tool to Partition or Repartition a Hard Disk (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q255867)
WindowsBBS.com (http://www.WindowsBBS.com/index.php?referrerid=115) Is back online, check it out



[This message has been edited by rond36 (edited 04-19-2002).]

[Hans]

mrmiagi,

An excellent combination to include with the aforementioned:
Soltek SL-75DRV4
Coolermaster 7H53F AMD recommended heatsink/fan http://soltekusa.safeshopper.com/8/cat8.htm?351
512 MB PC-2700 CAS-2 DDR Corsair XMS w/heat spreader http://www.memman.com/category.asp?catid=4#100
Athlon XP 1800+ OEM http://www.memman.com/category.asp?catid=6#211

Hans

[rond36]

Hans
"PC-2700 CAS-2 DDR Corsair XMS w/heat spreader"
This RAM is nothing more than overclocked CAS 2.5 PC2100 DDR. I didn't find this out until I put 768MB in my Soyo board that is capable of using PC2700 and it clocked it at PC2100 and at CAS 2.5. When I changed the memory settings to PC2700 CAS 2 my system would sometimes fail to POST (POST loop) sometimes it would lockup after Win XP loaded if I ran it at PC2100 or PC2400 it would run fine. Samsung PC2700 CL 2.5 is true PC2700 333MHz DDR (and it is cheaper). I have no such problem with running it at PC2700 or higher (PC3000+)
Crucial is set to release PC2700 DDR now that JEDEC has finally set the standard specification for it at the beginning of this month. Until now there has not been a set specification for PC2400 or PC2700 and there still isn't a specification set by JEDEC for PC2400 DDR
EDIT: Crucial has already released CP2700 DDR (http://www.crucial.com/store/listmodule.asp?module=DDR+PC2700&Attrib=Package)
------------------
How to Use the Fdisk Tool and the Format Tool to Partition or Repartition a Hard Disk (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q255867)
WindowsBBS.com (http://www.WindowsBBS.com/index.php?referrerid=115) Is back online, check it out



[This message has been edited by rond36 (edited 04-19-2002).]

[mrmiagi]

Screw it... I gotta get this thing now and its gonna be a P4. Hehe. This is what I'm ordering:
http://www.allstarcomponents.com/combointel.html (the combo 1.9 ghz PRO package, w/ 256 mb of PC2100 DDR)

If this is a totally stupid move fill me in ASAP before I order it on Monday. Otherwise thanks for all the great advice! The responses are terrific (even though I may not be listening to them righ now).

Peace,

Wax On, Wax Off