P4 Motherboards

[lionfish]

Looking for a good P4 Motherboard for my future home PC. I need a powerful one.

¿any cost balanced ideas? ¿Are Serial ATA HDDs worthwhile?


Akuna matata!

-lionfish

 

[Didou]

If you have the budget go for a board based on the i875 chipset. If you're trying to lower the costs, you can always go with a board based on the i865 chipset. You can't go wrong with any known brand such as : Abit, Asus, MSI, Epox, Gigabyte, etc.

I believe all boards on those chipsets support SATA without any add-ons chips ( Silicone Image, Promise, etc ) so you'll actually benefit from the extra speed the SATA format can provide.

Here's a good article to help you decide :

865PE/875P Motherboard Roundup June 2003 - Part 1: 20-way Shootout @ Anandtech

 

[Crazy]

I would go for asus, I've always been very happy with it.
The asus P4P800 is a very good mainbord for the moment and not that high priced
http://uk.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/p4p800/overview.htm

You have SATA, 800Mhz FSB, Dual DDR 400, ect.

Greets Crazy

 

[Didou]

A few more reviews to help you decide :

1. ABIT AI7 @ [H]ardOCP
2. DFI's LANParty 875 Pro motherboard @ Tech Report
3. Abit's IC7-G motherboard @Tech Report
4. Intel D875PBZ - i875P Motherboard @ HotHardware
5. Intel D865GBF Springdale i865G @ HotHardware

The Intel boards are generally without OCing options but very stable & they're also starting to be feature rich.

 

[Nic]

I believe you get four SATA connectors with some of the MSI boards, while the others come with only two.

 

[lionfish]

Thank you guys. Very useful info.

Just two more questions:

Do 2 SATA channels mean 2 Hard Drives only?
Can I connect 2 SATA HDDs -like in the old PATA- or more?

 

[Nic]

Originally posted by lionfish
Do 2 SATA channels mean 2 Hard Drives only?
Can I connect 2 SATA HDDs -like in the old PATA- or more?

Yes. Only one drive per connection.

 

[Th3M1ghtyD8]

Originally posted by Crazy
The asus P4P800 is a very good mainbord for the moment and not that high priced
http://uk.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/p4p800/overview.htm

I agree totally, the P4P800 is a great board, especially with the AI Overclock feature, which allows you to easily overclock by 10, 20 or 30%. With this board and a P4 2.4Ghz I was able to reach 3.12Ghz with no stability issues, which makes a £140 chip very nearly into a £350+ Chip.

 

[Nic]

24 Boards with the 865/875P Chipset

 

[TS | Crazyace]

The best all around motherboard manufacture that has been able to add just about every feature a board can offer is Epox. I used a few Asus boards, abit's, and some soyo's with a P4 system, but the EPOX boards just seemed to have everything.
By everything I mean voltage tweaks for memory, AGP, etc..

Good luck

 

[BrownPaper]

oh yeah some board manufacturers have better bundles than other manufacturers. the dfi 875 and 865 series gives you a lot of stuff with your mobo compared to my abit 875 series.

if you want to OC (even to the extreme) the majority of the new P4 mobos from abit, asus, dfi, epox, msi etc. will get you pretty far.