Upgrade recommendation please!

[Grey Area]

OK, so it looks like the great and the good have convinced me to ditch my RDRAM and switch allegiance to DDR 400.

Assuming I am buying a P4 3.2GHz 800FSB with HT, what motherboard would you recommend? THe Intel one has 8 USB ports, and I have a fair bit of USB stuff, but I know they are not necessarily the best motherboard manufacturer....

And can you get DDR 400 chips any bigger than 512KB? I certainly want a minimum of 1GB of RAM onboard, otherwise it's not really an upgrade (currently have 1.32 GB of PC800 RDRAM)

Hope you can help!

 

[mikesgroovin]

Asus has always been a trusted brand. Expensive, but worth the quality. What do you do with your PC?
1GB of DDR400 should be excellent for most, if not all, gaming, video, etc.
Also, keep in mind that when you go from RDRAM PC800 to DDR PC2700 (or higher) the work performance of your system will increase. I think 1GB of DDR400 should, in many ways out perform and benchmark your old RAM. RAM cannot be judged just merely by an amount. It's how that amount of memory performs...

-Michael

 

[kboy]

I use ASUS Mobo's & am very happy with them. That's gonna be a killer box when ya get it dialed in dude!!!!

 

[jamminparidise]

Abit Works too

Yeah, i agree with the 2 previous posts, Asus mobos are great. I also built 2 identical dual PIII 1Ghz boxes and didn't have any problems with their Abit VP7 motherboards at all. So i think they'd definetly be a decent choice.

 

[Zero Shift]

i don't know much about Pentium motherboards, but if it's available, try to get a dual-channel DDR board.

 

[Grey Area]

Just for completeness really. I finally decided on;

Pentium 4 3.0 GHz 800MHz FSB with hyperthreading
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe (Canterwood) motherboard
2 x Corsair Platinum TwinX 1024MB DDR XMS3700 CAS3
Thermaltake XaserIII V2000A Alu Case
Globalwin Super Silent 420W PFC ATX Power Supply

Then, because I had my spending head on, I went and forked out more cash for a Wireless Network System;

D-Link DI-624+ Super 54Mbps AirPlusXtremeG+ Wireless Broadband Router
2 x D-Link DWL-G520+ 54Mbps AirPlusXtremeG+ Wireless PCI Adapter

I'm indebted to everyone here for the advice, and also to the staff at Tekheads (www.tekheads.co.uk) for putting up with my interminable questions!

Now all i have to do is wait for it to get here. I HATE waiting.

 

[kboy]

Nice!!!!!

 

[dethangel]

hey before you buy that check out the mobo review at toms hardware: http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20030707/index.html

the MSI 865PE NEO2-FIS2R took home the best of show award and its only $134 (retail) right now at nexcommdirect, neways you can find it for cheap on www.pricewatch.com, i would definately check it out as it has 4 ram slot with support for up to 4GB of PC3200 DDR, in dual channel, and it has onboard gigabit lan, serial ata, and many other features, check it out dude! its badass! (fugin badass, man; took his head off at 90 yards -three kings)

 

[Inaris]

Just my 2 cents, but I have the Gigabyte 8KNXP and that is a great board. Has everything you could want and runs faster than hell.
Only thing I would want extra is PCI-X or whatever they are calling it now a days...

 

[Apokalipse]

And can you get DDR 400 chips any bigger than 512KB?

you mean MB not KB... lol

what about the MS-6728-FIS2R:

Product Details

CPU
• Supports Socket 478 for Intel® Pentium 4 processor
• Supports up 3.0GHz/800MHz and higher speed

Memory Speed/CPU FSB Support Matrix
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FSB\Memory clock DDR266 DDR333 DDR400
800 MHz NO YES YES
533 MHz YES YES NO
400 MHz YES NO NO

*Note: When using an 800MHz system bus processor, DDR333 memory is clocked at 320MHz.
Chipset <-- you won't have to worry if you're using DDR400

• Intel® 865PE Chipset
- Supports FSB 800/533/*400(Northwood only)MHz.
- Supports AGP 8X interface.
- A Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) controller is supported through the
CSA (Communications Streaming Architecture) interface.
- Supports Dual Channel DDR 400/333/266 memory interface.

• Intel® ICH5/ICH5R Chipset
- Hi-Speed USB (USB2.0) controller, 480Mb/sec, 8 ports.
- 2 Serial ATA/150 ports.
- 2 channel Ultra ATA 100 bus Master IDE controller.
- PCI Master v2.3.
- I/O APIC.
- Supports both ACPI and legacy APM power management.
- Serial ATA/150 RAID 0 (Optional, Only ICH5R Chipset).
FSB

• Support *100(Northwood only)/133/200MHz FSB
• Support *400(Northwood only)/533/800MHz Intel NetBurst
micro-architecture bus.
Main Memory

• Supports four unbuffered DIMM of 2.5V DDR SDRAM.
• Supports up to 4GB memory size without ECC.
• Supports Dual channel DDR266/333/400MHz and up.
Slots

• One AGP slot supports 8x/4x at 0.8V (AGP 3.0) or 4x at 1.5V
(3.3V is not supported).
• Five 32-bit v2.3 Master PCI bus slots (support 3.3v/5v PCI bus
interface).
On-Board IDE

• Dual Ultra DMA 66/100 IDE controllers integrated in ICH5/ICH5R.
- Supports PIO, Bus Master operation modes.
- Can connect up to four Ultra ATA drives.

• Serial ATA/150 controller integrated in ICH5/ICH5R.
- Up to 150MB/sec transfer speeds.
- Can connect up to two Serial ATA drives.
- Supports Serial ATA RAID 0 (Optional)
Promise 20378 On-Board (Optional)

• Supports Ultra ATA, Serial ATA, Ultra ATA RAID 0 or 1 , Serial
ATA RAID 0 or 1, Ultra/Serial ATA RAID 0+1 supported.
• Connect up to 2 Serial ATA devices and 2 Ultra ATA 133 devices.
Audio

• 6 channels software audio codec C-Media 9739A.
- Compliance with AC97 v2.2 Spec.
- Meet PC2001 audio performance requirement.
- Can support SPDIF Out via S-Bracket only.
LAN (Optional)

• Intel® PRO/1000CT Desktop Connection and Intel® 82562EZ
Dual layout.
- Integrated Fast Ethernet MAC and PHY in one chip.
- Supports 10/100Mb/s and 1000Mb/s
(1000Mb/s only for Intel® PRO/1000CT)
- Compliance with PCI 2.2.
- Supports ACPI Power Management.
On-Board Peripherals

On-Board Peripherals include:
- 1 floppy port supports 2 FDDs with 360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44M
and 2.88Mbytes
- 1 serial port (COM A)
- 1 parallel port supports SPP/EPP/ECP mode.
- 1 Line-in/Line-out/MIC port
- 8 USB 2.0 ports (Rear x 6/Front x 2 or Rear x 4 / Front x 4)
- 1 RJ-45 LAN jack (Optional)
- 3 IEEE 1394 pinheaders (Optional)
BIOS

• The mainboard BIOS provides "Plug & Play" BIOS which
detects the peripheral devices and expansion cards of the
board automatically.
• The mainboard provides a Desktop Management Interface
(DMI) function which records your mainboard specifications.
Dimension
30.5 cm(L) x 24.4 cm(W) ATX Form Factor
Mounting
9 mounting holes.