Motherboard for P4.

M

MS

Hi,

Having had such great replies about which processor to buy, now is my
chance to ask about which motherboard.

I've decided to get a Pentium 4 3.0E Ghz 800Mhz Prescott CPU, but my
supplier (who will be doing the actual system build) has loads of P4
motherboards. I've narrowed it down to these 9.

I'm looking for reliability, some overclocking, ability to take decent
RAM, but I really have no idea how to choose between these! Perhaps
someone who knows a lot more about the issues at stake can advise me.

Abit IC7-G Intel 875 Motherboard - £102.11
Abit IC7 Intel 875P P4 Motherboard - £77.41
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe Intel 875P Canterwood Motherboard - £130.28
Asus P5GDC Deluxe Intel 915P Sck 775 Motherboard - £116.84
Asus P4S800D-E Deluxe SiS®655TX P4 Motherboard - £70.24
Epox EP-4PDA2V Socket 478 Motherboard inc EasyBay - £83.48
Epox EP-4PDA5+ Intel 865PE P4 Motherboard - £75.39
Gigabyte GA-8I915P-PRO PCI Express Socket 775 Motherboard - £88.83
Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 Pro2 Intel P4 2004 GT Edition Motherboard - £77.64

Thanks and regards,

MS
 
D

DJS0302

Since you're going with an Intel chip I suggest you go to
indigo.intel.com/mbsg. It will help you narrow down your choices.
 
M

Matt

JK said:
The performance of the Athlon 64 chips in 32 bit is outstanding. They
are the best value even if someone plans to only use a 32 bit OS and
32 bit software.
Click to expand...

AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton give much better price/performance. Unless I
am wrong, of course.
 
R

Russell

Please be aware that 478-pin processor boards using the Intel 865/875 series
chipsets and the 775-pin processor boards using the Intel 915/925 series
chipsets use different processor incarnations that are not interchangeable.
If you're going with an Intel processor, stay with an Intel chipset. I also
suggest using the Northwood version processor (478-pin 3.0C Ghz 800 Mhz
Front Side Bus) rather than the Prescott version due to better thermal
performance and more overclocking potential. The best 478-pin support
chipset is the Intel 875, and I highly recommend either the Gigabyte
GA-8KNXP or the GA-8IK1100 motherboard. My .02 cents.
 
M

MS

JK said:
Why do you want a P4 3ghz 800 Prescott? It looks like that chip is around
$225 for the retail box with heatsink. For less than that you can get an
Athlon 64 3200+ retail box with heatsink. Read this review and see why
the Athlon 64 3200+ is a much better value.
Click to expand...

Several replies I had in these newsgroups made me think the cost of an
Athlon 64 and a motherboard for it would be more expensive than the P4
3ghz 800 Prescott for hardly any performance gain.

Maybe the prices are slightly different in the UK, but the Athlon 64 3200
is more expensive than the P4 3ghz 800 Prescott (about US$50 more), the
comparable CPU in price would actually be the Athlon 64 3000 (which would
be US$35 cheaper).

The PC will be running XP Pro and its most 'demanding' role will be doing
video editing and associated tasks. Wouldn't the P4 be better at doing this?

Should I be rethinking and getting the Athlon 64 3000 instead of the P4
3ghz 800 Prescott?

Thanks,

MS
 
J

JK

The XP2500+ is okay for some tasks,but it doesn't have SSE2
and an on chip memory controller that the Athlon 64 has. Take a
look at this review.
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2065&p=1

The Athlon 64 3200+ is only around $210 now for the retail box with
heatsink. The XP2500+ (or even better an XP2800+ for just a
few dollars more) is okay for a budget system for surfing the net
and basic business applications, but isn't so great compared
to the Athlon 64 3200+ for gaming, video editing, and other
more strenuous tasks.
 
M

MS

Just as an aside... which motherboards come highly recommended for the
Athlon 64 3000?

Thanks,

MS
 
J

JK

MS said:
Several replies I had in these newsgroups made me think the cost of an
Athlon 64 and a motherboard for it would be more expensive than the P4
3ghz 800 Prescott for hardly any performance gain.
Click to expand...

That isn't really true. The motherboards for the Athlon 64 have dropped
in price considerably. As for the performance, read this review.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2065&p=1

The Athlon 64 3200+ very recently dropped in price from around $280
or so to around $210, which makes it an even more compelling value,
even if it will only be used with a 32 bit OS and 32 bit software.
Maybe the prices are slightly different in the UK, but the Athlon 64 3200
is more expensive than the P4 3ghz 800 Prescott (about US$50 more), the
comparable CPU in price would actually be the Athlon 64 3000 (which would
be US$35 cheaper).
Click to expand...

The price on the Athlon 64 3200+ just dropped considerably. Perhaps
some dealers in the UK might be a bit slow to lower prices?
Check www.pricewatch.com for US pricing.
The PC will be running XP Pro and its most 'demanding' role will be doing
video editing and associated tasks. Wouldn't the P4 be better at doing this?
Click to expand...

Not really. The P4 beat the Athlon XP chips, since the Athlon XP chips don't
have SSE2. The Athlon 64 has SSE2. Video software makes great use of
SSE2.
Should I be rethinking and getting the Athlon 64 3000 instead of the P4
3ghz 800 Prescott?
Click to expand...

I think the Athlon 64 3200+ at only around $40 more than the Athlon 64 3000+
is a much better value. With 64 bit software, the Athlon 64 will really be
awesome.
There might be some 64 bit video editing software available now that runs under
Linux?
 
D

Dave C.

MS said:
Hi,

Having had such great replies about which processor to buy, now is my
chance to ask about which motherboard.

I've decided to get a Pentium 4 3.0E Ghz 800Mhz Prescott CPU, but my
supplier (who will be doing the actual system build) has loads of P4
motherboards. I've narrowed it down to these 9.

I'm looking for reliability, some overclocking, ability to take decent
RAM, but I really have no idea how to choose between these! Perhaps
someone who knows a lot more about the issues at stake can advise me.

Abit IC7-G Intel 875 Motherboard - £102.11
Abit IC7 Intel 875P P4 Motherboard - £77.41
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe Intel 875P Canterwood Motherboard - £130.28
Asus P5GDC Deluxe Intel 915P Sck 775 Motherboard - £116.84
Asus P4S800D-E Deluxe SiS®655TX P4 Motherboard - £70.24
Epox EP-4PDA2V Socket 478 Motherboard inc EasyBay - £83.48
Epox EP-4PDA5+ Intel 865PE P4 Motherboard - £75.39
Gigabyte GA-8I915P-PRO PCI Express Socket 775 Motherboard - £88.83
Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 Pro2 Intel P4 2004 GT Edition Motherboard - £77.64

Thanks and regards,

MS
Click to expand...

Some of those aren't compatible with your processor. Of the ones that are,
the abit IC7 and epox EP-4PDA5+ are your best choices. As you mentioned
overclocking (don't do it, but), you should probably go for the abit IC7.
It wouldn't be a hard decision for me . . . the epox would win easily.
However, the Abit is a good value too, and they have a good reputation for
overclocking. -Dave
 
D

Dorothy Bradbury

The Prescott is a hot chip.

You could save quite a bit by going for an Ebay P4-2.8Ghz, in
the UK they are just £75-78 - and Northwood so run *cooler*.
 
D

Dennis E Strausser Jr

MS said:
Hi,

Having had such great replies about which processor to buy, now is my
chance to ask about which motherboard.

I've decided to get a Pentium 4 3.0E Ghz 800Mhz Prescott CPU, but my
supplier (who will be doing the actual system build) has loads of P4
motherboards. I've narrowed it down to these 9.

I'm looking for reliability, some overclocking, ability to take decent
RAM, but I really have no idea how to choose between these! Perhaps
someone who knows a lot more about the issues at stake can advise me.

Abit IC7-G Intel 875 Motherboard - £102.11
Abit IC7 Intel 875P P4 Motherboard - £77.41
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe Intel 875P Canterwood Motherboard - £130.28
Asus P5GDC Deluxe Intel 915P Sck 775 Motherboard - £116.84
Asus P4S800D-E Deluxe SiS®655TX P4 Motherboard - £70.24
Epox EP-4PDA2V Socket 478 Motherboard inc EasyBay - £83.48
Epox EP-4PDA5+ Intel 865PE P4 Motherboard - £75.39
Gigabyte GA-8I915P-PRO PCI Express Socket 775 Motherboard - £88.83
Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000 Pro2 Intel P4 2004 GT Edition Motherboard - £77.64

Thanks and regards,

MS
Click to expand...
These people are all missing the point here...

You already got a prescott cpu.
Would've been better to get a northwood.
But if you want a good board, get either MSI or Gigabyte with Dual Bios.
Dual bios can be very nice, but you might not know that intill something
goes wrong.
I cant think right, I'm a bit drunk.

Denny. ;-)
 
S

Steve Pearce

Hi,

Having had such great replies about which processor to buy, now is my
chance to ask about which motherboard.

I've decided to get a Pentium 4 3.0E Ghz 800Mhz Prescott CPU, but my
supplier (who will be doing the actual system build) has loads of P4
motherboards. I've narrowed it down to these 9.
Click to expand...

I've used a Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000g with that processor with good
results, the "pro" version should be just as good.
 
J

Johannes H Andersen

Steve said:
I've used a Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000g with that processor with good
results, the "pro" version should be just as good.
Click to expand...

I have just built using Gigabyte GA-8IK1100 from a computer fair. This
board is slightly better, using 875P chipset instead of 865P. But all
Gigabytes are nice and stable and well documented. However, there is a fix
around I've read about, where you can have PAT (Intel's Performance
Acceleration Technology) which effectively makes the 865P into the 875P.
This board was inexpensive £87, but minor point is that IDE is ATA100
not ATA 133, although the board has two SATA ports which makes the ATA100
a non issue.
 
M

maggot

Abit IC7 Intel 875P P4 Motherboard - £77.41
Click to expand...

This is a rock solid mb and is a very good price. The G model has one
extra SATA port and LAN. If you don't need that then just get the
stock IC7. And as others have said, get a Northwood cpu instead of
Prescott.
 

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