What to look for in a P4 motherboard?

[Peter Gibbons]

I've been out of the hardware scene for awhile, but I'm looking to
upgrade my current system to a P4 2.X system. While checking out
www.pricewatch.com, I noticed all kinds of new features that I have no
idea what they mean: FSB 800, hyperthreading, Socket 478, etc.

Can someone give me a baseline of what features to look for in a
current P4-compatible motherboard? I'm not looking to break any speed
records, but I'd like a system that will work well for at least a
couple of years before I'd have to upgrade again.

Any suggestions?

 

[Matt]

What I would look for:
I875P Canterwood chipset that supports 400, 533, 800mhz FSB, HyperThreading
(HT), SATA and optionally SATA-RAID
4x Dual Channel DDR memory slots, AGP 8x,
Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit LAN
And depending on whether or not you plan to overclock, some soft bios
settings, etc...
good luck,
Matt

 

[@drian]

At a guess, I'd say:

800Mhz FSB
Socket 478 for current P4's
Hyper Threading support
Integrated Serial ATA with RAID 0 and RAID 1
Integrated USB 2.0 ports
Integrated Gigabit LAN
Onboard Firewire chip
AGP 8x slot

Hope this helps a bit.

@drian.

 

[Charles Hammond]

Socket 478 is the Current Socket size/number of pins for the current Intel
P4.

The P4 Processor has 4 parrallel Concurrent execution lines Called Pipes.
Intel Calls this Quad Pumped. The 800 Mhz Processor is a 200Mhz Quad
Pumped which equals 800Mhz. Memory used is DDR RAM DDR is RAM that is
accessed twice every Clock Cycle. P4 is Dual Channel DDR. Using 2 DDR
channels the motherboard can get a little more speed out of the memory.
Intel Chipsets 865 and 875 are both 800Mhz chipsets. 875 uses a technology called pat that get 1-5% more speed out
of the memory. That covers the Basics.

 

[Stacey]

I've been out of the hardware scene for awhile, but I'm looking to
upgrade my current system to a P4 2.X system. While checking out
www.pricewatch.com, I noticed all kinds of new features that I have no
idea what they mean: FSB 800, hyperthreading, Socket 478, etc.

Can someone give me a baseline of what features to look for in a
current P4-compatible motherboard?

Asus P4P800 has the specs you want in a 2.X/800 P4. You DO want a 800 FSB
chip not a 533.

 

[Olav]

I've been out of the hardware scene for awhile, but I'm looking to
upgrade my current system to a P4 2.X system. While checking out
www.pricewatch.com, I noticed all kinds of new features that I have no
idea what they mean: FSB 800, hyperthreading, Socket 478, etc.

Can someone give me a baseline of what features to look for in a
current P4-compatible motherboard? I'm not looking to break any speed
records, but I'd like a system that will work well for at least a
couple of years before I'd have to upgrade again.

Any suggestions?

I'd go for ATA133 as well.
I've had trouble with large HDs on ChainTech MBs with ATA100.
Asus, oth, handles them better.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[McG]

Hi Peter,
I too was in the market for a p4/800 combo.
After researching, I ended up with the following:

asus p4c800d
p4 2.4/800

this board has the latest chipset and enough options for the basic
to advanced user.