Which P4 MB to get Asus/Gigabyte/MSI/Abit...

[Cane1992]

I think I have it down to 4 MB's.

1. ASUS - P4PE
2. Gigabyte - GA-8PE667 Ultra
3. MSI - P845PE Max2
4. Abit - IT7-MAX2 V2.0

Anyone, anyone...

 

[Civilized]

My first question is how many did you start with lol ....that is about all of the PE mobos, anyways
Out of the ones you have chosen I will give you the good and bad of each and then my recommendation and you can decide... They all of course are going to perform about the same since they are all based on the same platform and chipset. It is the features and quality that sells

First of all here is a great review on all of these motherboards....
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1723&p=1" target="_new">Msi & Gigabyte & Asus</A>
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1771" target="_new">Abit</A>

After reading these reviews you will notice that the Asus is prob one of the best performers although the margin is very slim...the asus prob falls in the middle of overclocking performance...you will notice that the Albatron is the best overclocker which also makes a kick ass motherboard that you didnt list, along with Abit. The albatron they reviewed was the slimmed down version and they have a better one out called the ProIIS which is available at newegg and offers sata raid etc...The bright spot on Abit is that it offers dual channel ide raid which none of the other motherboards do. If you are planning to run ide raid I would look no further.
You will see that the msi is a mediocre performer overall, and the gigabyte is a good performer and has good features all for one sour spot. It doesnt offer many memory divider options. DDR 400 will be very hard to reach on this motherboard so if you are a memory overclocker I dont suggest this mobo.
<font color=red>My recommendation is the Abit-IT7Max2 rev2</font color=red>

Or you can wait on the sis655 motherboards which will support dual ddr400

<font color=green>Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza<font color=green>

 

[how786]

MSI 655 Max.........Here is excerpt from latest review:

"First off, we can safely say that MSI's 655 Max motherboard is the fastest Pentium 4 motherboard we've ever tested"

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1781

Best
Howard

"We can do no great things, Only small things with Great Love"
Mother Theresa

 

[avm]

My recommendation is always ASUS. If you are ready to invest go for Asus P4G8X motherboard. Otherwise go for Asus P4gV, which is cheapest and rich in feature

 

[DOOM]

I turned down the Abit for a Gigabyte 8SG667 (SiS 648) plus a Highpoint RAID PCI Controller... My main reason is that the 845PE boards don't support PC3200 memory (DDR 400). Going from 333 to 400 will have a pretty noticeable impact on system performance, and paying the extra 80 bucks for a RAID controller doesn't seem like that big of a deal (if you need it)...

I have experience with the Gigabyte and it is a fast, solid board. I haven't put together the RAID config yet, but I'll let you know.

It seems to me like the 8SG667 is better than any of the boards you listed... There are some slight drawbacks to it, but it is definitely worth considering.

-DOOM
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