a good motherboard?

[fo3]

i am planning on buying a new pc, but i haven't still decided what motherboard to buy. any advice would be welcome.

Pentium 4 2,8Ghz Prescott or Northwood
Sapphire Atlantis ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB 380/680MHz
2 x 256 MB DDRAM PC3200
120GB 7200rpm HDD
-no Sound Card

and when i was already posting this, then should i choose Northwood or Prescott processor ?

 

[Landog]

MSI 865PE Neo 2-PLS is a good value.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=13-130-446&DEPA=1

Prescott vs Northwood. Can't say. I hear the Prescott's run fairly hot.

I run a P4c 2.6 with SETI in the background 24/7 and haven't found any heat problems.

Cheers,
Steve

P4c 2.6/I875/nVdia 5200

 

[up_too_late]

I like my Asus P4P800 Deluxe. It's an 865 chipset and you can turn on the PAT so it's equivelent to the more expensive 875. The on-board sound works pretty well, so it'll get you by. The board worked fine for me right out of the box using a Northwood 2.8 w/HT. Instructions were good, plenty of clearance for a big HSF. The only clearance issue is with the AGP card and the first RAM slot, but that isn't a big deal unless you're swapping your RAM every day.

I've read of some people having issues with getting the Prescotts to POST if the mobo has an older BIOS. I haven't seen any reason to go to the Prescott.

 

[Cybercraig]

The ABIT IS7 and a 2.8C Northwood will make you smile and save you some dough! Spend the extra dough on PC3700 memory and turn that 2.8 into a 3.2!


"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. Now, let's eat!

 

[HardWareBoss]

Buy the 2.8c. Use abit IS7 Mobo. New Egg has HIS 9800Pro ICEQ for $239. Better vid card.

 

[gpol2162]

Wait for PCI express motherboards to come out

 

[mrmonsoon]

Personally, I would recomend the P4C (Northwood) processor at any speed, for now. P4E (Presscot) processors do tend to run hotter than P4C's and I don't think they overclock as well either. Currently, P4C's of the same speed are faster than P4E's.
If your money allows, I suggest 2 X 512 ram.
As for motherboards, I like my Asus P4C800 Deluxe. If money is tight, try MSI Neo 2 m/b-good performance (865PE) for reasonable price. Both have on board sound.

 

[fo3]

is HIS IceQ better than Sapphire Atlantis card ?

 

[Zeekfu]

I found it challenging to find HIS or "hightech" or "Hightech Information Systems" <A HREF="http://www.hisdigital.com/html/index.html" target="_new">HIS Intro page</A> It is listed on new egg as "hightech" <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=14-161-109&depa=1" target="_new">here</A> The only place I have seen the regular version of the HIS excalibur 9800 pro is zipzoomfly and it has been listed as out of stock for some time now. <A HREF="http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=320913" target="_new">here</A>
In the Tom's article which gave it the editor's choice <A HREF="http://www6.tomshardware.com/firstlook/20031210/radeon_9800-01.html" target="_new">here</A>
the ice q platinum model performed a bit better than the reference model which is comperable in price. Seems like the best deal going to me.
They now make the fan fan controller bracket (hot air exhaust and fan high low controll) seperate to alleviate the problem of getting the switch to clear when installing in some case/mobo combinations. This now-solved problem was noted on the digit-life review <A HREF="http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/radeon/his-1.html" target="_new">here</A> . The ramsinks are also now different, better looking, and better. They are larger heatsinks which bridge two ram chips rather than single individual ones.
I also saw the excellent faq quide <A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=363095#363095" target="_new">here</A> and found that extremely helpful.



<A HREF="http://www.hisdigital.com/html/profile.htm" target="_new">HIS</A>

 

[fo3]

now that i look, then maybe i can afford 2x512 DDRAM, if i buy the HIS card instead of Sapphire..

but how important it is to buy a brand-name memory ? do the few extra bucks pay off ?

 

[Cybercraig]

but how important it is to buy a brand-name memory ? do the few extra bucks pay off ?
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Only if you overclock. If you don't overclock I would still go with Crucial, Mushkin Basic Green, Kingston Value, Corsair Value, whichever is cheaper. Stay away from no-name stuff in case you have a problem down the road. I e-mailed Kingston on a bad stick of PC3500, got a response the same day, RMA'd it the next day, and I should have a replacement this week. No fuss, no muss, even on a used stick! There is no substitute for good service!

"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. Now, let's eat!

 

[fo3]

there's a point.. those few bucks wont cover the trouble, that i might have later..
but i'll try to see.. i think i will possibly get a 3 year warranty on the entire pc from the store.. no fuss, no muss.. they'll even come down to my house in the first year..

going shopping tomorrow, thanks everybody