Find me a mobo

[camieabz]

I want a new mobo, but I can't find what I'm after.
I was going to go with an ASUS Cubx-e (BX, UDMA100, AGP 2x etc), but my budget has increased, so I want to look at what else I can get.
I fancy a Radeon 64Mb DDR, but I think it might be wasted on a BX board. Any comments welcome.

The system I want would be:

850MHz CPU minimum.
64Mb DDR Graphics
256-512Mb Memory (PC-133 or 2100)
2 UDMA100 HDs
1 CDRW
1 CD Rom

If possible I'd like to run both CD drives on master UDMA33 channels and the HDs as master on seperate UDMA100 channels, so I need lots of sockets.

PCI cards would be 1 modem & 1 Sound card.

I would prefr not to have on board sound, AMR, LAN, VGA, yawn...
Many thanks in advance

<b>
Heatsinks, fans & whisky...Everythings Cool!
</b>

 

[Joseph_Bolo]

You have a major project ahead you selecting all these components.

First, you need to decide what platform: Intel (P3 w/ SDRAM or P4 w/RDRAM) or AMD (Athlon w/ SDRAM or DDR)

Good luck
JB

 

[tartarhus]

DDR ram will not benefit a 850 MHZ intel cpu. Besides, if you are going to go with ?intel? at least get the benefit of a high performance intel chipset, like the 815. Ati cards are designed on them, not via. DDR right now will only benefit an AMD processor on an AMD chipset.

 

[stable]

Just out of curiosity, why two hard drives? With the price of a 45GB, 7200RPM drive so effective I just don't get it.

If you go with 1, you will still have a socket open for the DVD drive later on a standard I815E baord.

Think about a CUSL2 with 512MB of PC133 CAS2, a 933MHz PIII CPU, the CD-R/W as the master on IDE1, the CD-ROM as the slave on IDE0 and the Primary ATA-100 HD as the Master on IDE0.

This leaves you the IDE1 slave open for future expansion.

Steve Benoit


Stable Technologies
'The way IT should be!'

 

[camieabz]

I have a lot of options, one of which is a RAID 0 or RAID 0+1 setup.

With the CD-ROM as slave on IDE0, will it not slow down the UMDA100 HDD?

Is the 815 chipset reliable?

<b>
Heatsinks, fans & whisky...Everythings Cool!
</b>

 

[Crashman]

The best PIII motherboard is the Asus CUSL2. The 815E is reliable and a solid performer. If you want to overclock, the best processor to use is the 700E, which goes to 933 at a standard 133 bus setting (up from the 100 FSB stock). Most will also do 980 at 140MHz FSB. The 750E is not a viable option as most will not reach 133MHz FSB. The 650E is a good alternative if you want even higher bus speeds, it will go to 975 at 150MHz FSB.
If you want RAID, get a cheap RAID controller card for as little as $12 online.
If you prefer an older chipset, the Abit BX133-Raid is a good choice for the BX chipset.
If you would like the best VALUE, the Creative Blaster Board has built in SB Live sound, the BX chipset, and is available in a 9-bay case with the Platinum hardware, an FM tuner, and remote for $150 at tigerdirect.com. This option gives you jumpered bus settings, but voltage adjustments for overclocking must be made with an adjustable voltage slotket (FC-PGA to Slot One adapter card), or a modified standard slotket (I just made one).

Cast not thine pearls before the swine