What is the best motherboard for PIII or P4

[raylee011]

I am searching for a good motherboard for PIII or P4. I haven't decide which one to get yet. I want a motherboard that will give me the fixibility to upgrade, reliable, stable, and fast. Here are the motherboards that the stores are selling in my area. I only like Abit, Asus, and Intel. And I am planning to stay with these brand. So, can you tell me which one to get and what is the adventage and disadventage of it. What is the different for the socket 423 and 478. Thank you

ABIT
1. P4 RAID TH7 SOC-423
2. P4 TH7-2 SOC-478
3. BL7 P4 SD-RAM SOC-478
4. BW7 P4 SD-RAM SOC-423
5. SOCK-370 ST6

ASUS
1. P4 P4T SOC-423
2. P4 P4B SOC-478
3. SOCK-370 TUSL2-C
4. SOCK-370 TUSL2
5. P4B i845 SDRAM
6. P4T i850 Rimm Pent. 4
7. CUV4X-E Via
Intel
1. SOCK-370 815
2. SOCK-478 845

Or any other motherboard that you think is good. And what speed of CPU should I get.

 

[AMD_Man]

Don't go with a Pentium III because it has a limited upgrade path. I'd go with the TH7-II because it supports the new socket 478 which means you'll have an upgrade path to a future revision of the Pentium 4 codenamed Northwood. I prefer Abit over Asus because they usually give you more settings in the BIOS.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

 

[Stick_e_Mouse]

If your going PIII, then get the TUSL2-C.

See a real naked pic of Britney Spears <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/stick_e_mouse" target="_new">here</A>!!!

 

[Crashman]

There is no upgrade path beyond 1.2GHz with the PIII, but if you want to get something slower and upgrade to the 1.2GHz later, the TUSL2-C is the way to go. And for the P4, the TH7-II, Intel is cutting support for socket 423.

Back to you Tom...

 

[XGForce]

Yeah get a SOC-478 Intel Processor with the Abit-TH7II motherboard.
Since you wanted upgrade in the future this combo is nice.

I want peak performance from my P4 that is why im planning to ge that combo with 256MB PC800 RD RAM
Even though DDR is going to come out for P4 soon i still wouldn't get it since P4 works great with a RD RAM or am I very wrong?

GamerzCitadel.com

 

[Crashman]

DDR may still win over RDRAM for certain apps such as games which require access to a large number of small files, because of it's reduced latency. VIA's attempt has shown thus far in testing to be about 8% worse than RDRAM in performance, but this is their first attempt. Since it will likely require quite some time and the use of PC2700 to bring the performance up to where it should be, the TH7-II (RDRAM) looks like the best type of solution for at least the next several months.

Back to you Tom...

 

[peartree]

I'll just add a few words to what Crash had to say. I'm getting ready for a major upgrade, so I've been doing a lot of homework. As far as RAM goes, RDRAM is the current king. DDRAM has the potential to be as fast, but there aren't any mobos out there using dual-channel access to DDRAM. I've seen benchmarks of DDRAM vs. RDRAM and RDRAM comes out on top by a small margin.
Currently, there is no chipset supporting a P4 and DDRAM, although one is due out next spring. At least RAM prices are still dropping, so RDRAM gets a little bit cheaper as time goes on.