A Quick Question...

[Karizmatik]

Hey peep's, whassup ? Just wonderin' if any of u could answer a question I had about a Motherboard I'm lookin' into purchasin' for Christmas. It's @ this link (http://www.memoryshippers.com/shop/test3.asp?did=113&pid=1130). Now, what I'm wonderin' iz does this mean (Sorry, 1st. Home Built PC Experience) it already has Sound & a Video Card on it ? Like, it's ready to go out tha box...Sorry if this soundz kinda stupid. Thanx for any help, it's appreciated.

[cheapprick]

Long time since I saw you post.

Yeah it has onboard video and sound. You do have the option of turning off the onboard video and getting a seperate video card though. It does have a seperate AGP slot.

[ShareDamnYou]

I have built 2 comps by my self you haft to make shure:
1.that the prosser will go with the mother board
2. that the motherboard will go witht the powersupply
3. that hte motherboard will fit in the case

every time i have built one i jsut got a prosser motherboard case powersupply combo then sunk in a fat grapix card, modem, ram, harddrive cdrw and dvd in the thing.

Things to look out for:
make shure all youer IDE devices are set to somthing dfferent your drives should come with a littel booklet on how to arrage the dip switchs.

If you are building a comp then you probly need to go into the bios and configure some shit it should tell you how to get into the bios when you boot the thing (on my 2 it was hoding down the del key not the backspace the delete key)
also you are geting fucked on youer prices
go to :
www.pricewatch.com
HAVE PHUN!

[blady]

i strongly discourage ur deciding to get an all-in-one mobo.

in my experience, all-in-ones are cheaply manufactured. this means any part can fail, and on one of these boards, if one thing fails, the whole thing fails. SIS drivers are the worst, so if some game fails to play, you'll never get it to play. video on these boards usually never lives up to the claims- 3d doesnt work, the driver is wrong, and so on. the lan driver clashes with the sound driver and so on. i had one of these boards fail to install windows because the video wiring was messed up. that was almost ten install attempts before throwing the board back at the dealer.

and i cant recommend strongly enough an athlon/duron processor over a celeron.

if cost is a major problem, buy ECS and a duron with separate components (modem, video). lan and sound are on board, and those boards will outlast all the peripherals. if you win the lottery, then get a dual athlon TYAN mobo and fly in style.

[Karizmatik]

Well thanx 2 everyone that responded, I really appreciate it. With this bein' my 1st. time buildin' my own PC & not havin' won tha lottery just yet I wanna get sum Bang for my Buck, ya kno ? It's just so temptin' 2 get that Celeron cuz it's a 175 smackerz for a 2.0 & tha motherboard had all that "good shit" already on it. Well, guess that's why I asked in tha 1st. place eh..LoL .. Thanx again.


Cheapprick --- I come here everyday & read all tha post everyday but I only try & comment on tha stuff I kno about, nah mean ? LoL

[PatientSaint]

in my experience, all-in-ones are cheaply manufactured. this means any part can fail, and on one of these boards, if one thing fails, the whole thing fails. SIS drivers are the worst, so if some game fails to play, you'll never get it to play. video on these boards usually never lives up to the claims- 3d doesnt work, the driver is wrong, and so on. the lan driver clashes with the sound driver and so on. i had one of these boards fail to install windows because the video wiring was messed up. that was almost ten install attempts before throwing the board back at the dealer.

Yea i'll agree with this totally and more. Another problem with the all in one combo is it's really pretty hard to upgrade features like video card, sound card, etc etc. When i brought mine a year or two ago I wish i had known more about comps then. It's really been a hands on experince and i appluad you on finding out more before making an investment like a comp. good luck!

[Karizmatik]

Well, now I kno huh. Damn, I thought I found a good deal but after lookin' thru PriceWatch.Com they have even better dealz. Speakin' of which should I just buy tha processer & motherboard by it self or as a combo without tha onboard video & audio ? Thanx for all yer advise.

[Munchables]

Yeah I agree never get a graphix card with it you get fuked on the price and it will suck realy bad I have never but i know ppl that have (i am ShareDamnYou) ac97 is crap (it works and is cheep) make shure it dose not use that codec but you have plenty to chouse from.

get a
pc-kit so you don't have to deal with comptabilty issues it is you first comp after all.

[Sephiroth]

Computers arent just plug in play to build one i hope you know what your doing if you dont then your mistakes can get real expensive real quick..

newegg.com is the best site to order prices from because they are cheap and realible and yes they are on pricewatch..

Combos sucks.. They give you a crappy motherboard with a ok processor.

If your looking for motherboards then check out www.motherboards.org everything else www.tomshardware.com

[Munchables]

ummm no? A lot of the places on pricewatch give you an option on mother board you get. As far as prossers go WTF they are going to give you an all right prosser? You know exatily what prosser you get and how much you are paying. There are no grades of prossers.
oo do'nt get celleron they are slow.
BTW get ddr 2700 ram it is faster and not too much money you will feel the difference. If you go cheep and put pc 133 sd in there it will run dog slow.
(ps in every mother board I have gotten there is a specal place to put the ddr. Make shure the mother board can support ddr 2700 it is a sign of a good motherboard hmm will it will cost you $110 soo ummm well yeah I would do it i don't know how much money you have to spend.)

LOL I BROUGHT WWW.PRICEWATCH.COM TO ZP

ok you ppl will dissagree with me on this but that is becuase you don't know. Your computer wont run faster the more ram you put in. Well after a sertin point if you put 64meg in you will notice it will be slow but that is beucse you comp us relying on Virtural Memory(using disk space for ram). If you put a gig of ram in all you will notice is that boot time take a littel longer (becuase at boot you comp makes shrue that all your ram is ok)that is it. For 90% of all games all you realy need is 256meg mabe at a later point get like a 64 stick or anouter 256 (most moterboards come with 2 slots for ram or 2 for sd and 2 for ddr) but that is barebone I put 512 In mine because i am a high end user.

ps mine was almost plug and play it took me about 10 min to plug everything in 5 min to configure the bios and I can't rember how long the win install took (*flint* *flint* *suck* *exhall* *flint* *flint*) oo I just remberd if you dl a os online you probley can't boot form it so get like an old 95 or 98 and install it then update it. also if you buy a xp or 2000 update it will be cheeper but you need a win running on it to update it.

[blady]

Speakin' of which should I just buy tha processer & motherboard by it self or as a combo without tha onboard video & audio ?

i already offered my advice. i will break it down a little...

first step is to decide intel (pentium) or AMD (athlon/duron). nothing can jack up the price of a PC more than a processor, and pentiums are twice the price of AMDs but dont work as well. also, intel changes pinouts on its CPUs so if you go long enough, a new processor will not fit into an older socket so you have to chuck the board to upgrade. pentium processor fans are massive things that require a special case and power supply. on the other hand, athlons have no pinout changes across their socket A model line, and no special cooling is needed. a 300 watt power supply does the job.

second step is to decide class of mobo. TYAN and ASUS are the performance leaders, but ASUS boards fail all the time and TYAN boards burn their capacitors all the time. Gigabyte is a brand that is tough and quick, but frequent model upgrades are hard to track. crap like Biostar, Alton (PC-Chips). and FIC are at the bottom of the food chain. all of these have on-board sound which you have to disable and buy a real sound card. all have lans that are also no good. if you go with hard drives larger than 120gig, then you have to disable onboard IDE and put in an add-on controller. top boards will work well with all of these changes.
in mobos, you really get what you pay for!

third is to decide on class of input/output devices. here every penny pinched hurts your ability to use your PC. a small hard drive really really sucks (if you know what i mean) as does a bad sound card and bad video card. a junky network card forced to run at half duplex slows things down on your cable/dsl connection.

fourth is to decide on operating system and software. windows sucks but linux rocks.

fifth is to decide on peripherals. a sony monitor looks better than a "djakarta data systems" monitor. an IBM or logitech keyboard looks and works better than a "pyong yong" brand. and altec lansing speakers cost alot, but they are awesome as compared to labtecs.

lots of luck.

[Karizmatik]

I waz lookin' around @ cases & shit & waz wonderin' if it mattered if I got a 400w power supply or basically can u get to much power supply ?

[Karizmatik]

Oh, & thanx for tha above help. I'm tryin' to get all tha info I can so I don't fuck anything up..LoL

[Munchables]

I have experenced to little powersupply first had. I bought a fuking hp and it had a 80w powersupply and 80 for christ sake well it faild after a year right as I was going to sell it too pissed me off.

300 should be plenty if you have like 1 hd 2 cd. If you don't have enough draw on your powersupply then it will fail just like if you have too much draw. you can put a 400 and it will probaly be fine just like if you put a 300 you probly wont have problems with eather. powersupplys are cheep so do what ever.

amd is faster and cheepr than intel but I find that some emulators don't work with amd. so it is up to you.

you could go with a *nix but then you would have to get wine. Wine is not as good as runinng it in winblows you get more sys erros and it is a littel slower. I sugest a cracked xp I don't have problems with mine but if you are building a comp get eather corperate or pro buecse if you get home you comp will flip out. Xp dose not like upgradeing your comp it was made for people that like shity computers and never upgrade ( you will get this fucking blue screen saying that some hardwhere doen't work with your comp it is bull shit it means to say that you dident get pro so you can upgrade your comp). If your head is about to explode then get 2000. It is stable and realy eazy to install and if you are building a comp then you shouldent have any problems.

(like I sayed it is your firest comp I would not try and deal with making shrue that the prosser, motherboard, and powersupply all work to gather just find a kit with what you want and buy it then buy ram, a graphix card, hd, cdrw, dvd(personly I would get a 56x cd do you realy want to watch a 90min movie a littel screen? lol I have a 22in and I hate watching dvds on it beucase it is simply soo small. Also with a 56x damn cd load times are great)

[phalkon30]

wow, i hit this thread a little late....

i have built many computers from online stores (from parts only), i would suggest NOT buying an all in one combo for cpu and motherboard, one of my friends did a three mile island right through the bottom (ok, wasnt that bad, but the board did warp a bit, it happened 3 times in a row through tiger dirrect, they even installed the last one....)

anyway, i love ASUS motherboards, they are fast, customizeable and very affordable, i got mine for 70bux, its got built in lan, 4usb 2.0, built in modem, and a bunch of other awesome stuff, they usually throw in a roll of lifesavers and a firewire board to :)

as for the processor, DO NOT, i repeat, DO NOT get a celeron or duron, you WILL notice a difference, they are slow as hell (i have a 500Mhz celeron, and a 233 pentium with less ram, guess which one is faster.....pentium), you could spend the big bux for a new P4, but my AMD 1800+ will compete with my dads 2.24 P4, and frankly, after you hit about 1, 1,5, 2, or 2.5 ghz, you dont notice a difference, those are the most you would need

yes, there is such a thing as a cheap processor, trust me, i got screwed once, make sure you get a waranty more than 15days, and make sure it comes with good cooling, the default ones (if you look closely at the sites) say not for permanent use, and usually burn out VERY fast

power supply? on pricewatch, i went with the cheapest case i could find with a 400W supply, it sounds like an airplane taking off, but it works great, i dont have any complaints with it (only cost me 25bux with shipping, for a 400!), make sure you get an ATX case, this should garuntee your board will fit (if both meet the standard), and one other thing, if you go AMD, they take more power, so you will need at least 350, any less and they can overheat and burn out fast, and there is no max power supply you can get, but its worthless after about 400 (for the average user without a neon lighted case)

cd rom, the difference between a 48x and a 56x is minimal, but the price diff is big, just look for a good seek time (usually about 8ms), i got an LG dvd rom, and an LG cd burner combo, they're cheap if you get them with rebates at best buy, and they are fast as fuck

monitor, deffinately go at least 17", otherwise you will regret it, i have a 19" that i paid 150bux for, and its a flat screen

for new hardware, i would deffinately say XP pro or corporate, im using xp pro right now, its fast, and works great with my hardware, havent had a single driver error

hard drive, its the slowest point on your comp, so get a 7200RPM, 20gig minium, 40 should be fine

ram, go DDR2100, ive found its the best bang for your buck, go 256, then if you do a lot of multitasking later, get 512, you shouldnt need more than that

grafx card, go nvidia, the drivers are updated more frequently than ATI, and they are fast, the only prob is, they are slightly more pricey, worth it IMO

i dont think ac97 onboard 6channel sound is all that bad, i think it sounds awesome on my stereo (ive hit 1hz with it, and im sure i can max out the high to, never had any probs with 3d either), just keep on top of driver updates

building a comp is chalenging, and expensive if you dont know what you're doing, i would suggest toms hardware guide, its a great site, basicly gl with it, any questions, i would be happy to answer them, btw, my system cost about 400bux, i had a vid card, that it, and this thing is faster than any e-machine out there ;)

[CCSDUDE]

Originally posted by phalkon30
wow, i hit this thread a little late....

i have built many computers from online stores (from parts only), i would suggest NOT buying an all in one combo for cpu and motherboard, one of my friends did a three mile island right through the bottom (ok, wasnt that bad, but the board did warp a bit, it happened 3 times in a row through tiger dirrect, they even installed the last one....)

anyway, i love ASUS motherboards, they are fast, customizeable and very affordable, i got mine for 70bux, its got built in lan, 4usb 2.0, built in modem, and a bunch of other awesome stuff, they usually throw in a roll of lifesavers and a firewire board to :)

as for the processor, DO NOT, i repeat, DO NOT get a celeron or duron, you WILL notice a difference, they are slow as hell (i have a 500Mhz celeron, and a 233 pentium with less ram, guess which one is faster.....pentium), you could spend the big bux for a new P4, but my AMD 1800+ will compete with my dads 2.24 P4, and frankly, after you hit about 1, 1,5, 2, or 2.5 ghz, you dont notice a difference, those are the most you would need

yes, there is such a thing as a cheap processor, trust me, i got screwed once, make sure you get a waranty more than 15days, and make sure it comes with good cooling, the default ones (if you look closely at the sites) say not for permanent use, and usually burn out VERY fast

power supply? on pricewatch, i went with the cheapest case i could find with a 400W supply, it sounds like an airplane taking off, but it works great, i dont have any complaints with it (only cost me 25bux with shipping, for a 400!), make sure you get an ATX case, this should garuntee your board will fit (if both meet the standard), and one other thing, if you go AMD, they take more power, so you will need at least 350, any less and they can overheat and burn out fast, and there is no max power supply you can get, but its worthless after about 400 (for the average user without a neon lighted case)

cd rom, the difference between a 48x and a 56x is minimal, but the price diff is big, just look for a good seek time (usually about 8ms), i got an LG dvd rom, and an LG cd burner combo, they're cheap if you get them with rebates at best buy, and they are fast as fuck

monitor, deffinately go at least 17", otherwise you will regret it, i have a 19" that i paid 150bux for, and its a flat screen

for new hardware, i would deffinately say XP pro or corporate, im using xp pro right now, its fast, and works great with my hardware, havent had a single driver error

hard drive, its the slowest point on your comp, so get a 7200RPM, 20gig minium, 40 should be fine

ram, go DDR2100, ive found its the best bang for your buck, go 256, then if you do a lot of multitasking later, get 512, you shouldnt need more than that

grafx card, go nvidia, the drivers are updated more frequently than ATI, and they are fast, the only prob is, they are slightly more pricey, worth it IMO

i dont think ac97 onboard 6channel sound is all that bad, i think it sounds awesome on my stereo (ive hit 1hz with it, and im sure i can max out the high to, never had any probs with 3d either), just keep on top of driver updates

building a comp is chalenging, and expensive if you dont know what you're doing, i would suggest toms hardware guide, its a great site, basicly gl with it, any questions, i would be happy to answer them, btw, my system cost about 400bux, i had a vid card, that it, and this thing is faster than any e-machine out there ;)

Good post dude....Baldy too.....Munchwhatever the hell your name is....dude slow down and spell wooooords right....seriously it may not seem like much but proper spelling and all that do go along way. When you just ramble off your credibility drops like a fucking rock.

It's like "Am I gonna listen to the guy who makes sense and seems to know what he's talking about...or the guy who sounds like a psycho who can't spell...how the hell is he gonna know dick about PC's?!?!"


Anyway JLG: I wonder why your system was 400 bucks.....NO OS cost!!! No software cost.

As for my first home made PC....I blew 1,300 on it....and I don't regret it one bit. It still works for me! No crashes/no mobo failures/no hd's crashing. And it's still speedy as fuck. 800mhz EB P3 (like brand spankin new at the time).

Now I've moved on to Xeon....mild speed boost over a normal P3 but eh....

Anyway I'm so freakin tired/gone I'll add my 2 cents on what he should get later.


Tata

[phalkon30]

lmao, i just figured out who JLG is...........ME!

ive asked in several threads who that was, now i understand why it got ignored, makes a bunch of sense now, lol :)

[blady]

I cant say enough about cases and power supplies....

the case metal plays with the radio frequencies that come off of the mobo/cpu. a good case will absorb/deflect that RF so that surrounding electronics (radios/TVs) dont suffer from interference. a case also plays a critical role in cooling everything inside. buy a cheap case and overheat everything- the hard drive fails to read, the cpu slows down, and everything dies.

i saw power supplies cost as little as $5 each- they have no on/off switch but are labeled "300W". supplies with switches and fan screens can go way up in price, but these have built-in regulation boards, and can even adjust current flow based upon load. as far as how much you need, any gigahertz or above system has to have a minimum of 300 watts. the maximum is not an issue. pentium 4 supplies have to have extra cables coming out of the supply. putting in too low a supply will burn out both the mobo and the supply.

here cutting costs too much will give you an unstable system with a very short life.

[Munchables]

ccsdude bring it that is all I have to say you can't lay a finger on this.

Yeah my spelling sux. O well I have had a comp sence I was 2 weeks (given all I did was drool on it BUT I HAD ONE and at least one ever sence!)
yeah I agree go ATX. and the duron and cellon is common sence.

Tthere are no grades in prossers and if am wrong show me a where they are selling a low grade prosser, you wont find one.

umm I have not seen problems with the all in one mother board and prosser.
But:
Dosent come with a fan? Well you got fucked. (accubyte won't fuck you too bad or atleast like that. There stuff is good but I have had some problems with them. They dident send everything I orderd they dident charge me but it pissed me off.)
ooo no now you have to by a $1 fan big problem there given it is not like you have $1 laying around.

umm if you comp didnt come with usb 2 I would laugh beucase that would be realy realy sad.
What is this with a "fast mother board" umm lol the minum and most common is 32 bit with 128 bit ram and well no need to go on 90% of you won't get what I am saying fopr wone reason or anouther. I don't know how else the could be slow but what ever. Yeah if it dident have lan I would laugh too. Modem, well that is a greay area but it should come with one.
yeah 4 usb you feal specal? DON'T it is very common to have 2 usb in the frount and 2 in the back.

[phalkon30]

Originally posted by Munchables
ccsdude bring it that is all I have to say you can't lay a finger on this.

Yeah my spelling sux. O well I have had a comp sence I was 2 weeks (given all I did was drool on it BUT I HAD ONE and at least one ever sence!)
yeah I agree go ATX. and the duron and cellon is common sence.

Tthere are no grades in prossers and if am wrong show me a where they are selling a low grade prosser, you wont find one.

umm I have not seen problems with the all in one mother board and prosser.
But:
Dosent come with a fan? Well you got fucked. (accubyte won't fuck you too bad or atleast like that. There stuff is good but I have had some problems with them. They dident send everything I orderd they dident charge me but it pissed me off.)
ooo no now you have to by a $1 fan big problem there given it is not like you have $1 laying around.

umm if you comp didnt come with usb 2 I would laugh beucase that would be realy realy sad.
What is this with a "fast mother board" umm lol the minum and most common is 32 bit with 128 bit ram and well no need to go on 90% of you won't get what I am saying fopr wone reason or anouther. I don't know how else the could be slow but what ever. Yeah if it dident have lan I would laugh too. Modem, well that is a greay area but it should come with one.
yeah 4 usb you feal specal? DON'T it is very common to have 2 usb in the frount and 2 in the back.

I'm done argueing with you, for one, I have to reread every post you make to get all the info out of them

another thing, you have fuzzy math, a buck upgrade is still shit, the cheapest fan i could find for my processor was 12bux, still not much, but it needed to be mentioned, some people wouldnt know that the default fans are generally crap

and btw, just because a motherboard doesnt have a built in lan/modem/4 usb2.0 (and quite a few dont), doesnt mean its a crap board, some of the high quality boards dont include them so you can customize and get better components than what would come on the board, mine didnt have usb 2.0, or modem, or lan, but it was a last springmodel, i got a great deal on it, and works great

I have said all i can, so dont bother replying to what i said munchable, i really dont care anymore, and dont want to make this a fight

[jolton]

how bout rambus ram? when i built my comp that's what i used. supposed to be faster, supposed to be expensive but i don't know.
also an important thing to remember is that you can upgrade it when you want, meaning you don't have to get "everything right now" like the cd burner or dvd rom or whatever. just save up $ and when time comes get it. same with ram video card, whatever.
also get a good cool looking case that is built good and not crappy (recomend lian li)
two main components to a pc
processor
motherboard
don't cut corners on those.each one is what it is.just a matter of who has the best price.i got the intel d850emv2 and it's done me good so far with a p 2.0
in a year or two i'll spend whatever it is and get a 2.8 (as that is the highest my mobo will support)-which is something to consider especially -how capable is it of upgrades, and to what extent?
software however is free! thanks to the fine people of the file sharing community! Let's give ourselves a hand!
just my useless two cents....

[phalkon30]

actually jolten, you bring up a good point

rambus ram is faster...............in clock speed

RDRAM (rambus) is 64bit, 800-900mhz
DDR (double density) is 128bit, and is as high as 444mhz

they even out in the long run, most motherboards dont take full advantage of rambus speed either, and rambus is more expensive

i also saw in another thread, something about cheap cases emiting more frequency wash, IMO, total BS, i like my cheap case, no i didnt just go with the cheapest, but i didnt spend that much on it either, i did a little window shopping, and it isnt running hot, just loud at the moment.....

[Karizmatik]

Ok, I've been lookin' & lookin' & there iz just 2 much shit 2 choose from. I've been checkin' out tha Barebones kits on Pricewatch but can't really find tha motherboard I want. I'd like 2 have NO onboard video cuz u guyz dun scared me away from that & I wanna play a lotta gamez on it..LoL - I'd like a AGP x8 wit a AMD 1700+ on up. I'm tryin' 2 narrow it down a bit so I decided 2 go wit AMD XP, a 400w power supply wit DDR memory & wit tha motherboard I'd like it 2 be upgrade-able E.I. processor speed. Any Ideas, tha more specific (web site, name of tha board(s)etc...) tha better for me : ) I'd like 2 think u all for takin' tha time 2 help me out, u've been a GREAT deal of help & I want u 2 kno it's greatly appreciated :wings

[Karizmatik]

Ok, I think I've found tha board I want but I don't understand tha whole memory thing. It's @ this link (http://soyousa.com/products/proddesc.php?id=176). I mean, it uses DDR 333/266/400 then I see SDram @ tha end of sum of it WTF ? What memory should I buy for this board, DDR 333 or what. Thanx in advance.

[Munchables]

Well that board looks fine. I mean you have pritty standerd shit like a rj45 (standerd ethernet port looks like a big phone jack, networks are always fun and easy to set up) well it is not the best board but it should be fine

the ddr 400 is the mhz of the ram that it will allow on price watch it tells you what the hrz of the ram is when you click on teh type of ram you want. for instance a stick of 256mg pc2700 ddr ram is 333mgz which would work fine in your comp.

BTW all the P4 and the and AMD are 32 bit prossers so who cares if the ram is 64 bit or 128 bit you still have a 32bit bottleneck at the prosser.

[blady]

Any Ideas, tha more specific (web site, name of tha board(s)etc...)

if money is hard to get, then i suggest the ECS K7-S5A mobo with AMD 1700 on up. onboard sound and 10/100 ethernet, auto clocks the cpu, choice of ram, top electrical protection. plugs in and turn on, and on the market for more than a year and going strong!

that ECS model is sold at any computer show for about $55US. a 1700+ cpu is about $75US.

Gigabyte has a model that rocks at http://tw.giga-byte.com/products/7vaxpultra.htm and it costs around $100US.

as for ram, there is no way to explain it in a forum like this. run a google search (and google is by far NOT the best search engine). read how ram is labeled and learn what a front side bus is and why it is important.

[Karizmatik]

Kool, thanks 2 both of u for replyin' : ) Damn, never realized it would be this challengin' 2 make yer own PC. Glad u guyz are here 2 help, even tho it has nothin' 2 did wit P2P..LoL

[Munchables]

It wasent hard for me but i guess that is beucse i allready knew what everything was and what went with what so there where no road blocks.

[Karizmatik]

Let's say I decided 2 change my mind & get a Pentium 4 instead of a AMD. In yer peep's opinon what iz tha BEST all-around P4 motherboard out there right now ? Thanx.

[phalkon30]

Originally posted by Karizmatik
Let's say I decided 2 change my mind & get a Pentium 4 instead of a AMD. In yer peep's opinon what iz tha BEST all-around P4 motherboard out there right now ? Thanx.

well, I would try www.asus.com

I cant go there right now because my host file doesnt like the main entry to the site, but there are some VERY nice P4 boards there, take a look around, find the features you like

when you find a nice board, take the model # and go to www.pricewatch.com, you should find some good deals there, and it should give you a rough idea of how much the board costs

I trust the asus brand, never had a problem, and their tech support was very helpful, the boards are fast and virtually plug and play, there are no jumpers on most of the boards, and on mine i can display a custom logo when the computer starts up (as apposed to the default ASUS logo)

not sure why you want to pay twice as much for the same performance, but thats your choice :P

[Karizmatik]

I know what yer sayin' about payin' twice as much for tha same performance. It's just I can get a pretty good deal on a P4 2.4 533 FSB, wouldn't that be faster then anything AMD has out right now ?

[phalkon30]

Originally posted by Karizmatik
I know what yer sayin' about payin' twice as much for tha same performance. It's just I can get a pretty good deal on a P4 2.4 533 FSB, wouldn't that be faster then anything AMD has out right now ?

well, in some ways yes, in some no, currently the fastest FSB AMD has is 333, the pentium is 533, honestly, I havent noticed a difference in speed

now when you look at an AMD processor, say the Athalon XP 1800+, it is 1.53 ghz, but it performs the same as a 1.8ghz Pentium (in theory anyway, from personal experience, it seems to be true)

I just looked at pricewatch, for an equivalent AMD, you would pay about $20 less than the P4, thats changed quite a bit...for right now, you may be better off with a P4 2.4ghz, soon AMD will catch up and prices will come down some, but for the time being, P4 seems to have more bang for about the same buck

sorry about that, things were dramaticly different this summer, the P4 was much higher, damn, the more I look at the P4 you want, the better the deal looks, my vote is go with the P4, and 533 FSB