Well im going to choose one of these but can i get some feedback on which one to pick. these r all in my price range (250 cdn) or if u know any other good motherboards around please tell

thx

btw if tha motherboard has 8x APG and my videocard is only 4x well that 8x make any difference?

ASUS P4B533 Intel 845E, USB 2.0, audio more info

ASUS P4B533-E Intel 845E more info

ASUS P4S533 SiS 645DX, DDR333, 533MHz FSB more info

ASUS P4S8X SiS 648, DDR333, Serial ATA, AGP 8X more info

Instead of the Asus, look for an Epox. You could check out the choices at www.mwave.com, a good place to purchase them, or newegg. Epox are extremely stable and reasonably priced. I have used Soyo, Abit, Asus and Epox. I prefer the Soyo and EPoX, but the Soyo Ultra's are significantly higher prices the the Soyo lite editions have been receiving some questionable reviews.

nope

tha stores in my area doesn't carry Epox

If you are in the US you can get the Epox from www.mwave.com or www.newegg.com or others but I recommend these two within a few days.

I thought the P4s8x supported DDR400? Both Asus and Sis say DDR333, but I could have sworn they used to say DDR400. And I'm pretty sure THG tested it at 400. Funny thing, I own this board and don't even know. But I'll be using 333 anyway

I'm very happy with my P4B 533.

AGP 8x is useful only if your card supports it (currently only the Ati Radeon 9700). I suppose that if you are planning to upgrade to an 8x card, and serial ATA drives, then the SiS 648 based board is the only one to support these.

I'm also in Canada, and have a harder time getting access to all of the mobo manufacturers. ABit, ASUS and MSI are easy to find for me. Haven't seen Soyo or Epox around here, and many US based online retailers (like Newegg) don't ship to Canada.

Good luck with your choice, and let us know how it works out for you.

Actually SiS had the first AGP 8x part (to go along with the chipset I guess), the Xabre 400 or something like that.

Oops, right. Plus today I am also doubly wrong, since nvidia released their GF 4 line with 8x support. Don't really know yet how much of a performance gain 8x AGP gives.

I FINALLY got my thermaltake Xaser II 6000a case today, after 2 weeks of waiting. It's really nice, and I can finally get to the building part of my new computer. I will get to update my sig weee. So many cables though...damn! nice to have a temperature probe in there, but the cable that brings firewire to the front of the case is pretty thick and also not too flexible. The P4s8x has so many USB 2.0 ports I won't even have any use for all of them. 4 on the back panel, and a connector that I will be using for the front of the case (thermaltake included a thin cable that goes into the extra USB header on the mobo, whereas the firewire thing comes out the back and you have to plug it into one of the firewire ports back there..which there are two of if I use the extra little slot thing...I'm getting a headache just thinking about it I wanted the cabling to look nice, since it has a huge window. Tie wraps to the rescue!...I hope.

And to anyone else who got the p4s8x-did you get the s/pdif connector? The manual says it should be supplied with the motherboard but it's not in there. I don't have anything to use it on (I don't think) but I'd like to have it if I ever need it.

I personally always use Asus. I used other boards in the past but Asus always seems to come out top or very near the top in comparative tests. If your going with DDR Ram I like the look of the new Sis 648 chip. Its the most up to date chip suporting all the latest features. VIA always seems to have compatibility issues. As for AGP8x no games will even come close to needing this amount of bandwidth. I don't think any really use AGP 4X to the max. I supose its good future proofing but by the time its needed newer beter chipsets will be out. There are a few good hardware sites that have looked into this, Tomshardware, Anandtech to name just two, there will be others if you look.

If your using a P4 then you need the bandwidth of DDR400 or higher when it comes out or your strangling the cpu. The cpu has to cycle because slower memory can't keep up with it. Thats why RDRAM is best for P4, more so now the faster 133FSB (quadpumped 533MHz FSB) are out. I'm looking around to upgrade but its a tough choice at the moment with Intel backtracking on RDRAM. The only new chipset they release, the 850E is only different from the 850 because it supports the faster FSB. It has no support for usb2 or serial hard drives or AGP8x or any new technology.

Sorry if this confuses the issue but the motherboard is the heart of the system and is one of the most important choices as it dictates the rest of the system. I know you can buy addon cards to give usb2 etc but they just take up pci slots so its better to buy a motherboard with the technology built in.

thx 4 all tha replyz so far

btw i got my friends ASUS P4S8X SiS 648 setting bside me right now. im thinking of getting ASUS P4S8X SiS 648 but i havent made up my mind yet. anyway tha reason my friends computer is sitting bside me is cuz something is wrong with it. ill post tha error messages 2morrow when i get time to hook up tha computer together and i hope u can help me out

thx

A lot of people that have been having problems with the P4S8X have returned it for the new Gigabyte board using the same chipset. If you are unsure, it may be best to go with that.

I was considering the P4S8X until I found out about the AOpen AX4R+ and Gigabyte SINXP1394. Now I can't make up my mind which of those to get.

AOpen have a reputation for reliability and stability and Gigabyte are good overclockers, not that I'm planning to overclock.

Midnight Hot, the Gigabyte8IHXP mobo has both the 850E chipset and USB2.0 support .

As for tha_gr81_'s question, I would advice you browsing through the Gigabyte mobo's too. They provide the same stability as ASUS, give more features for about the same price and are very stable overclockers too. (RDRAM running @ 1248Mhz, 624Mhz FSB)
I have two "similar" mobo's; ASUS P4T-533c and Gigabyte8IHXP, about the same price and the same chipset with the same memory, but the Gigabyte came in with RAID, USB2, Optical out and has more BIOS-settings for tweaking.
You are looking for a 845E chipset or Sis, while I'm using 850E, but it can give you an idea.. Just check it out