I'm planning on buying a new motherboard soon, and i have a few questions.

~ which manufacturer would you reccommend for a P4 1.5 ghz, I've heard that Intels are best but others say Asus...
~ should I get a regular 400 mhz FSB or a 533mhz?
~ DDR or RDRAM?
~ Are P4 Northwood mobos compatible with non northwood p4's?
~ Is there a performance difference between ribbion IDE cables and Round cables? or is it just cosmetic?

any help is appreciated as always

ASUS P4S533 Motherboard for Intel P4 478 DDR Retail, I like this one because it supports 533 FSB and 3 DDR slots for 116 dollars. Is this a good deal?

Most brands are good. Intel and Asus are both fine, just don't plan on tweaking or overclocking the Intel board.

The P4-1.5 runs on a 400mhz FSB, so getting a board that supports 533mhz FSB won't help you unless you're looking for upgradability in the future.

A board that uses a 400FSB will only support RDRAM-800, not the newer RDRAM-1066. RDRAM is generally more expensive, but faster in most cases. Take your pick.

Northwood mobos will support any P4 of the same or slower FSB speed (i.e. 533FSB boards support CPUs at 400FSB and 533FSB, and 400FSB boards only take 400FSB chips) as long as it's socket-478 (not the older P4 socket-423).

Rounded cables serve 2 purposes, appearance and improved system cooling. Your system will not be faster with rounded cables.

Hope that helps.

well, that was quick.

I was hoping to upgrade to a northwood later so thats why a lot of my questions focused on it and compatibility. I checked my motherboard specs and i do have a socket 478, so i can stay with my curent cpu for now.

The Asus board i plan on getting (like my VC31) has onboard audio, does using the onboard audio create lag or reduce performance in games? Because I have noticed that turning certian games sound quality to low helps speed, is this because of the onboard audio?

Asus is good, but I really like Gigabyte boards. Performance similiar to Asus, but without the price premium. Yes, onboard audio does use more system resources than a card. But if the Asus comes with the 5.1 audio chipset they're using these days, might as well leave it in. Reducing audio quality will increase speed with most soundcards - there's less information to process the lower quality you use. Actually if you want a nice cheap system you should get a board that uses DDR ram. In tests it beats RDRAM at 800MHz (not 1066 though). Most of the DDR boards are 533 FSB ones so you can upgrade later.

Just looking on Asus's website to give you a link, I see that they have a new board using a SIS chipset with AGP 8x, if you want that (it's a DDR/lan/audio/533 one)

Anyway here's an Asus that meets the specs I'm talking about
http://usa.asus.com/mb/socket478/p4b533-v/overview.htm

Here's two gigabytes:
Sort of a barebone board
http://www.giga-byte.com/products/8igx.htm
full featured one (845e instead of g)
http://www.giga-byte.com/products/8iexp.htm

Here's an article about P4 DDRs from tomshardware, which includes among others, boards from gigabyte and asus. I'll tell you the ending. They liked em both, the asus was slightly ahead in performance but the gigabyte was packed with features the asus wasn't.
http://www.tomshardware.com/mainboar...722/index.html


Good luck.

Many MB manufacturers make good P4 boards. If you are planning on overclocking, stay away from the Intel boards, since you will not be able to adjust the voltage or front side bus. Otherwise, the Intel boards are stable, and usually well featured. I personally have an ASUS P4B533 (based on Intel 845E), and am very happy with its performance. ASUS tends to cost a little more, and you can get better bang for your buck in terms of features from some of the other manufacturers. I have had good experiences with MSI, Gigabyte, and ABit.

Your other choice between DDR and RDRAM... You may have another choice in the next 6 months in the form of Dual channel DDR, which promises to have more bandwidth than RDRAM. If you are buying a new motherboard in the next week, however, then your choices are (a bit) simpler. RDRAM is your performance choice if you get PC1066 and run your fsb at 533. I believe the board for this would be one that uses the Intel 850E chipset. Intel is moving away from producing RDRAM boards, and I believe that they are pretty much going with DDR.

DDR seems to be more ubiquitous, and for your Willamette P4 1.5, should not lose out too much to RDRAM. Your chipset choices are Intel 845D, 845E, 845G. Non-Intel made 845G boards have "unofficial" support for DDR333 (aka PC 2700). Other differences between the different flavours of 845 Intel chipsets - E and G support the 533mhz Northwoods, the 845G has integrated graphics (which is probably faster than your current TNT2 M64 chip).

There is also Sis 645DX and 648 (The board you mention - the ASUS P4S533 is a 645DX board). From what I have read these boards have excellent performance when compared to the Intel boards. People seem to have good experience with these boards, but I can't speak from personal experience. Anyone else use this board ?

VIA makes a DDR P4 board, the P4X400, which looks pretty promising. I haven't seen any boards made from this chipset in my neck of the woods. Probably has something to do with the Intel vs VIA lawsuit... Too bad, since it supports AGP 8x, DDR333 and 533 fsb.

I think the performance hit you mention is because the AC97 codec used for onborad sound utilizes a few CPU clock cycles. Ever wonder why they turn off sound when they benchmark? Even using a dedicated soundcard will sap a few clock cycles, and reduce performance somewhat.

So, for my $0.02 worth - Get a MB which supports 533 FSB, since it seems that this is where Intel is going with their CPUs. I would go for a DDR board, which makes your options 845E or G, or Sis 645/648. You may consider the 845G based boards since your performance in games will be improved by the onboard video compared to your current video card, and you can put in a new AGP card if you want in the future. DDR and non Intel if you are planning to overclock - that doesn't mean a non-Intel chipset, just not a motherboard made by Intel. I'm happily overclocking my 1.6 Northwood to 2.5ghz on an 845E board. Wish I had rounded IDE cables though - it would improve airflow in my case and maybe, just maybe allow me to hit 166 fsb (2.67 ghz)... Plus they look nice - don't really need them if you're not planning to overclock though.

Whew

I'm planing on buying a GeForce 4 ti4200 which by my calculations could in effect, make onboard video my bitch.

I dont have enough money to buy the mobo now, but i always do research in advance so i dont buy an expensive pos...

If the system specs in your sig are to be believed, you probably need that 4200 more than a new motherboard. A TNT2? Most people have better cards lying around. My GeForce 2 GTS is right next to my old stick of 256MB PC133 and they're both in my old printer's printing bay.

<hangs head in shame>

I'm actually getting the GeForce 4 at the end of the month so I may replace my pathetic excuse of a video card.

Whenever I get another job I'll get the mobo

P.S. I could use that stick of pc133... why do you think i need a new mobo

Definitely upgrade the video card first.

Then you'll have some more time to see if this dual channel DDR business is going to be coming out sooner rather than later.

No need to hang your head, man. I had a TNT2 (Ultra) until 6 weeks ago. Played Stracraft perfectly!

Now I have a GF4 Ti4400. It also plays Starcraft perfectly!

Cheers

hehe you make me laugh. I was planning on getting a new computer too this summer. Turned 16 in june and I got myself 2 jobs - fixing computers at my high school and cashiering at the grocery store across the street, working 14 hour days many times. But apparently I blew it all on food. Because I only have ~$1500. And since my whole life I've had half assed systems, I decided I was gonna go class act this time with the very best (well, maybe not fastest P4 with rambus, but best that I wanted) Guess I'll have to live with my P3 866 for a while longer, although I did buy it some cool stuff though, A GeForce 3 Ti500, a 48x Lite-On, an Asus 16x DVD and a nice Princeton Graphics systems monitor