Hi there! Im planning to upgrade my 2yr old pc very soon and Im in the process of doing some research on the latest hardware. My current setup has an athlon 700MHz on an A7V asus mobo. I've not had a pretty good experience with this setup. It tends to lockup, crash or what have you at least once a day. Plus the fact that someone had lent me a P4 2GHz PC last year and it was the most stable PC ive used so far even in the hottest of weather. That's why right now Im leaning more on buying a P4, maybe 2Ghz, and a Soyu mobo which has had good reviews even if it might cost me a lot. But I'm also looking out on the new athlons if my budget would not be enough to buy the P4. So what motherboards can you recommend for the new athlons esp. the XP 3000+?
Hey, Funny but I have the same mobo but with an 800Mhz engine. I am in the same boat as far as sourcing a new system. I have decided to bite the bullet and upgrade the CPU for the time being. The reasoning behind this is to wait for mobo's with the "new" intel E7205 chipset to come down in price. This chipset looks to be the one that will be around for a while. Hell, if I had waited 1 month to purchase my A7V I'd have a A7V266M which can handle an XP 2.4 Ghz. So, if you can hold out for a month or so it will eb worth your while. If you decide to go AMD, which I wouldn't , I don't have any advice for you. You can also check out Tom's Hardware Guide for more info on this chipset. As always, a week after you get it something new is out. That is why I am waiting. I don't want to spend $250.00 for a mobo.
I still think Intel's Hyperthreading Technology is far ahead of AMD.
The A7N8X is a sweet mobo, as is almost anything by Asus. I would rather go for the P4G8X --> http://www.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/p4g8x/overview.htm If you look at FSB alone you are at 333Mhx with the AMD boards and a whompping 533 Mhz with boards using the E7205 chipset. About your mobo problems...it is probably the chipset. I would goto Asus and download the latest bios and chipset drivers. I would also get to AMD and download the latest AGP drivers for 3D Now Technology.
This is another reason I am going with a P4. The chipset is made by the company designing the cpu.
How bout the soyo mobos. I've read a couple of good reviews on them. Is there a new mobo coming from them, newer than the one featured on the how to build a workstation tutorial here in highend3d?
How about the 845PE chipset? How does it compare? The Soyo Sy-P4I i845PE P4 mobo uses it and I've read great reviews on it. I'm really intrigued with the soyo mobos since every review ive read about them are great. So anybody already had experience with soyo mobos? Please, any input!!!
This is a link to a test of 12 boards with your "Brookdale" (845PE) chipset.
I would read through them both. I personally like the idea of more speed with the "Granite Bay" Chipset. Both look really good though and are probably very safe bets.
About the mobo's specifically....it is all up to you. Sounds like you have already made up your mind of Soyo and are just looking for someone to reassure you about your choice. You are the only one who has to live with your decision.
I have never used a Soyo mobo but from what i have read and from what friends have said that have used them for themselves as well as clients, quality is very high and they seem to make a very solid product. I think more than anything you need to look at the chipsets themselves regardless of mobo maker. That is the most important aspect, and if you choose to go with a P4 then by all means go with an Intel chipset.
I recently put together a P4 system and have had problems with the mobo. I have a Shuttle AS45GT, based on the SIS 648 chipset. I read up on it and every site i checked gave it outstanding reviews. My experience from a mobo that worked for about 3 weeks then died and more recently the problems i have had with the replacement board have left me with less than impressed. I got it to work again, but it is now running at 200 mhz for the memory bus, even though i'm using ddr 266 and it should run at 266. I this point i am so frustrated by it i am saying f*ck it!
Next box i build will be a duel Hammer, duel Xeon, or duel Yahmill (if it comes out, LOL). But that is a few months down the road. Oh well...
I just built a 7205 granite bay system with a board from MSI. Very solid system; performs reasonably well; and the CPU has plenty of memory bandwidth to feed its hungry 533mhz FSB. you can pick up the MSI GNB-Max board for about 189 dollars now. which isn't too unreasonable considering the price of a decent GigE card these days is at about 100 bux.
Yeah from what i have read the granite bay boards are outstanding. I'm more inclinced to use the 7505 chipset for my next box, athough i'm not real keen on spending a bit over $400 for it. Just seems kinda pricey even though it too looks to be a fantasic board.
At this point i'm almost inclined to wait for the Prescott motherboards (won't it be a different chipset than 7205 cause of the 800mhz FSB?) or the Hammer if it ever ships. But then again i'm waiting to see if it is going to be a barn burner or more of a fizzle and a dud.
Intel plans to release the 865 and one other chipset for the 800mhz FSB chips. They all support dual channel DDR which is dandy. I think granite bay will find itself dead by the end of the year to be honest. At least on the 7205 p4's side. Neverthe less I know this board will be in systems I own for some time now.
) Well, anyway thanks guys.