Mobo Recommendations please?

[Statica]

Hi folks:

Was wondering if you could give me a couple of recommendations for a rather high-end system I was considering building.

These are some of the things I was looking for:
1) Not particular about CPU (p4 vs AMD).. its all the same for me, they both run fine
2) Need stability & performance, dont care about o/c-ing
3) PC2700 (DDR333) support
4) USB 2.0 support
5) IDE RAID onboard
6) IEEE-1394 headers
7) What would be nice is - support for SD (smart digital) Cards and/or SmartMedia slots, but I could supplement that with USB drives.

Its frustrating to see that laptops are more featured than mobos; that are slow to incorporate some of the new technologies (optional IEEE-1394).

I've been off the h/w beat for a while now, but how are the SiS chipset solutions for Intel and AMD? From what I could see from a perfunctory scan, they seem to be the most featured of them all; offerings from Intel seem rather vanilla.

Thanx a heap.

[Mr N8]

I can't really think of a board that matches all of those requirements. The Soyo SY-P4I-FireDragon is very nice, and has all of the features, but the board takes PC2100 DDR. The Soyo P4S Dragon Ultra 333 has all of the features except for the IEEE 1394. The Ultra is an excellent board in my experience. I have done 3 builds on them, and have had no complaints.

For AMD I would recommend the ASUS A7V, which has all of the features you are looking for. I haven't used it, but ASUS is still pumping out exceptional products. Also, the Epox 8K3A+, but that also is lacking the IEEE 1394, and has a VIA chipset.

As for SIS chipsets, they are actually really good. I've used them lately from MSI and ASUS (P4S533), and they have been solid!

HTH

[mikeheitz]

Well, I think the MSI KT3 Ultra has most of that. Not sure about the 1394 support or SD stuff. I have the less fancy KT3 (no RAID or USB2) and am VERY pleased with it.

[Furius92]

You could put an Audigy sound card in it which will have a Firewire port in it. As I understand, Firewire drives are "daisy chained" together, so you only need one port into the actual computer, right?

[Mr N8]

You could also get a pci firewire adapter card for that purpose. I think they will run you somwhere between $20 and $30.

[Vladiator16]

For an AMD I would recommend the Asus A7V333 w/ Raid that also includes PC2700 support, 1394 and USB 2.0 support

I don't believe there is an Intel board out there yet that supports PC2700 and has Raid. The SIS645DX chipsets support PC2700 but I have yet to see one that has USB2.0 support or Raid. Another Intel option is the 845G chipset that has PC2700 and USB2.0 support, but no raid as of yet. Take a look at the ASUS P4B533 which uses the 845G chipset or the Asus P4S533 that uses the SIS 645DX chipset.

Vlad

[HAL9000]

ASUS P4B533-E. It has USB 2.0 (6), RAID, and firewire. Not sure about the PC2700 off the top of my head. Onboard Intel 10/100 ethernet, 6 PCI slots and 6 channel audio as well.

[Furius92]

Well damn, Hal found the winner didn't he... almost. It does NOT officially support PC2700 DDR. Stupid Asus, otherwise it would be the dream Intel/Asus solution.

[HAL9000]

I had the chance to work with that board last week and all I can say is SWEET!

[juppy]

Just a quick question on something. I've seen the Asus A7V333 recommended a couple times above. When I was looking earlier for a board to meet all of his requirements I came across this one and thought about posting it but didn't for one reason. There were some complaints in the user reviews (at newegg I think) about how the BIOS only supports PC2700 for two of the three memory slots. If you add memory to the third slot, for some reason it reverts back to PC2100. It said that the BIOS had to be flashed to correct this. Anyone know if they got this fixed or if its still a problem? I have no experience with this mobo myself, its just what I read.

[HAL9000]

I find that's not all that uncommon. I run an AOpen AX45 and it's the same way. PC2700 only supports 2 out of 3 slots.

[Statica]

Hey all .. thanx a heap for the recommendations. I really appreciate your help.

Am actually leaning towards the Soyo solutions for a variety of reasons:
It is amazingly well featured solution; I'd used the Soyo earlier for cheap system, so this was an eye openner.
It comes with the add-on bay that gives 2-USB 2.0; as well as a combination smart flash/ smart media reader/writer http://www.soyousa.com/products/proddesc.php?id=114
not to mention close to everything I wanted but the firewire.

Here's what I have so far:
1) SY-P4S dragon Ultra OR SY-KT333 dragon ultra
2) Intel P4-2.5Ghz OR Athlon XP-2200
3) Crucial 256MB PC2700 (will wait till the end of the year for 512MB to get available so add more RAM, else I max out the ram)
4) VideoCard - ATI 8500DV
5) HDD - 2 x Maxtor 60GB/ATA133
6) SB Audigy .. hey do u think a soundcard is even necessary .. how good is the soundcard onboard? I see its a 6 channel.

How am I doing so far?

[juppy]

I don't know about the sound on that specific board but from what I've heard most of the onboard sound options are not that great. They are acceptable mostly if you are just using it for business apps or surfing, but if you plan on listening to mp3's, playing games or anything else that requires better sound, the onboard probably will not cut it. Generally they sound a little "tinny" and don't have much bass. Maybe this one is different though, don't know.

[Mr N8]

What will the sound be used for on this PC? The 2 I built that the customers used the sound for are happy with it. Its not super crisp, but it is better than the standard AC97 sound.

[Pluto101]

I would recommend the Gigabyte 7V-RXP for an AMD cpu. It has everything but firewire, but I'm using an Audigy sound card.

[Mr N8]

The sound on the P4S Ultra, now that I've thought about it, is pretty decent. It even has optical output that attach to a header on the board and are inserted in front of a pci slot. I wouldn't hesitate to use their onboard sound, unless you plan on doing a lot of gaming with it. It is good for mp3, but probably not for anything hi-def. Of the 3 boards I have used, all 3 have been solid. The only problem I've had in any of the systems was a hard drive failure, and that was due to IBM, not SOYO.

[Xayd]

OEM audigys are only ~60 dollars US, and are noticably better sounding than the original SBLives imho, plus you get your fireire port .

[Statica]

Thanx for the replies all .. & sorry for the delay in responding. I do know gaming, lotsa nerdish stuff .. but it would involve significant DVD watching and possibly even musicking (notice choice of video card). I guess I will look into the Audigy, as well.

Believe it or not, I am still looking rather favorably at a laptop as well.

Thanx again

[morriswindgate]

Statica, don't forget to look at the Soltek SL-DRV5, superboard and well built. For sound take a look at the Hercules Game Theater XP super sound with a very good breakout box.

[glc]

If you are trying to maximize your investment, I would go down just a bit on processor speed and find the "sweet spot" between MHz and $$$. You can upgrade the processor later when the prices drop considerably if you get a top end motherboard built for future expansion now. The sweetheart of the P4 world now is the 1.6a, it overclocks to 2128 (and higher if you wanna play) with the stock fan on a 533 bus board and it only costs around $135. You can get your 2.5+ GHz processor a year from now and it will prolly be around that price then. The 1.6 is a tad weak running stock but at 2.1+ it should be able to run anything you would want to throw at it and be very competitive with a high end AMD. Conversely, if you want to go AMD, consider an 1800 or 1900+ instead of going with the T-bred right now.

[Mr N8]

I agree with morris on the Game Theater XP. I got that card, becasue my on-board was rotten for DVDs. Sounded very jumpy. I love the GTXP. The breakout box is excellent. Also, I would recommend the p41.6a also. I was running one of them at 2.3ghz with the retail hsf. Temps were upper 30s to lower 40s (c)