How to buy a intel chipset based motherboard for p4/celeron

[ric449]

First of all, this applies to anybody building a computer or buying one pre-made. The motherboard is the most important part of the computer system, it decides what processors you can use, what memory, what devices, and how many. You don't want to buy a computer or motherboard and find out that you got one that can't be upgraded in the future.

For a start, you need to know what kind of processor you want. This is because there is 2 different pin counts, 423 and 478, and there is different front side bus speeds, 400mhz, 533mhz and 800mhz. The pin count decision will be easy because I haven't seen any pentium 4 cpu's with 423 pins for a while, and intel abandoned it as soon as the northwood core was made.

The second is about the front side bus. The processors are labeled A, B, and C. A is 400mhz, B is 533mhz, and C is 800mhz. When you decide this, you can decide what chipset you want on your motherboard. Right now there are 3 main chipsets by intel for an fsb UP TO 800MHZ. This means you could put any socket 478 intel pentium 4/celeron processor in there as long as it has a 400mhz/533mhz/800mhz front side bus. There are also other chipsets that can support fsb speeds of up to 533mhz, but the boards that can go up to the 800mhz offer the most upgradeability.

The third is what amount of money you have, or what the computer will be used for. You can choose between Pentium 4's and Celerons. Celeron processors are just pentium 4's that have half the cache disabled, But this makes a massive performance gap between the pentiums and celerons. If you are on a budget then I recommend going for an AMD system, because this comparison shows the celerons being slaughtered in performance compared to the durons- http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1927. But you will have a hard time finding a amd duron because they have been discontinued, But a cheap athlon xp would still perform better. But that doesn't mean the celeron is without use, if you want to get a pentium 4 but can't afford it then you can get a celeron and upgrade to the pentium 4 when you have saved the money, just like i'm doing. These are the chipsets that intel currently make for the pentium 4/celeron:

865p- This chipset supports fsb speeds of up to 533mhz, and can support dual channel ram. The maximum speed memory it can accept is 333mhz/pc 2700. Not as upgradeable as the 865pe/g/875p.

865pe- Just like intels best chipset, the 875p, except PAT is disabled. (Description of PAT: http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/pat.htm ) Supports fsb speeds of up to 800mhz, and can support the new prescott core processors when they arrive. Also supports dual channel ram. The maximum speed memory this can support is 400mhz. Recommended for near 875p performance.

865g- Good choice for budget computers because of the integrated graphics. The same as the 865pe, except this has the integrated graphics. Also the graphics are upgradeable by the agp8x port, so if you do buy a motherboard based on this chipset the graphics may still be upgraded by disabling the graphics in the bios when you get a graphics card.

875p- Intels best chipset to date. Same features as the 865pe except PAT is enabled, Although the PAT doesn't make too much of a difference- http://www.anandtech.com/chipsets/sh...tml?i=1823&p=1 Recommended if you want maximum performance and have deep pockets.

Checklist for features you should look for:

Make sure you have at least 3 memory slots, I find that 2 is not enough, unless the system doesn't need much memory if it is not for hardcore gaming.

Look for a board that has a ata/133 connector for your drives. It's not as fast as sata/150, but it's the fastest parallel ata speed available.

If you're not interested in the sound quality too much, check if there is integrated sound on the motherboard. I think it's ok for some gaming and anything else, but if you want to play a lot of games or want the best sound available, get a seperate sound card.

Make sure there is a 8x agp port for a graphics card. The most powerful cards won't perform as well in a 4x or 2x agp port as they would in a 8x port.

Make sure there is enough pci slots for your needs. You don't want to run out.

Hope this helps, Ric

P.s this is my first ever attempt at a guide, so tell me if I messed anything up.

[Blakhart]

Good post.

[Panama Red]

Nice job, Ric. Informative and concise, even with the addition of your personal opinions.

[Craig100]

yea, very well done

[Undead_Rider]

very percise and to the point very good

[largosama]

Now we need one for AMD, especially with the 64's coming out...they confuse alot of people.

[Undead_Rider]

Bump^^^^

[ric449]

Thanks, I made this so not as many people would be asking what motherboard they should buy as much, hopefully this will help.

[largosama]

when will the mods sticky this?

[ric449]

I asked hal if he could, but I don't know if he will yet.

[Floppyman]

Very nice! It would good if we could somehow put mine and yours together as some of the info overlaps. But perhaps it's better to keep them separate too, since mine is becoming outdated. How about unstickying mine then? Once again, very nicely done.

[Force Flow]

Very nice. I learned a few things from your post, ric449

[Spyda]

i thought all the 865s were 800Mhz FSB? is it sposed to be 845P?

[ric449]

Originally posted by Spyda i thought all the 865s were 800Mhz FSB? is it sposed to be 845P?

No, the 865p can only reach a 533mhz fsb without overclocking. It's only the 865pe,G and 875p that can do 800mhz up to now.

[Spyda]

righto

[Strider]

Very Nice Post, I have built 3 Intel Computers and this is the first time that I clearly understand the differences between the chipsets. Thanks for the Guid, I'm printing this one out.

[lil Jimmie]

Just like to add that the ASUS P4P800 with the 865PE chipset has the same feature as PAT. ASUS found a way to enable it on those boards but call it MAM or Memory Acceleration Mode.

Having used both chipsets there is hardly any difference in speed so for the budget user the 865PE is the best bang for the buck.

[ric449]

Yes, but there is no way I recommend it due to what intel say about that: http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/865PESit.htm

This is from that site:

Intel® has procured some of these 865PE chipset-based motherboard products that are claiming to enable Intel® PAT, and our initial observations indicate these platforms exhibit instability and in some cases actual failure.

This is because of the following:

This marginality can be attributed to the way in which the 865PE chipsets are being "tricked" into a non-specified and non-validated operating mode. In the cases that Intel has observed, certain internal data paths and signals are being run at up to 50% above their specified operating range, which can lead to external interface marginality - this is commonly referred to as "over-clocking". To be clear, the performance increase achieved by these platforms is the result of over-clocking and other non-compliant usage, and users of these platforms are not receiving the benefits of 875P chipset-based platforms with Intel® PAT functionality.

So as you can see you get what you pay for. But like I said before, the performance increase is very slight with PAT.

[lil Jimmie]

Regaurdless of what Intel says the feature is there and in my case it's stable as a rock on my board.

[Spyda]

Abits PAT on 865PE is called GAT, or game acceleration technology.

and what intels statement means is "oi, you arent allowed to have that one a board that costs £80, we want you to pay £130 for it, so stop it now!" boo hoo

[bigandy]

Very good job ric. You impressed me, an AMD guy .

[Machine]

Excellent post, though I need some more help. This post may be a bit on the basic side. I just need some direction. So please be patient with me. Sorry!

I am looking to "make" a new machine to test run a new OS (new to me that is). Linux Mandrake. I have a brand new hard drive, power supply, video card, CD-r drive.

I need the following...
processor and motherboard (and RAM but I can worry about that later.)

What web site can I start looking at? Do they generally come together? How do I determine what the maximum processor speed is for a particular motherboard?

How is this motherboard "A7V333-X Motherboard (Athlon XP/Duron, Socket A, KT333, ATX, 3GB DDR, 333MHz FSB)"?

I don't want to spend too much money because it is just an experiment (plus it is my first time putting a computer together from scratch). Probably in the $50-100 area for the processor and motherboard. Is that insane?

Thanks!

-Machine

[ric449]

As long as the fsb speed of the processor is lower or the same as the fsb speed of the motherboard says it is, you will be fine. You can get processor and motherboard bundles, but there isn't many. $50-100 is really budget price for a motherboard and processor. You don't want to skimp on the most important parts of the system, especially the motherboard. You are also better asking other people about AMD, I only use Intel up to now.

[imbest123]

Originally posted by ric449 Celeron processors are just pentium 4's that have half the cache disabled

actually the cellies have a 128k cache size while the p4's have a 512k cache size so it only has a forth. really nice post though, it will come in helpful.

[ric449]

Originally posted by imbest123 actually the cellies have a 128k cache size while the p4's have a 512k cache size so it only has a forth. really nice post though, it will come in helpful.

Sorry, I was looking at the older pentium 4's. They only had 256k. But the newer ones have 512k.

[glc]

Machine: Please start a new thread, you are asking about AMD motherboards in an Intel thread.

[stacy532]

so is this mother board good for the buck?http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...8088&Sku=M450-

[stacy532]

also I have seen at fry's in dallas they had a motheboard combo of ECS and a celeron 2.4ghz for 69.99, but on their site it says 129.....$

[ric449]

Ok, I never heard of a mach speed motherboard, and I think you should steer away from ECS too. I looked at the specs and it only supports upto 100mbps on the IDE. Also you can only put in 2 sticks of memory. Try a motherboard from a more reputable manufacturer.

[stacy532]

ALBATRON? I have not seen a board that says supports 1200mhz of fsb even with overclocking?