Can Somebody Recommend a Good P4 Motherboard For Under £100 ($185)

[Jimborae]

I've got to build a P4 box for somebody & dont really know whats good in the intel world so can somebody reccomend a good P4 board for under £100 ($185) please. He wont be overclocking although I may give it a mild o/c and it'll mainly be used for gaming and general pc usage.

Cheers

Jim

P.s. I prefer Abit but I wont exclude other brands.

[Thrax]

You should be able to fit the IC7-G in on that budget. Abit.

[Geeky1]

No chance of going with AMD, huh?

If he's not overclocking, I'd get a P4C-800. I don't know how well they OC, but ASUS boards are still my preference for most people, along with MSI.

[Jimborae]

Hi Thrax, Unfortunately the IC-7 G is just outside the price bracket at £113 ($203) but I may just be able to persaude him. (is it worth the extra as I was looking at the vanilla IC-7)

Geeky, no chance I'm afraid he's convinced that more mhz = more performance and I cant tell him otherwise. Plus intel is all he's ever known.

[ryko]

i like my abit ai7 (around $110 US) which will leave you some extra cash for some good ram or whatever...

[TheBaron]

if its going to be used for gaming and you're NOT oc'ing, then i dont see whats wrong with the IS7 as opposed to the IC7. he'd be saving a bunch of money. the AI7 is very similar, actually i dont know what the difference is

[NeoFX]

For non overclockers I would recommend the ASUS P4C800E Deluxe... Good stable boards.

[Straight_Man]

What CPU are you going with??? Do you need Prescott capability, or will a very fast Northwood do since games are mostly not 64 bit at all yet???

You can trade some here, use a fast Northwood for less than a Prescott CPU, if he does not want over 3.06 GHz real speed. Then budget a better board, like the Abit IC7-Max3 (stepdown would be a -Max2 or -G, but there you will be limited to a Northwood-- period).

I know some people who are happy with the P4C800 also, but the Abit IMHO is better at least for the Max subseries of the IC7. I prefer an Intel chipset, too many issues for the Vias with fast Intel chips, but the latest Via chipset for P4 is reasonable. MSI has decent boards, and the P4 bord I had before I got my Abit IC7-Max3 was flexible and fast and stable for its time and was a Soyo. Soyo boards with Intel chipsets are decent if money is an object.

John D.

[ryko]

The difference between the IS7 and the AI7 is the 'uguru' chip. It allows windows based overclocking and monitoring. Great for the newbie oc'er.

[RADA]

Agree with Geeky and others, I like ASUS / P4C800 Deluxe / P4C800-E Deluxe. My new rig uses a -E Deluxe, and I have to say it was the easiest, most effortless build I have ever done. I've had NO issues with this machine since I completed it. (Power up on 16 Jan 04) I've been using nothing but ASUS and MSI for the last 3 years. Both make outstanding equipment. Both are very stable, with easy to use overclocking features. IMHO ASUS has a leg up on MSI when it comes to RMAs & Customer Support. Had a bad experience w/ a MSI CSR, left me a little tight in the wallet when it comes to spending more $$$ with them.

Hope this helps!

RADA

[Jimborae]

Um it will actually be a Prescott 2.8ghz chip going in it whick I'll overclock slightly to probably 3ghz, if that helps.

[Straight_Man]

IC7-Max3 (this is what I run here, it is neat board for tuning things-- real neat).
P4C800-E

One of those two would be best.

John D.

[Jimborae]

John, the IC7 Max 3 is definitely out due to cost, around £140 here but i'll checkout the asus

Thanks guys

Jim

[TheBaron]

honestly i think thats a little extreme. for mild oc'ing and a budget board go for springdale - ai7 / is7 or p4p800

[Gareth]

How about one of these (Overclockers.co.uk)
Intel Desktop D865PERL Rock Lake 865P "Springdale" (Socket 478) Motherboard - Retail (MB-002-IN)
Intel’s Total Multimedia Desktop Platform: The Intel® Desktop Board D865PERL harnesses the advanced computing power of the latest Intel Pentium® 4 processors and Hyper-Threading Technology. Designed for the Intel® 865PE chipset, the Desktop Board D865PERL brings exciting new levels of performance and features to the desktop by combining support for an 800-MHz system bus with dual-channel DDR400 and native SATA150 featuring Intel® Raid Technology (optional). Because the Desktop Board D865PERL includes the latest technologies and high quality integrated components, system builders can realize significant cost savings without sacrificing performance. The features of this new board support an optimal user experience in a broad range of usage models for today’s computer enthusiasts.

- Hyper Path Technology
- Intel 865PE MCH / Intel ICH5R Chipset
- Front Side Bus 800 / 533 / 400 MHz
- 4 x 184-pin DIMM Sockets support max. 4GB PC3200/2700/2100 non-ECC DDR SDRAM
- Dual Channel Memory Architecture
- Expansion Slots 1 x AGP8X (1.5V only), 5 x PCI
- 2 x UltraDMA 100/66/33
- 2 x Serial ATA, RAID 0 (Microsoft WinXP only)


Full Specification

Price: £62.90 (£73.91 Including VAT at 17.5%)

[Jimborae]

Thanks for the reply Gareth but it does need some o/c features so I can make it a bit faster.

Looking at things I think an AI-7 or IS-7 is the way to go as Baron & others recommend. It has all the features required and at a reasonable price; the bloke i'm building it for wont notice the difference in speed and it'll still support a presecott cpu i think (can anyone confirm that please?)

Thanks all

Jim

[ryko]

I think the 865 boards are having trouble with the prescotts. There is a review of some boards over at HardOcp. If you want a prescottt you better go with a 875 board, they seem to be able to handle the voltages better. Here's the link to the article...

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTg3

The review includes ASUS boards and ABIT boards so it should be right up your alley.

Personally, i would stear away from the prescotts unless you are getting a higher clocked version (around 3.4ghz) because the lower clocked version perform about the same as their Northwood cousins, and the Northwoods are easier to overclock plus they don't run as hot.

[Jimborae]

Thanks ryko, good reading.

abit have confirmed on their site that their springdale boards do support the Presecott processor :) So I have now ordered the the IS-7 & the cpu and as I wont be overclockinguch, may be none at all after reading that article, I should be ok. :)

[ryko]

Yeah, the 865's support prescotts at default speeds, but they start having trouble when overclocked. Maybe a new BIOS will address the overclocking issue.

On a similar note, MSI just released a statement about why their new BIOS releases don't have any voltage tweaking options. It is basiclly b/c the prescott runs too hot and they don't want to have people burn out their new cpus. Another HardOcp article, but interesting none the less....

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NTg5

Enjoy, and i think the IS7 is a good choice!

[Omega65]

Epox Evangelist Here!

Even though I'm a diehard AMD user, I recommend the Epox 4PCA3+ i875P (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-123-205&depa=0) $125 here in the US

Also at Sub 4ghz speeds the Northwood Core "C" version is faster (in most cases) than the Prescott and it runs a LOT Cooler! (10-20% less power)

[muddocktor]

Jimbo, you won't be disappointed with the IS7, I don't think. I just got 1 from Newegg's refurbs for $50 and it's a sweet board. Too bad you are going with a Prescott though as they run way too hot and also stress the hell out of the power circuitry on the mobo too. You should have gone with a Northwood 2.6 or 2.8 because they will oveclock easily to the 3.1-3.3 range and don't put nearly the strain on the mobo or have cooling problems either. The 2.6 Northwood I have in the IS7 is presently at 3185 MHz and 1.6v vcore and is at 47-49 C while folding with 2 instances and using the stock cooler, no mods.

[Omega65]

There are already reports of Mobos running Prescott dying from the stress/heat of the P4"E" !!AVOID!!

[Jimborae]

Well I got it up and running & the temps aren't that bad. O'ced to 3.1Ggz & temps are only 45-47c. Still got some tinkering to do like stealth installing folding with two instances etc. But I'll carefully monitor load temps before handing it back to him :)

If I was doing this again I'd go northwood but to be honest, for him, I think this was the best set up.

Gotta say though very impressed with the case I've got for him. Its an antec 1080. Never used them before and its very good for the price. loads of cooling, nice touches ands looks smart.

[muddocktor]

Watch the temps on the power mosfets too, Jimbo. I've read that Prescott really stresses them and that the temps on them get way up there on them. You might even think about cutting down an old heatsink and fitting cut pieces of it on the mosfets. Just a thought to give the board some longivity with that Prescott.:)

[MJO]

There are already reports of Mobos running Prescott dying from the stress/heat of the P4"E" !!AVOID!!

Where, where?
I want to read about that.
On overclockers.com they said that their mobo standoffs melted because of the PresHot.
It was some plastic foam thingies they had put under the mobo for testing.