MoBo for P4 with Intel Chipset: Any suggestions?

TopMob · Post by **TopMob** » Sun Jul 10, 2005 4:05 am

hi folks,

i'm finally in the (forced) position to upgrade my pc-system because my antique asus cusl2 gave up on me.

i think i'll definately want to stick to intel cpu's (p4) including an intel-chipset. however, concerning mobos, things have become quite complicated lately. i'm planning on actually just getting a new mobo, cpu and ram, thus the new mobo (still) needs to have:

- 1x agp (for a matrox g550)
- 2-3x standard pci-slots
- primary and secondary udma 133 ide-ports
- on-board LAN (however 100MBit enough!)
- firewire, usb2
- if possible, NO on-board sound

i'd be happy if someone could make suggestions based on good experiences with them, in combination with a luna2.

as a student i'd readily accept more economical solutions, i.e. i just need a stable, workable system, not the most expensive mobo boasting loads of new interfaces i won't be using at all.

many thanks in advance for your contributions.
cheers,
TopMob

jea · Post by **jea** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 10:49 pm

Hi,

the Intel D875PBZ is very stable and comes without sound.

It is also cheap now.

Post by **garyb** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 12:30 pm

the d865perl is getting hard to find(it still works REALLY well). the intel d875pbz is a good choice.

i've been using Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2 ram (2 512mb sticks), about $125. very fast, reasonably cheap and stable.

with those two motherboards, it's best to find a northwood cpu(512k cache). you should be able to find a reasonably priced northwood cpu up to 3.4mhz still, but if not, a prescott(1m cache) is fine but make sure that the motherboard you get is prescott ready. the earlier revs were not, although i suspect that with the latest bios they would run just fine anyway...

[ This Message was edited by: garyb on 2005-07-17 13:40 ]

[ This Message was edited by: garyb on 2005-07-17 21:25 ]

jea · Post by **jea** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 2:27 pm

eeeh,

512mb cache? I wants some too!

lol,

THAT would have been way cool.

jea · Post by **jea** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 2:27 pm

eeeh,

512mb cache? I wants some too!

lol,

THAT would have been way cool.

Post by **garyb** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 8:25 pm

yeah, sorry.
it's fixed.

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Sat Jul 30, 2005 8:28 am

Fellow Pulsarians,
The Intel chipsets 875,and 865 are particularly stable. To me this is the crux of my design. Live performance w/o
pre recorded, or sequenced tracks, requires stability as opposed to maximum bandwidth, etc. A well designed Mobo is important.
Take a look at the well designed Supermicro P4SCT+II. 4-Phase,no frills,vertically alligned dimm's for optimum case fan placement, no shitty onboard audio,all audio routed to PCI-X buss, leaving Creamware all by itself on the PCI buss. PCI-e is not as mature as PCI-X, and PCI. I'd hate to always be waiting for bug fixes, and updates. I can say that my choice of integration and platforms was based
on maturity, and stability.GS3 Orch. w/ Scope Pro. couldn't be happier.

dawman · Post by **dawman** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 5:51 pm

make sure when you buy the d875pbz, to ask if the board has been tested. 2 out of 3 d875pbzs' I purchased had to be sent back for various bull puckey,i.e., disconnected jumpers to BIOS, etc. This is one excellant mobo for Scope, but watch out for the cheap guys on pricewatch.com. If you plan on using giga,check out the P4SCT+II, you have PCI-X slots that take all audio from SATA HDD's. Leaves Scope all by itself on the PCI buss.

TopMob · Post by **TopMob** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 4:12 am

hi guys,

first of all, thanks for all the advice. as life has it, i still haven't done the upgrade just yet! ...

garyb wrote:
the d865perl is getting hard to find(it still works REALLY well).

i'd be willing to purchase intel d865perl as the most economic board from all your suggestions. however, i think (from all the specs i've read) that it does NOT include a built-in lan-interface. is this true?? i'd rather prefer having one on-board rather than having an additional pci-card.

once that question is out of the world, i'll slowly start upgrading ...

cheers,
topmob

wayne · Post by **wayne** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 6:36 am

Just built a smooth machine using Asus P5AD2-E Deluxe, good onboard lan, loves Scope....

- the Premium version (as recommended by AndreD, of Creamware) includes wifi.

Here's my specs - plenty of overhead, so far

Asus P5AD2-E Deluxe motherboard
Intel P4 640 3.2Ghz processor
Corsair Twin2X1024-5400C4 memory
WD Caviar SATA drives, 80 & 200 Gb
Radeon X-300 Pci-X graphics
LG Super Multi DVD drive
Benq FP91G 19" LCD screen
Antec 1650B case
Cheap mouse & keys
Scope Pro & A16
Win XP Pro

phatbob · Post by **phatbob** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 2:22 am

Just build a a very stable PC with CW

Asus P5LD2
P4 3Ghx
Samsung RAm
GX 6600 0db

Perfect for SX3 and Scope pro

cortone · Post by **cortone** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:48 pm

I'm about to build a new box for my Scope, which I run from a Magma PCI chassis (I can easily move the Scope between a laptop and the desktop for different situations).

I have an older P4 2.4GHz northwood processor. Each of the boards listed on this thread are candidates, but I am leaning towards the SuperMicro P4SCT+II that Scope4Live is using. My primary reason is that I use a PCIe SCSI card to drive an external SCSI tower, and I am concerned that this would be a drain on the PCI bus on most of the boards listed here (I've had my share if intermittent PCI overflows). I really like the idea that my SCSI drives can be on a separate bus, and the Scope card can be all alone on the PCI bus (besides the PCMCIA adapter it plugs into).

My negative concern is the cost, these boards are 2.5x more expensive than some of the other highly recommended boards.

Will I truly gain in stability as a result of separating the PCI and PCIe busses. Or can I save some dollars to be applied elsewhere in the chain?

Thanks,
Cory

Post by **garyb** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 10:26 pm

if you're married to the scsi tower the supermicro is probably a good choice. in any event, you don't want your card to share the pci bus. i'd say you can do more with the scope card and an ide drive than no scope card and the scsi tower...

the scsi tower would definitely be better on it's own pipeline.

if you used sata and a new 775 p4, the asus p5wd2 premium is reasonably priced, very high quality and similar to the supermicro in features. the advantage there would be that the sata bus is even further from the pci bus.....

i think the supermicro might be more cost efficient, still...

the d865perl with lan is d865perll...

[ This Message was edited by: garyb on 2006-01-04 22:28 ]

cortone · Post by **cortone** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:02 am

Thanks garyb. You're hardware expertise is highly appreciated!

I'm not exactly married to the tower, unless it's a common-law thing (it sank it's claws into me years ago). I started when scsi was the only viable option. Are you recommending the d865perll as an optimal choice, or is that still with the sata drives in mind?

Is the onboard graphics a problem with the Asus board, or would I need a PCIe vid card?

At this point, I think the SuperMicro board gets me there with the lowest cash lay out, since I have most of the pieces already.

Cheers,
Cory

synthetic · Post by **synthetic** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 1:52 am

I'm looking for a new motherboard, ASUS P4P800, P4P800 Deluxe or something...
Anyone who uses such models. It's HARD TO FIND motherboards that 2 Pulsar-2 Cards will fit.
Any suggestions?

Post by **garyb** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 1:53 am

http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... orum=19&16

some talk about this....

Drowningman · Post by **Drowningman** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 7:20 am

What about this one?

http://www.hackerscomputer.com/dettaglio_009.094

Asus P5P800, Intel i865PE chipset, 5 PCI slots, 8x Agp, S-Ata, Ultra DMA and GigaLan... it seems perfect and it's very cheap too at the moment (got mine for 88 euros)...

I've bought it and I'm building up my 2 CW cards system right now with a P4 3Ghz processor and my old AGP graphic card...

I'll let you know my impressions but I'm pretty sure it'll do the job...

[ This Message was edited by: Drowningman on 2006-01-21 07:22 ]

Drowningman · Post by **Drowningman** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 8:21 am

I'll do that for sure stardust...

For example I think that the onboard audio card will be never turned on...

For me it was the perfect solution: I can use my old AGP graphic card and my old hard drives and I'm ready for the new S-ATA technology if I'll need it... I've bought Mobo + P4 3Ghz and 1GB Ram for 325 euros and got a heavy upgrade at my old PIII system at a really good price...

I'm really happy

[ This Message was edited by: drowningman on 2006-01-21 16:52 ]

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 9:25 pm

I just bought a P5P and it works perfectly.