Would it really be necessary...

[Ladogaboy]

to get a high-end P4 motherboard if all I am intending on doing with it is upping the fsb to 133?

My main concern is system stability, and I would like to have good performance in real life settings, not benchmarks. Basically what I'm saying is: I don't care if the board performs well on paper so long as I get similar performance in real life. I was originally thinking of getting an Abit IT7, but now I'm thinking, are there boards that will give me similar performance and stability at a lower price?

[sbp]

Same thing here chosenfool, I don't need all these extra's. Just give me a good motherboard that offers o/c tweaking.


Would it really be necessary to get a high-end P4 motherboard if all I am intending on doing with it is upping the fsb to 133?The answer is no, it would not be necessary. I have an Asus P4B266-C mobo which uses Intel's older 845D chipset. Nice and stable.

P4 chipset comparison: http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1723&p=2

Why not get Albatron's PX845PEV Pro from mwave.com (http://direct.mwave.com/mwave/ProdMB-ALBATRON.hmx?). Its cheap, has gotten good reviews and uses Intels latest P4 chipset {845PE). And you can stick a P4 3.06GHz cpu in there one day.

[Ladogaboy]

Well, I do use a lot of the features. The one that I will never use again, unless I am building a computer for my mother, is on-board video. I also wouldn't see myself using RAID in the near future, and even then, I'd prefer having an actual controller card. Other than that, I am fine with on-board sound, network, etc., because I will use them.

Actually, the Fry's deals have been very nice recently, but I keep balking at the types of motherboards in the bundle. :dodgy: