A new twist to my mobo choice

ola

ola

Newbie
OK, here's the deal. I'm going to buy a computer through my company and this means that the prices are really low due to wierd tax deductions etc. I'm looking at paying 1/3 to 1/2 of the real price, spread out on three years of monthly payments, so the price is less of an issue this time.

As you might remember, I'm into a dual setup and I will get dual Cumines. I will get a FastTrack RAID controller so I don't need fancy IDE controllers on the board. The four extra drives means a lot of extra heat etc. so I'll skip overclocking. Dual PIII 700+MHz will have to do:) I will be running W2000 and wonder if I really need full ACPI compliance. I've read that W2000 "needs" ACPI compliant boards to run properly and that it's not only for power management.

I've been looking all over the net and cannot decide on which board to get. They all lack something (or have built in crap). Which is the best dual PIII BX-based board on the market? I've been eying the Asus P2B-D (only 4 PCI, what's the highest multiplier - 8.0X?, jumpers) and the Tyan Tiger 100 rev. F (no voltage tweak, not ACPI?). They're both pretty old but I cannot find any new BX-based dual saviours.

Help! Please point me to some good reviews or whatever. All reviews I can find are either biased towards overclocking or too vague.

/Ola
 
I wish there was a smiley that denoted "over my head" ...I thought you were the resident computer wiz anyway ola?
 
Perhaps :confused: is appropriate Coop:) That should of course be with a horisontal line above it as well as the ??? but I didn't know how to do that smiley. The :rolleyes: smiley could denote "over my head" as well if your imagination is good.

Anyway, I wouldn't consider myself a computer wiz. Sure, I know a fair share but I was hoping that someone who's working with handling hardware on a daily basis, and knows more about it than I do, could give me an update on the latest boards or perhaps some first-hand opinions. The problem is that the specs on the manufacturer's sites aren't always correct, and/or too vague and often tells you different things than some review so the only way to know is with some hands-on experience, which of course gets a bit expensive in the long run...
 
VIA, Intel?

One more thing, should VIA and Intel 8xx chipset based mobos still be avoided like the plague or are there any good ones out?
 
The problem with the BP6 is that it is an older board designed for running dual Celerons. I have no idea whether PIII CU's will work in it or not, have my doubts but who knows.

The P2BD is still available amazingly, but does it support PIII's, and what speeds? - no info on asus.com.tw - Lots of slot 1 PIII's available in most speeds - but other chipset boards.

I think your spinning the wheel going to any of the other chipsets (other than BX) at this point. But many have got things to work just fine on the VIA and Intel 8XX, just choose your hardware carefully?

Finding a good dual board, and one that is BX and relatively new is quite a task.

Not much help here..

Good luck!
 
i have nothing to really add but im really curious to see how this works out for you.. i was looking into the tyan tiger motherboard for running dual pIII's for my next set up... i know that supermicro makes good dual pentium boards , but i think they are pretty expensive...even though you just said price isnt much of an issue.. check out http://www.pricewatch.com for boards that already come with processors , then research the specs of those boards.. thats what i would do , although im not yet down with the chipset thingies..

the bp6 is a dual celeron board and wont run pIIIs.. that was ola's first choice until price beacame less of an issue.. :)

this is prolly just common sense , but take your time.. buy the processors last , this way maybe they'll be a few more price cuts and the 850's or 900's will be best bang for the buck.. as it stands i think the 800's are the best deal..

just my 40 ounces..

- eddie -
 
this is off the mobo choice but its one more fun thing to consider.. are you thinking about running dual monitors? im pretty sure the matrox g450 32 meg dual head agp video card was just released.. dual 19 inch monitors would kick ass!! im not sure how much it retails for , but i know the old g400 is flying around..it has primarily the same specs and ive seen it for as low as $120..

i just realized your in sweden so our prices are different.. that pretty much makes these last 2 posts worthless..

- eddie -
 
James HE - I've looked *a lot* on the BP6 an was this close to getting one (holding thumb and index finger really close together). However, as mentioned, the BP6 has hit it's limit as the new FC-PGA Celerons don't work in dual mode and there has not been any success stories with Cumines, regardless of the amount of soldering and pin snapping made. I keep looking at bp6.com for news but no luck yet. That means that dual 533MHz celerons is the limit. Not too bad but as I get my computer real cheap, I'm going for a real overkill. Also, the bp6 apperently has some problems with W2000 but I forgot what they were.

Emeric - The P2B-D manual says that the highest multiplier is 8.0X but I'll drop Asus a line to have it verified. Wait, I just remembered, Computernerd.com sells P2B-D with PIII 800MHz bundles so I guess I answered my own question. Dual PIII 800MHz should do for a while:) (For those who are interested, computernerd.com also has pretested P2B-D + 2x700@933MHz and fans for $1165.00.)

Eddie - Why would you want to run dual monitors? I find the stuff I can fit on one monitor confusing enough.

So all I have to decide now is wich I want more:

SoftMenu BIOS settings and 5 PCI slots
or
ACPI compliance

I've read some success stories with both boards runnig W2000 and PIII. I think it'll boil down to which board the store has. But what if they have both, AAARGHH! Leaning towards the P2B-D though.

Cheers

/Ola
 
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