Plz Help Choose Motherboard

hello guys, i am curretly making the following system:

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PART DESCRIPTION PRICE

CPU:- Pentium 4 2.4ghz (533mhz BUS) $249.00
MEMORY:- 512mb DDR (333mhz) $104.00
MOTHERBOARD:- ?
STORAGE:- Western Digital 120gb (2mb cache) $185.00
VIDEO:- Asus 128mb GeForce 4 TI 4200 (8x) $224.00
MONITER:- Samsung SyncMaster 171S 17" (LCD) $629.00
SOUND:- Creative Sound Blaster Live 5.1! $46.00
CD-RW:- Sony 52xW/24xRW/52xR $72.00
DVD-ROM:- Sony 16x $52.00
POWER SUPPLY:- Enlight 420W ATX (P4/AMD) $69.00
CASE:- VARRIED $60-100
SPEAKERS:- Logitech Z-560 THX certified (5piece
KEY/MOUSE:- VARRIED $30-100
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ANY suggestion for the motherboard ?
and should i get 400mhz ddr instead of 333?
is it true only 1 stick of 400mhz ram is supported per board ?

anywayz thanks guys, i appreciate it

just to point out...your sig is too long...a mod might have already informed you of this

and yes....i would be interested in knowing a good p4 motherboard as well

I like the P4PE (asus) motherboard.


Check around, I think your P2.4 cpu price is high. Mine was 189.99 with a motherboard included in this price.

Ram, go with the best timings available on Corsair XMS (Newegg has several different timings available for any one size or speed of this product). One stick is better than two smaller ones.

Ugh, I hate to give such a wishy-washy answer, but the best board depends on what you want from your system and the features you need.

If you're looking for a great overclocking board, I really like the Abit BH-7 and any of the Albatron 845PE boards. The board with the best stability and reliability is the Gigabyte GA-8PE800, and I'd pick the Ultra version of that board for the best feature set.

The GB boards are great overclockers. But if you're considering something in that range I'd wait to see how the Canterwood boards test with 533 procs, and probably wait to see what the 865PE/Springdale boards are like. If you are looking for a board that might survive a processor upgrade at the end of this year, these are your only choice.

I wouldn't use a Via chipset at gunpoint, and the SiS645 should only be considered for a system that will never, ever be overclocked. The 655 has gotten better reports, however.

You'll notice I didn't list any Asus boards. I like Asus, and since they fixed the problem with the P4PE I don't think you can go wrong with one. But they still cost more than competing boards and I no longer see an advantage in performance or reliability to justify the higher price.






BHD

About memory: If you're going to overclock you'll have better luck with one stick. The 845PE boards run at a default of DDR333, so if you want to crank that up to 400 (or higher) you'll be better off with a single stick of DDR400.

The exception are the Granite Bay boards. They overclock two sticks very well.




BHD

ok guys thanks alot.

Also is it possible to have 2 sticks of ddr 400 on one board ? or is it l;ess stable ?