Northwood 400mhzfsb mobo suggestions

Well, i think i'm gonna cave in and possibly upgrade my old asus p4b-lx that i got 2 years ago. It's an OEM board i believe and has 0 bios features to tinker with.

So, i have a 2.4 northwood processor (400mhz) and looking for suggestions on a decent motherboard. I've heard the IS7 or IC7 are nice, and the P4P800's are nice also.

I'm currently running 512 pc-133 ram, so that's in need of upgrading as well. I'm not looking for top of the line mobo. maybe onboard sound is about the only thing as i have a 9500 ATI coming tomorrow and my own NIC i use. I was thinking of going with some DDR 3200 ram, so a mobo that can support 400mhz fsb chips and 3200ddr is what i'm lookin for.

but, i'm open to suggestions. I'm sure the CPU won't overclock that well, and i'm not expecting it too.

EDIT - wanted to add, I like Asus boards the best. Been using them a while and lookin at the P4P800 alot. Is there any difference between the regular P4P800 and the P4P800-VM? other than having less PCI slots and stuff.

If you want to save some dollars, get a P4PE instead. This will run your 2.4/400 no problem, support DDR400, has onboard sound, and has plenty of o'c options. Depending on the core of your CPU, you may see an overclock in the 130fsb to 135fsb range. I had one that did 135fsb no problem, and I am currently running a 2.4/400 that will only do 110fsb when pushed, but it's running at spec in an OEM HP box.

If you want to go all-out, then consider the P4P800, I hear it's a nice board and a better deal than the P4C800.

Some of the Canterwood boards (e.g. IC7) don't support 400Mhz FSB processors, so if you're thinking of getting one of those check the specs first.

Since you're running a NW core proc, any C'wood or S'dale chipset board should handle the 400fsb. If it was a Willy core proc, then you would have problems.

Well Abit flat-out says the IC7 does not support 400Mhz FSB. Maybe that's not true for all Canterwood boards, but it's definitely something to check before buying.

You could try running it at 533Mhz QDR, some of the Northwood cores "A" chips are stunning overclockers. What's the code?

The Albatron PX845PEV Pro is a good board. I have one, that I never got a chip for....

check here

This will clarify 400fsb support for Abit 865/875 boards. To protect themselves, Abit makes the blanket statement "no 400fsb support" when in fact only Willy core procs are unsupported.

Thanks for the feedback. I think i may just go with an Asus board. Been using them for a while and always have good results with 'em.

As for the the code on the processor, i didn't write it down unfortunately when i installed it. Right now it has a swiftech MCX4000 cranked down on it and it's running real nice, so i'd rather not check, hehe.

It is a NW though. 512k L2 cache and says Northwood on the CPU-Z program. You believe it will run at 533fsb? i know it's hard to tell without checking the stepping and stuff, but it's possible i suppose.

Anyhow, thanks for the feedback. I was also wondering if anyone knew the difference between the P4P800 and P4P800-VM models. They seemed to be the same, only the -VM is a micro-ATX version. I'm assuming this is just for smaller cases and will work just fine in a normal ATX case? it's about 30 bucks cheaper and i don't need all the extra PCI slots or other features really, just a nice stable mobo that is capable of o'clocking a bit.

get a 845pe board. It will keep you safe until you deceide to upgrade to new intel chipset. I am using it7 and iwill p4ht. Good boards.

Newegg has some refurbished IS7s. And IC7s for the same price as a new motherboard, your choice.

I've heard the the -VM BIOS has no overclocking options. I'm not sure if it's true, but it's definitley something to look into.

P4C-800E Deluxe is a good board, but I really like the look of the new Abit IC7 MAX3 with OTES and stuff, wicked...check support though, an Asus P4P-800 is always a good choice too....