Good s775 Intel mobo?

OK, im building a comp for a friend and the budget is 600 bucks. I'm looking for a board that will overclock, but i need one that is also reasonably priced, is reliable, that (EDIT) preferibly has a PCI-E port, i dont need anything real special chipset wise (im going w/ a Prescott 505 i think (cause it overclocks beautifully), the kid just does basic things like internet surfing, AIM, etc, no 3d gaming and stuff. Anyway yeah, i'm looking for a cheap board but one w/ reasonable OC abilities, thanks guys.


BTW yeah, im an AMD person so im still learning all about Intel, and I am finding it alot of fun and very interesting!

Hands down, the best mobo if you are looking for cheap and an AGP slot would be Abit's AS8 plus a cheap LGA775 chip

Sentential said:

Hands down, the best mobo if you are looking for cheap and an AGP slot would be Abit's AS8 plus a cheap LGA775 chip

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Actually on second thought, i might want PCI-E since i think i might get an ATI x300 and they only come in PCI-E i think.

BTW sen, I remember seeing a thread today about that Pentium 4 505 Prescoot s775...and it you saying (not to mention the thread creator) saying that if u OC w/ that AS8 board, you almost must do a droop mod, and i definately dont wanna be doing any of that. but anyway, thanks for the mobo suggestion.

Well, with LGA775 and PCI-E vid card, you now have to choose if you want DDR or DDR2. The i915 mobos are the only choice if you want DDR, but they don't overclock very high because the PCI-E frequency lock don't work right. You really want a i925XE chipset for max O/C, like the Abit AA8XE (I have one). That means DDR2 RAM of course. Look at the Abit motherboard section, I have a sticky post about the AA8XE.

OK thanks batboy, I think ill first see how much DDR2 is compared to DDR, and if its too much I think ill just try to find a good AGP card to use w/ an AGP port instead.

Anyway, if I go AGP, do any of u guys know good boards for that? Thanks again guys.

I would go with pci-e. Card makers are phasing out agp, and if we ever wanted to upgrade, his options on a graphics card would be limited

my abit mobo has an agp port, no pci-e, didnt take into account pci-e at the time, and im kicking myself for it. All the cards I want are pci-e. So i had to get 9800pro, which isnt really the best anymore

OK, i have some really cheap $45 512mb DDR2 lined up for this now, PERFECT! OK so i just checked NE for the Abit AA8XE, but its 160 bucks! JEEZ! Seems like Abit is a quality Intel mobo supplier...will any of their cheaper mobo's for that socket which provide PCI-E and DDR2 be as good a buy? U guys know of anything a lil cheaper? Is it me or is that price worth it? Thing is im building a budget $600 system for a friend, im already REALLY excited, the Intel scene is very fun, and the system I have lined up so far is already pretty awesome! Thing is im just tryin to keep it cheap, and not use stuff that will be unnessesary really.

bump

i vote for the ABIT AA8 Duramax, it has DDR2 and PCI-E 16X

The cheap way is to do an AS8, use some nice PC3200 DDR (Samsung TCCD or TCC5), and a just-as-capable AGP video card. The bucks-up route is to use 925XX and the DDR2 ram with PCI express. Abit is about the cheapest I imagine for boards of either flavor amongst makers who you want in your rig.

The way I see it, you can get the AS8 now for 80 some bucks and an AGP video card. If you decide you really need PCI express in the future you can buy the 925XX (or whatever is hot then) motherboard with the 80 some bucks you save today by opting for the AS8, and throw the AS8 away. You're spending 80 extra dollars now in order to try to stop from having to spend 80 dollars later on a new MB. This is thinking too long term.

The upshot is 80 dollars spent on a motherboard later will bring more than spending an extra 80 now. And you will get a new MB when you it can actually do you some good, rather than just throwing good money after bad now for no performance spiff.

As far as AGP cards go, I'd use an Nvidia 6600GT, but that's just me. You can also get 9800pro ATIs very cheaply now, if you like ATI.

If you go the DDR2 route you might as well get an i955X. The only board thats worth a damn right now is the P5WD2.

$600.00 is not a lot to build a complete system from the ground up using the latest technology. it could probably happen, but you'd get a lot more for your dollar performance-wise with parts that are a little older. sen's recommendation of the as8 paired with a low-cost video card (since there's no 3-d gaming, right?) will yield a larger budget for other parts like the power supply (which will hinder your o/c if you use crap.) it doesn't sound like your friend will be able to tell the difference between current, brand-spanking-new, and last-generation technology. not only will the as8 do you well, but if you shoe-horn a cheapy 915 board into this new system you'll be disappointed when trying to squeeze your chip for more MHz. the processor does all the work, but it's the chipset that has to tell the processor WHAT to work on. the chipset is just as important as the cpu in getting a good clock.

i would suggest:
CPU: intel P4 505 145.00
MOBO: ABIT AS8-V 86.50
MEMORY: PATRIOT DDR400 85.00 - 14.00 MIR
VID CARD: 9600 PRO 80.00
PSU FORTRON 500W 98.00
TOTAL: (all prices from newegg) $494.50

this leaves 105.50 for a case, drives, and cpu cooling. i'd find a free case somewhere, and get the optical drive as cheap as i could find it (look in classifieds) and get a smaller hdd for now. you could also get a really cheap vga card, i got one that had DX9 support, but there are sub $50.00 cards.

I'm sorry guys, didnt make it to clear to what this user will be needing.

First off, he does 0 3D gaming, i was wanting to go PCI-E to buy an incredibly cheap ATI x300, but i guess if I really do need to go AGP its fine.

Second, DDR2 is perfectly fine, since I found some as cheap as the DDR i was gonna get before....45 bucks.

***********Last and my biggest concern, the AS8, I was planning on OCing that Pentium 4 505 Prescott to ~4.0 or 4.0+ ghz, and I read here: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=373214 (Sen and the Thread Creator both agreed) that if OCing w/ this board (he even used the same processor as I will) you almost MUST perform a droop mod, and I just simply don't wanna do that, so thats my biggest issue w/ that board.

Yea its true. This board does have a bad vcore droop problem. Ill be the first to admit it. However for the money its not that bad.

Honestally tho if you are looking cheap you will be hard pressed to find anything that could match an i865PE.

If you want something less problematic with vcore droop that would require a $230 i955X

wow so the vcore droop problem is chipset related? Man that really sucks.

OK anyway, i guess ill be going w/ the AS8, now I just need a video card that is equivilant to the x300, and im using that card since the kid wont be doing any 3D gaming.

BTW, would u guys think a 500w or 400w Fortron Blue Storm to be appropriate?

I think thats all I need for now. I can get some cheap DDR (40 buck or so...512mb...OCZ heheh) man i cant believe how much DDR has dropped in price since last october...almost by half

i think a 400w fortron blue should be more than enough for him

doh boy said:

i think a 400w fortron blue should be more than enough for him

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more than likely, it will. For now. Will this rig have more than one harddrive? more than one optical? if this rig is going to be overclocked AND have extra components like multiple harddrives and burners, and then overclocked too, the extra 21.01 in price difference could make or break his overclock goal. When i was trying to push my mobile AXP, my Enermax 430W just didn't seem to be able to support a high overclock. when i got a powerstream 520, all my little grmlins seemed to go away. i got another 125MHz out of my chip also. so it might be a good idea to get the bigger one IF this rig is going to grow in the future.

If it will be bare minimum... always... then i second doh boy.

one 40gb HD.

one CD-ROM...no RW.

so yeah nothing big at all.