DDR or RDRAM Mobo?

I was just looking at recommendations in other threads, and my two favorites are the MSI 645 Ultra DDR 333, and the ASUS P4T. Now, one costs 75, the other 150 (roughly). Is the extra 75 bucks make THAT much of a difference? Also, I have the money for either, it's just that I'd rather save 75 bucks to buy some better cooling if the differene is minimal.

Wow, you a least narrow it down to the 2 best chipsets for the Intel platform. If money is an issue then the 645 equipped chipset is great. But make sure you get Kingmax PC2700 BGA DDR memory for best performance. You can buy a stick of 256mb with the money you save. But if money is no issue the RDRAM will give you about 3-5 percent better performance. As for OCed conditions, then the 645 may be a better choice for that potential. Either way its very close and you get a winner whichever way you decide to go.

One last thing though, if you are gonna be filling up alot of the PCI slots then the 645 is BETTER by far, as the southbridge/northbridge BUS has a 533mb/s bandwidth which is more than double any other chipset.

Well

Money isn't exactly an issue, but I'd rather spend those 75 Dollars on buying good RAM, or a better processor. Next question: If I'm trying to get to around 2.0Ghz or better with aircooling, what do I need for cooling, and what will I need in terms of a PS? I'm thinking 400W, but I'm not sure if that will be enough.

Whee! Good stuff to be found here. RAMBUS is fast, in fact, faster than the DDR chipsets for the P4....but not by much. I've seen a disparity of less than 5% in general, and the 645 can even beat the i850 once in a blue moon. Overall, it's a push.

However, I have the MSI board. It's great; I have my 1.6A at 2.35, and it seems to be pretty quick with whatever I throw at it. However, I only have PC2100, so it's running the RAM at 147FSB instead of using the 4:5 option to make the memory +33. This is a good, useful feature. I based my buying decision on the fact that I already had DDR laying around not being used; it would have made no sense for me to buy a RAMBUS board and having to spend $$$ on new RAM, too. I'm very happy with the MSI board you mentioned, and at $75, it can't be touched in price/performance. However, I've heard the P4T is a pretty solid board, and probably has a few more OC options in it....but I digress. Is the $75 worth the few percent increase in overall performance? You tell us.....you're the one who has to make the decision!

Good luck with the new rig...let us all know how it goes!

ps - at 2.35, I'm still using Intel's stock HSF unit. It cools fine at this speed and at 1.55v. If you're using a Northwood, no biggie - they don't get too terribly hot until they're over 2.5GHz or 1.7v anyway. I'd worry more about a Willy; they can get pretty toasty over 2.0.
Overall power consumption won't matter much just for the bare CPU/MoBo/RAM setup. 300W works just fine, as long as it's a quality power supply (I recommend HeroIchi/Antec and AOpen) and your system isn't such a monster. Drives can make quite an impact on energy consumption, however. Only bother with the 400W unit if you have a monster OCed setup, PLUS 3 hard drives and 2 optical drives, and a truckload of case fans.

If i do remember right, Rambus oc better. somebody corrent me if i am wrong. if you want to go extreme H20 can make ur 2.0 northy screaming for help. I don't know about PSU tho, ask batboy, TC, and others.

A good name brand (not generic) 400 watt power supply should work fine. I'm actually using an Antec 350 watt, but that's about the minimum that I'd recommend. Certainly, a 400 would be better yet and quite adequate for most systems.

lmao...

if your using 350w that will be ALL I'll ever need, since you're using alot more stuff than I am. Thank you all for the help, I'll take the MSI, simply because I like it's price/performance compared to most other motherboards for intel.

The only cooler I recommend is the Swiftech MC478. Get the SiS chipset and with the extra cash saved get one. My 1.6 is OCed to 2.5!! ITs a screamer! I also only use Kingmax BGA 5ns PC2700 RAM which rules! This should give you a killer rig.

woah...

thanks. Just looked at your signiture. That is a BEAST! Anyhow, I noticed your sound was almost as good as your Hercules Sound. Is that sound card any good? Who do you think it would be worthwhile to buy for, a gamer? a Movie watcher? both?

Thanks for your help everyone.

If you're getting a new mobo, SERIOUSLY CONSIDER the Soyo SY-P4S Dragon Ultra. This is the absolute best gaming rig/home entertainment motherboard I have ever used period. If my signature server rig worked as smoothly as my home rig I would be a very happy person.

That Soyo board features Every single OCing option you could ever want to start out with. And then adds features that up until this board I would never want built on, as I personally have never liked anything "integrated" into a motherboard for performance/games etc. But this mobo changed my whole outlook completely.

Its sound first off is TRUE 5.1 AC-3 dolby digital sound. And it RULES! And the best part is that it has a full 6.1 output and includes both a digital coaxial and optical digital output, if you want a serious home reciever to power your movie sound decoding which is a huge feature in my book. Plus its onboard sound decoding was better sounding than my GametheatreXP and on par with my Santa Cruz and Philips card. It is superb.
The built on NIC 10/100 works flawlessly and OCing doesnt affect it like add on cards which is another big plus.
It uses the Highpoint 372 RAID controller which is hands down the best IDE RAID chip on the market.

No skimping on this board. Also supports 3 sticks of PC2700, not 2 like most other boards using the older SiS 645 chipset. The Soyo uses the A2 revision.

6 PCI slots, AGP pro, 4 fan headers, 6 USB connectors(4 headers), and plus you get a free USB 2.0 card with the purchase, and it comes with Soyo's E box wich is a 4 port USB hub.

All this for $150. The biggest bargain on the market in my book, and the best performance too, which is what counts in the end for me. And the best thing is that no BIOS updates or stupid driver updates are needed. It runs flawless out of the box like an Intel chipset, and IMO ALL mobo's should, but most dont.

Get it, you will be grinning from ear to ear until its time to retire it for the next upgrade, whatever that may be.

Ritteri&Bubbles said:

If you're getting a new mobo, SERIOUSLY CONSIDER the Soyo SY-P4S Dragon Ultra. This is the absolute best gaming rig/home entertainment motherboard I have ever used period. If my signature server rig worked as smoothly as my home rig I would be a very happy person.

That Soyo board features Every single OCing option you could ever want to start out with. And then adds features that up until this board I would never want built on, as I personally have never liked anything "integrated" into a motherboard for performance/games etc. But this mobo changed my whole outlook completely.

Its sound first off is TRUE 5.1 AC-3 dolby digital sound. And it RULES! And the best part is that it has a full 6.1 output and includes both a digital coaxial and optical digital output, if you want a serious home reciever to power your movie sound decoding which is a huge feature in my book. Plus its onboard sound decoding was better sounding than my GametheatreXP and on par with my Santa Cruz and Philips card. It is superb.
The built on NIC 10/100 works flawlessly and OCing doesnt affect it like add on cards which is another big plus.
It uses the Highpoint 372 RAID controller which is hands down the best IDE RAID chip on the market.

No skimping on this board. Also supports 3 sticks of PC2700, not 2 like most other boards using the older SiS 645 chipset. The Soyo uses the A2 revision.

6 PCI slots, AGP pro, 4 fan headers, 6 USB connectors(4 headers), and plus you get a free USB 2.0 card with the purchase, and it comes with Soyo's E box wich is a 4 port USB hub.

All this for $150. The biggest bargain on the market in my book, and the best performance too, which is what counts in the end for me. And the best thing is that no BIOS updates or stupid driver updates are needed. It runs flawless out of the box like an Intel chipset, and IMO ALL mobo's should, but most dont.

Get it, you will be grinning from ear to ear until its time to retire it for the next upgrade, whatever that may be.

Click to expand...

Some serious features man!

...

My jaw dropped when I read that. Now, when I read that, it makes it seem like my 75 bucks would be well spent, as I would have to pay more for a 5.1 sound card of that quality and a LAN card. Well, I'll be right back, newegg.com needs a visit!

i dont know about the pentium one, but i love my dragon+ for athlonXP. and sometimes bios'es need to be flashed when a new cpu(athlonXP) comes out AFTER the board is made. it needs a new bios to properly support the CPU.
-Malakai

Hm.....

Ritteri, think it beats NEWQ sound cards? They got radios!

Personally I am not familiar with "NEWQ". But if I am going to listen to the radio, it sure wont be through my computer!

well...

Does anybody actually own a NewQ? They seem cool, plus it means I can listen to music while playing Everquest!

NewQ

personally i have one, its ok if your goin for looks, but if you already have a digital output card such as SBlive, game theatre xp, or any other high end soundcard, its of no real use other then a radio really, and even then who listens to radio when they have mp3s and stuff?

Black Hawk said:

I was just looking at recommendations in other threads, and my two favorites are the MSI 645 Ultra DDR 333, and the ASUS P4T. Now, one costs 75, the other 150 (roughly). Is the extra 75 bucks make THAT much of a difference? Also, I have the money for either, it's just that I'd rather save 75 bucks to buy some better cooling if the differene is minimal.

Click to expand...

You should consider 845D too, if You need reliability. Have a look of Your own: http://www.extremetech.com/article/0,3396,s=1005&a=22995,00.asp.
Performance is rougly 5% lower than in 850: http://www.xbitlabs.com/mainboards/msi-845ultra-aru/

How does the Asus P4S333 compare to the Soyo and the MSI? I've heard the Asus has some very good overclocking options.

XD!

I was just going to as this..... But as a side note, Tom's Hardware shows that a 2.6 Pent 4 with Rambus and a P4T-E (I think that's the one) crushed all opposition!

So if you have the money, that's definetly worth your time.