Lookiong for the right Mobo

Any suggestions for a mb?

As new boards are released so is the confusion

I am looking at building a PIV 1.6A based system. The following requirements are what I'm looking for out of a motherboard. Currently I don't have the Board or RAM, I have every other piece of the box I need.

Board Requirements:

1. USB 2.0 ( 6 Ports ) 2 Onboard 4 Add-on or any other configuration.


2. Raid Perfer HP but I'll make due with other as long as it's proven.


3. DDR333 or RDRAM? No idea depends on what board will have what I need.


4. Onboard items ( sound video ect ) NONE. I know it's hard to find a board without sound anymore but if at all possible no onboard anything would make me happy.


5. AGP/PCI Locked, I don't want my network card or sound card crashing my system cause of a high PCI clock.


6. Chipset? who knows anymore, Reccomendations are welcome.


7. 6 PCI, 1 AGP, No riser boards.


8 Would greatly perfer a DMA133 over DMA100.


9. Single or small increment OC'ing ability.


Now with that being the list which seems to be pretty demanding but if I can find a board that will do all those things I'd be happy. I haven't really decided if I would rather have RDRAM or DDR I guess anyone with good input on those subjects would be great. Any links to specs or testing on any boards that are reccomended I'd also appreciate.

well being an RDRAM user i can really tell you... GO WITH RDRAM! remember the p4 was built around the rdram technology, and so get something with RDRAM, becauwse the p4's really need their bandwidth... don't make your p4 hungry for bandwidth . RDRAM (i am assuming you already know) travels at speeds up to 1066mhz.... and likewise ddr travels at speeds of (umm i forgot tehri numbers are confusing) how will just ddr 400 suffice (i hope someone can later come in and answer the ddr thing for ya)... For RDRAM which i reccomend i suggest you get the Abith TH7II raid... the reason being that there are a lot (and when i say a lot i mean like more than half of the people) on this forum that have the board, so if you have any problem you can get help for it wihtout any worries... Secondly the board has many hacks bios (okay so maybe just like 5)... one of them supports the new 533mhz p4's! (Mr. Naturals 7E BIOS)... third it fits most of your requirements... in that it only has 5 pci, and sound, however it does contain a good deal of usb ports (not 6.... but you know you could always add more ) FInally this board allows a fsb of up to 250 to be reached! (with mr naturals bios) so if you ever wanted to see what your chip was capable of... you won't be let out I've found people with the new 2.26 p4's able to overclock this puppy to3 ghz on air!


For DDR i would tell you to get the Epox 4g4a+... but it has both video and sound installed! (You can disable it but.... oh well) In tests performed the 4g4a was able to beat the old RDRAM 800... 850 chipset board, and only lost to the new 850E boards! The board is from epox so you know that it will overclcok... It has all of your other requirements....

Just my two cents.

I say go with the Soyo SY-P4S Dragon Ultra, and wait for Mushkin to release their Hi Perf "LEVEL 2" CAS 222 PC3200 sticks(if its as good as their PC2100,, it should go to PC4800@CAS 2-3-3, which would be, um, what? 4.8 GBPS, while Dual Channel 1066 is "only" 4.2?) I would suggest an ABIT IT7, (6 rear USB 2.0, 2 rear Firewire, 4 USB 2.0 on the motherboard headers, 1 Firewire header), but it only supports 2700! Personally, I would wait until the new VIA P4X333 boards arrive.
________
Suzuki Gsx-R Series

VIA MUST DIE!!![/b]

considering the fact that via is not intel certified to produce their motherboards, and went ahead and did it anyway... and now intel just slapped a huge lawsuit on via's @$$ i doubt you'll be seeing any p4 via motherboards again.... (serves them right too...)