Ok...it's time for a decision

After 2 weeks of research, I still have not made up my mind on which motherboard and CPU I want. The P4 CPU is faster than the Athlon XP, but, the XP is geared towards performance. Once I decide which CPU I want, then I can make a decision on which motherboard to get. Then, I will fight with myself to decide which motherboard is better (easy to overclock for a beginner and will be easy to upgrade in the future).

I have read posts on this board where some are AMD users and others are P4 users. AMD will have the chipsets nforce2 and KT400. The KT400 is already out and the nforce2 will be out soon. The P4's latest chipset is the SIS648 and I'm not sure what the next chipset will be. Also, does it really make a difference if the chipset has a fan on it or not? The ABIT AT7-MAX2 has a fan on the chipset. The ABIT IT7-MAX2 does not.

As for the motherboard issue. I'm looking for a motherboard with the latest chipset and that has AGP 8X and DDR400 capability. I'm looking for the newest motherboard basically. The CPU does not have to be the latest on the market, but it does have to be FAST and easy to overclock and perform well when overclocked.

Can someone please help me decide on a good motherboard/CPU combo? What would be YOUR dream motherboard/CPU combo? Also, try and make your dream motherboard/CPU combo stay under $350.

i'm not sure about ddr400 and agp 8x boards now, but i'm pretty sure the nforce2 will support that (excuse me if i'm wrong, i've been paying more attention to intel than amd lately). pair up the nforce2 with some ddr400 and an xp2600 and you'll have one of the phattest and fastest systems around. i don't know how the 2600's are supposed to overclock though..best overclocking XP i know of is the xp1600+, which are down to about $50 on newegg now. but that may be a little TOO slow compared to what is out now. i'd say any of the new t'breds with later steppings and good cooling would reward you with an adequate overclock.

as far as fans on the chipsets go, NO it isn't necessary but YES it is nice to have, especially when overclocked. the northbridge is what basically communicates between the memory and the cpu, so when those are running at very high speeds and out of spec, naturally more heat can occur...my abit bd7-ii raid has a passive heatsink on the northbridge chipset (intel 845E) stock..so yeah, it'd be a good idea for one. southbridge cooling isn't as important if i remember correctly since *i think* it is mainly dealing with the pci and agp busses which usually don't get too far out of spec.

someone correct me if i'm wrong!

good luck with your choices and may you have a nice overclock!

jeff

Am I right by saying that nforce2 and KT400 chipsets will be for AMD only? Also, the XP 2600 is around $300 now and that's the pre-order price. I do ALOT of online gaming and single-player gaming. This new system will have to be able to handle graphic-intense games (Doom III, whenever it comes out and Unreal Tournament 2003). I will most likely be getting a new video card as well, but that is another "butt-load" of posts by me all together.

I was looking at the ABIT AT7-MAX2 motherboard (has a fan on the chipset, the KT400 chipset, AGP 8X and DDR400 capable), but I still cannot get over that the AMD is slower than the P4. You would think that I would decide on the P4, but, I'm having a hard time doing this. I would hate to get the AMD and find out later that a P4, roughly equivalent to the AMD I got, is faster. Someone has to really convince me that the AMD will out-perform the P4 before I buy an AMD CPU.

Thanks for the reply Jeff, but I need more persuading. Also, how can I tell the "thoroughbred" CPU's before I buy them. I haven't seen them.

the good thing about the intel 845E (unlike the 845G chipset) chipset is that it will apparently support the new processors 3.06Ghz+ that will have hyperthreading. With the AMD's you'll have to wait for the new nforce2 motherboards to come out otherwise it won't support its upcoming CPU's.
For 845E ASUS P4B533-E and BD7II-Raid are both good choices. I would say from all reviews i read that ASUS P4B533-E is the best.
look here: http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1672&p=1

If it is for games then I would say go with p4. Becuase most game developers, espically ID, make the game engines work best on pentium cpus (ex. have SSE2 support). Thats why the p4 is basically untouchable in the q3 demos/benchmakrs. Ill put money on it that Doom3 will be the same way.

Are there any P4 motherboards out there with AGP 8X and DDR400 support?

Check out this motherboard and tell me what you think. This may be a good investment for me, right?

http://www.soyousa.com/products/proddesc.php?id=176

Or, how about this one? Which would you guys choose?

http://www.abit-usa.com/pt_main_backat7m.html?pPRODUCT_TYPE=MotherBoard&pMODEL_NAME=AT7

Looks like the Soyo board has a "add-on serial ATA" card instead of built-in. I like the Abit board myself.

to tell you the truth, when it comes down to top of the line processors for either company, either one is going to feel just as fast. sure, some inch ahead in some benchmarks a little bit, but the miniscule difference is not one that you're going to be able to tell. value but heat= amd, faster mhz but premium price= intel..winner? no one. its up to you ultimately, either one will do you well.

for doom 3, i'd say to run it with all the eye candy you should get at least a 1.8ghz processor from either company and overclock it quite a bit, and get a PHAT graphics card..geforce 4 now will be able to handle it (without ALL of the eye candy) but the radeon 9700 will be able to fluidly play it.

like i said, its up to you, but may your decision be a good one.

oh yeah, the nforce2 and kt400 will be or amd only, made by nvidia and via respectively.

jeff

edit: i prefer abit, because they make the best motherboards IMO. that at7 has the kt400 with 333mhz athlon xp support, which means 166mhz bus! when cpus supporting that come out and you want to upgrade, you'll be in business. it also has agp 8x so you know it will handle the radeon 9700 and upcoming nv30..food for thought. i thinkg this at7 looks nice for the next amd box i'm going to build

edit 2: man, i keep reading more about this board. i definitely suggest you get it now! it also has onboard raid and lan, so if you want that stuff then this is the board to get!

Yea, I like the Abit AT7-MAX2 board. Just thinking about that board, with the XP 2600, 512MB PC3200 DDR and a new video card gives me goose bumps! Getting excited here. Thanks for your help Jeff. I finally have made a decision!

Next posts from me should be concerning overclocking this badd-boy!

man that is going to be one hot rig dude, congradulations on your decision and good luck getting a great overclock on it...

jeff