Advise: Abit BH6 or Asus P3V4X

[MegaManX]

I've got a quick question, and I REALLY need some advise on what I should do...

I currently own a BH6 w/ Celemine 566 OC'd to 850. It works great, no real problems. Now I need to put together a firewall box, and I wanted to use my old 450A processor in that box, and I purchased an Asus P3V4X to do this.

Is the P3V4X stable and reliable enough to become my new desktop motherboard? I know about the memory timing issues, and the lackluster USB support for VIA chipsets. My thoughts in upgrading to the P3V4X were getting AGP 4x support (since I have a GetForce2), and UDMA66 support native (since my HD supports it).

Suggestions please... should I stick with the older BX board that is stable, or go with the new P3V4X that has newer features, but still has some "compatibility" issues.

Ideas? Thanks.

 

[bubba]

I had a Celery2 566@850 on a Via 133A board (MSI 6309). I ran into those problems with the viagart driver and the Detonator2 drivers. I got pissed off, bought a slocket and re-installed my old trusty BH6 that I had shelved long ago. Lo and behold I get better Quake3 performance with my BH6 than I did with my Via 133A. If you are running it at 100 MHz FSB you are probably better off with the BH6. I have a GeforceSDR and the BX chipset speed outweighed the AGP4x/UDMA66. Hell, I even tried to put in my Promise Ultra66 controller and it didn't make a bit of difference according to SiSoft Sandra benchmarks, so I pulled it.

 

[toadstool]

That sounds like the same damn question I've been considering myself. I'm so frustrated with my P3v4x, that I'm thinking of doing the same thing Megaman just did. Get my Bh6 out of the closet and put my p3700e back in and run my old setup.

I read good things and bad things about the p3v4x, but in my experience, it's been a real pain in the butt!!
The only reason I bought this board is because I was going to make a new computer for my girlfriend with my old parts. She has a pentium 166, and it's slow as hell. I figured, I'd buy something current, and after reading some reviews of the P3v4x, it sounded like a good board.

Since i switched boards, I can't overclock as well (933 mghz STABLE on the Bh6, ............on the P3v4x at 882 ...I've had lockups, so don't know what overclock is stable on this board. before you know it, I'll be running p3700 at 700...just to maintain some stability).
I've bought a CPU cooler, a heatsink for the "clock chip".....etc..

Nothing has helped the stability.

I know on the Bh6, i can run at 933, and have my video card at AGP 2X. The AGP 4X on the P3V4x doesn't work anyhow, so don't see how I'd lose anything there.
The only thing holding me back is i want to upgrade my UDMA33 hard drive to a UDMA66 (or higher) , and the BH6 only supports that with
a controller card. I'm also considering an I815 board. So not sure I wanna go thru the hassle of putting the Bh6 back in just yet.

Basically,though, if i were you, I'd think REAL hard about switching boards. My P3V4x has been nothing but a headache, and so far, I have not been very impressed with VIA.....or ASUS.

Right now, I think I should have stuck with the Abit board.

 

[resinboy]

I went from an Abit be6/2 to the Asus. My overclock is EXACTLY the same between both boards( 146). I have found the Asus to be as stable, if not slightly more stable than my bx board. Also, the ata66 never worked for d*ck on my Abit. All I had to do to enable it on the Asus was plus the cable in. Also, my gforce is alot happier( and me) on the Asus. I think it's like the comment someone made on this board a few nights ago....'1/3 skill, 1/3 hardware compatibility, 1/3 plain luck".

 

[compuwiz1]

Part of the issues are that the C2s really should stay on BX boards. The Via133 chipsets are designed for doing just that, 133 and that is where they rock. When you are running a Celeron overclocked on a 100MHz bus, those boards just don't cut it.
The P3V4X is a great board, but it has it's place and running a Celeron II on it, is not one of them, IMO.