Asus P3V4X: Good choice?

[Sledge]

Would the Asus P3V4X be a good choice for gaming/general stability? Im looking at pairing one up with an Intel P3-733EB sometime soon and was wondering if anyone has any good or bad experiences with this board.

I was also wondering about the (apparent) lack of a game port on snapshots of the motherboard, seems to be missing....oh, and before I forget, was there an issue with the newer revision boards?? If so, which is the best revision to get?

Cheers for any help

Scott.

 

[Ausm]

I really like a Asus P3V4X . I am running Win2K on ot and playing games with no probs at all.


Ausm

 

[rickn]

it is an excellent board, however, they have apparently cut some corners in the newest boards coming out by swapping out the clock generator chip with a lower quality one. Doing so, they have cut 1/2 of the FSB speed selections, so if you overclock you wont have as many options

 

[JellyBaby]

Sledge, the via 133a is a good choice even with intel's i815 coming out. My p3v4x is very stable and runs great (650e @ 866).

My ICS clock generator gets very hot. If you OC > 133mhz fsb you may need to cool that chip with a small heatsink. Otherwise, it's not a big deal. I think there are two revisions of the board out now, one with the ics clkgen and another with a different clkgen chip. Not sure on that, maybe someone else will know.

As for a gameport, you'll need to use one off a sound card or special adaptor -- no motherboard has one built-in.

Then just go to viatech.com and download the latest drivers for your OS. I went with the individual via busmaster driver and agp driver, skipping the 4-in-1 package altogether.

 

[lifeguard1999]

I would have recommended the Asus P3V4X 2 weeks ago. After last week, I would not recommend it. The reason is that the older version of the board gave you 32 FSB speeds up to 166 MHz. True you needed to cool the clock generator with a heatsink/fan, but it worked.

Now they have replaced the clock generator. Now, you only have 16 FSB speeds and it only goes up to 150 MHz. Yet ASUS has failed to mention this anywhere.

I have an old version ASUS P3V4X. It works great. But I got it for the FSB options. I cannot recommend the new version.

What would I get now? Probably the i815. But I have not researched it since I am happy with what I have.

 

[TwoFace]

I'd still recommend the P3V4X *IF* you can find an "old" piece This board simply rocks I've had my 600E@800EB for about a month now... and it runs like a champ...

 

[rickn]

if you can find a p3v4x with ICS chip, then get it. I have one, I run my 650e cB0 @ 962mhz 1.75v. Runs great.

 

[Sledge]

So then, anyone have any idea between which revisions of the motherboard the change was made?

I went to my local store the other day and they can keep one aside for me, it's a rev1.3 board.

Cheers for any advice

 

[JellyBaby]

Hmmm...I thought the PCB revision for the boards with the older ICS was 1.2. Anyone confirm this?

 

[TwoFace]

I know mine is 1.2 and it has the old (ics?) chip because I've got more than 16 speed settings

Sounds like the 1.3 might be the newer ones then, because I bought mine less than a month ago... BTW: shouldn't asus site (http://www.asus.com.tw) have information on this?

 

[DeadlyKnight]

well you guys this ive got the winbond chip and ive got all the settign what 32 of them so far i can use all of them to i havent tried out the 140 thru 150 but i know 150 ,166,124,115,133,below 100 all work ,ppl with the winbond chip not gettting all the choices ive got 1003 bios that came with board. i undrstand that 1005 takes them away me thinks someone is beetin up on this card too hard its a great as far as im concerned my 550e will do 913 on this one ,smokking!