Good stable P4 motherboard

[Chop]

I've now finally given up on my AMD system, I always seem to have issues. I don't know if it is the motherboard or what, but I've had enough.

I want to buy a P4 motherboard that will take 266 DDR memory as I have 521MB of it. My main concern is stabillity.
I am able to get the following from my supplier.
Asus P4B266
MSI Intel 845 Ultra

They both use the 845 chipset. Which would be the best? I've also noticed that there is a newer chipset 845E that has a higher FSB, does that make a significant difference?

 

[RalfHutter]

P4B266, but if your main concern is stability AND you're not going to OC then go with an actual Intel 845 board.

 

[oldfart]

P4B266 and MSI 845 are not the best 845D boards. There are a couple that are much better. Do you plan on overclocking? 845E is not much different from 845D. Just south bridge changes for features like USB 2.0. Best P4 DDR board out there now is the Epox 4G4A 845G board. A steal @ $100 @ Mwave.com.

 

[crapito]

I agree with oldfart. I have the bigger brother version of the 4G4A (the 4G4A+, of course ), and it's a fine board. as long as overclocking isn't a concern, basically any quality 845D/E/G motherboard with suffice.

btw, chop, I had almost the same AMD setup before going with my current Intel setup. the changeover was a net cost to me of about $75 to go from my old AMD XP1800+/Epox 8KHA+/512mb pc2400 to my current P4 1.6a/Epox 4G4A+/256mb pc2700 setup that is running @ 2.56 GHz DDR400 (<- read: .way faster than the AMD setup). no bad, eh?

 

[Chop]

I'm not planning to overclock the machine, I just want a stable board. I'll check out the Epox but I'm a bit weary, especially with the problems I'm currently having. I've now had bad experiences with Abit (gave up after a few months), ECS (defective out of the box) and Epox (unstable).

I'm in the UK so I don't have such a wide selection of motherboards to choose from, not from the suppliers I know of. I've heard that AOpen is good, is this true?

Crapito, did you also have problems with stability on your old board?

 

[oldfart]

The stability issues you have now are due to the VIA chipset. It hard to make a stable mobo when you start with a chipset that isn't. If you want a stable P4 based system, and are not overclocking, there are many good choices in i845x boards. Asus, Epox are both very good although the P4B266 is not a very good Asus model. If you want bullet proof stability, get an Intel brand mobo. No overclocking and little tweaking is possible, but they are extremely stable. That bei g said, I would still say the Epox 4G4A is hard to beat. I'm not a big fan of MSI. I'd put them towards the bottom of the list.

 

[Jaggu]

Since the 4G4A is a 845G board will in support the DDR PC2700 RAM without overclocking? I know the support is unofficial right now, but anyone tried it?

 

[RalfHutter]

Around here in the states you can get full-featured retail boxed Intel boards for around $105-120 from the online retailers like Mwave and Newegg. The most stable boards you can get.

 

[mrman3k]

Definetely get an actual Intel mobo, since you do not want to overclock, the Intel boards are simply rock solid and for sure problem free.

 

[DoubleL]

Any newer P4 or AMD board is stable if it is built right,