Need advice on a board for P4 2.8

[CyberBard]

I'm finally getting around to upgrading from an overclocked P3-550B. I have been looking at various configurations of Athlons but in the course of this I have noticed that I can pretty much afford to put together a fast P4 system for my money so, could anyone make some recomendations for a P4 board? I am really enamored of the nForce2 chipset, is there a board out there for a Intel processors that can approach the features/performance of the nForce2?

I want:

Onboard sound comparable to the nForce2 chipset. (I.E. Dolby Digital 5.1 with S/PDIF out, excluding the C-Media solutions)
Onboard SATA with RAID and ability to use IDE drives in RAID 0 (preferably Highpoint)
DDR Ram with some sort of double bandwidth data path similar to nForce2 solution
Smart Card Reader
Good overclockability, although this is not a dealbreaker.

Overall, I would say the closest thing to the nForce2 chipset I can get with a P4 board.

Along those lines, does anyone know if anyone is planning on manufacturing a P4 board based on the nForce2 chipset?

Thanks in advance.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: CyberBard
I'm finally getting around to upgrading from an overclocked P3-550B. I have been looking at various configurations of Athlons but in the course of this I have noticed that I can pretty much afford to put together a fast P4 system for my money so, could anyone make some recomendations for a P4 board? I am really enamored of the nForce2 chipset, is there a board out there for a Intel processors that can approach the features/performance of the nForce2?

I want:

Onboard sound comparable to the nForce2 chipset. (I.E. Dolby Digital 5.1 with S/PDIF out, excluding the C-Media solutions)
Onboard SATA with RAID and ability to use IDE drives in RAID 0 (preferably Highpoint)
DDR Ram with some sort of double bandwidth data path similar to nForce2 solution
Smart Card Reader
Good overclockability, although this is not a dealbreaker.

Overall, I would say the closest thing to the nForce2 chipset I can get with a P4 board.

Along those lines, does anyone know if anyone is planning on manufacturing a P4 board based on the nForce2 chipset?

Thanks in advance.

Dolby Digital 5.1 audio encoding is currently exclusive to nForce2.

From the rest of your feature set, the main possibilities for dual-channel DDR are the Intel E7205 chipset, the SiS655 chipset, or the VIA P4X600 chipset. The E7205, aka Granite Bay, is the only one currently available, and the boards run over $200 so far. The dual-channel DDR is not convincing me that it's worth the price premium in real-world usage, compared to its little brother, the i845PE. AGP 8X is another thing whose time will come, but not soon, in terms of tangible benefits. What about an EPoX 4PEA+ with SATA, Highpoint RAID, Bluetooth option, USB2, onboard LAN, 6-channel audio.

Smart cards... I think you mean various memory media like Compact Flash, Secure Digital, etc, as opposed to LAN-security cards? I'd pick up an all-in-one media reader that plugs into a USB port and call it good. You can take it with you to your next system.

Interesting that you basically want an nForce-based P4 system... sure you don't want to just try a full nForce2 rig? There are trade-offs either way, as always.

 

[o1die]

If you decide to get a granite bay board, myaopen.com will have some more aopen gb boards at the end of the month for $179. I would get some of the items you require separately, instead of looking for an "all in one" solution. My personal choice would be one of the albatron px845 pev pro boards for their overclockability and price. Newegg sells both versions.

 

[dmhinz]

I recently ditched my NForce2 board for a P4 solution. I was extremely dissapointed in the performance gain (roughly 4%) obtained by the "dual channel" feature. The onboard sound was very good however.

I currently have a P4 2.8 and an MSI GNB FISR (Granite Bay). I am much happier with this setup. I should point out that it was about $150 more expensive than the AMD route and I had a difficult time finding a Granite Bay (E7205) board. P4 has a much better resale value when it's time to upgrade compared to AMD.

-D

 

[CyberBard]

Thanks for the replys guys.....

My reasoning behind wanting some of these things included on the board is that I have had some trouble with device driver errors with my current sound setup (Hercules Game Theatre XP, they don't seem to be able to get out drivers that work stably in Win XP). I want something included on the board that approaches the sound I get from my Game Theatre without the problems. I want the Serial ATA Highpoint onboard simply for the cost factor, I'd like to have a stand-alone Highpoint card, but that's around $135 for the card I want and then I would feel compelled to run a 4 drive sytem instead of two .

I looked at some of the chipsets last night and the Granite Bay solution looks really good. And you are right, I am really excited about the nForce2 chipset. My original plan was to put together a rig based around an nForce2 board (maybe the Chaintech board or the Asus). With the Chaintech I would feel compelled to purchase an Audigy2 Platinum, so that pushes a pricey boards price up considerably (what were they thinking replacing the Realtek sound with C-Media?) As far as the Asus board goes, I am not sure if it supports raid with IDE drives. The reason I started looking at P4 boards is threefold: 1) The quickest chip I can find to purchase is the 2600+ 2) I have heard a nasty rumor that AMD is looking to get out of the high-end processor market. 3) I haven't had a AMD system before, but I heard they runn really hot, even without OC'ing.

I guess the bottom line is, I want the hottest machine I can put together myself for $1500 or less, not including monitor ( I have a nice Radius Intellicolor Display/20 that uses a Sony CRT). I am primarily a gamer, although I have worked as a Graphic Artist and I dabble in digital video.

So maybe my new quey should be, What is the fastest desktop that you can put together for $1500 or less. In fact I will post that on the board, hope you fellows will put in your two cents.

Thanks