Best P4 DDR 400 RAID Board?

[CyberGenX 0]

I need a motherboard. What is the best board to get that has the following:

 

Pentium 4 2.53+ Support

DDR 400MHz Support

ATA 133 RAID Onboard

 

 

I would prefer and Intel chipset but willing to look at SIS.

 

 

Thanks

 

P.S. Hurry, money is burning a hole in my pocket!!!

[sapiens74 0]

GO with the GB if you got the money.

 

While it does not officially support DDR 400, its the fastest thing on the market, and has a lot fo room for overclocking.

 

THe asus P4G8X, or the Gigabyte 8INXP should do

[CyberGenX 0]

Do either of those boards have and option in the BIOS for DDR 400 like the latest socket A flavor of the Gigabyte GA-7VAXP Ultra

VIA® KT400 chipset? I have to have the memory running at 400MHz, as the chip will first be a P4 2.4GHz with 400MHz FSB.

[BladeRunner 0]

The P4 doesn't need or use Dual-DDR of that spped.

The GB boards support dual-channel PC2100 DDR because that give the P4 the 4.2GB/Sec that it can use on a 133mhz FSB.

The memory is locked to the FSB, so if you increase your FSB you will also increase your memory speeds on a 1:1 ratio.

 

This has been shown with the latest SIS chipset, even when using DDR333 memory the increase in performance in basically non-existant as the P4 doesn't need that amount of bandwidth.

[CyberGenX 0]

So I should get the Gigabyte board and put One stick of DDR 266 on each memory controller (separate banks)? Thus giving me 266 X 2 = 533MHz memory?

[BladeRunner 0]

Basically speaking yes.

With Granite Bay motherboards you need two memory modules and ideally they should be exactly the same as one another - same make, speed etc.

It is a bit like RDRAM in that you fill the first two banks and they operate in a dual-channel mode.

Although the board only officially supports PC2100 DDR you can obviously use faster stuff, this aids if you want to overclock or plan on using the memory in future systems.

DDR333 seems to offer the best price at the moment, DDR400 stuff is still rather expensive.

 

In my ASUS P4G8X (Granite Bay) board I have 2x 512MB Crucial PC2700 modules.

I'm not really an overclocker and am happy with my 2.53Ghz CPU, however I did test on 150Mhz FSB and it was very stable.

[sapiens74 0]

I saw some OC PC 3200 for 93 bones per 512MB, thats not expensive at all, 1 GB for under 200 bones.

[CyberGenX 0]

Wow! Do they take chicken "bones"

[Ali 0]

with the falling value of currencies i think Canada will be also swithcing to sticks and chicken bons!!!

but for fuel the price could be seriously an arm and a leg!! :x

 

i would go with the gigabyte myself. i have one and it is working really nice. (look in profile)

[Brian Frank 0]

If I had the money, I'd get that Gigabyte Granite Bay board. That thing is so sweet. Not to mention loaded. However, the price is a bit more than I'm willing to pay for a P4 board. I am looking at the GA 8PE667 Ultra---I am trying to get a definite yes on something about it though: Does the Promise ATA133 RAID controller support the use of drives in a non-RAID configuration---like being used like an extra IDE controller? I've tried d/lding the manual, but it's gotten corrupted both times.

 

This board looks good, but, I need to know about that Promise RAID controller.

[Hubert 0]

Granite Bay would certainly be one of the better choices, but there aren't a lot of "enthusiast GNB boards. They're more workstation-ish. We've had a lot of success with the Chaintech 845PE ZENITH.

[Brian Frank 0]

Chaintech is certainly getting popular lately. I imagine I'll try them out sometime soon.

[Hubert 0]

The ZENITH is expensive though, but we managed a 16x200 OC (not stable). Stable OC was about 16x190.

[Ali 0]

Quote:

If I had the money, I'd get that Gigabyte Granite Bay board. That thing is so sweet. Not to mention loaded. However, the price is a bit more than I'm willing to pay for a P4 board. I am looking at the GA 8PE667 Ultra---I am trying to get a definite yes on something about it though: Does the Promise ATA133 RAID controller support the use of drives in a non-RAID configuration---like being used like an extra IDE controller? I've tried d/lding the manual, but it's gotten corrupted both times.

This board looks good, but, I need to know about that Promise RAID controller.

Good question. i have never tried that. but i'm using the raid and it's working. in the BIOS there is an option that you can choose the function for onboard raid (ATA / RAID). i don't know if that's what i should be look at to answer this question.

[Ali 0]

i read the maual, there is nothing about using it as an IDE controller. in the raid function manual it also tals bout raid only. it does not explain if it could be used to have cdroms and other devices hooked up to it.