MOBO advice requested

[715]

I'm thinking of upgrading my computer (650 PIII).  I know I should get an Athlon XP based MOBO, but I'm a conservative anal retentive kind of guy and want to go Intel P4.  But I don't want to pay for RDRAM.  I know that current SDRAM P4 MOBOs are not a good choice and that Intel will come out with a DDR SDRAM supporting chipset next year.  But there appears to be a new Via MOBO that supports DDR SDRAM with a P4 available now.  Anyone have any experience with this or advice?

(PS- one reason I shy away from Athlons is that I live in the desert and it can sometimes get over 95F inside the house, the Athlons extensive cooling requirements has me concerned)

Thanks.

715

[iceydee]

Well, as far as I know there is a couple of DDR-ram P4 mobo's around. (Not sure if it's only the VIA chipset that's available). As it seems, DDR-ram don't get much lower benchmarks than the RDRAM setups, making the DDR-ram setups much more price-worthy.

As for the temparature issue, I recommend you getting an Intel processor. AMD processors are known to be bad at handling excessive temperatures. But still, the Intel processor will not perform the way it's supposed to if it's too hot. So I suggest that you get extra fans for the casing, or even getting some sort of water based cooling for your system. I've heard about reasonably cheap water based cooling systems that would make your system more stable in the harsh enviroment you are running at. And, if you're thinking of overclocking the processor, I strongly recommend such type of cooling.

I'm running a server computer (for web-services and such) at a server hotel. They have many servers running there, and since it's quite important that the servers is up 24/7, they need very good temperature monitoring. Well, this might not be appropriate for a home setup, but they have a big air conditioner stationed in the room, which is set to have the room at around 20 degrees celsius at all times (I think that's the setting they're running). And they have 2-3 fans on each casing for every server computer they're running.

I hope what I told you was of any use.

[Camel]

Im wanting to build a new system after the holidays, and I am looking at the same type system. Im not willing to take the Via route, and would like to wait for the Intel DDR solution, but it doesnt look like they will support (DDR333) when introduced. So it looks like a SiS645 chipset is in my future. MSI and Asus will have some boards out shortly. www.newegg.com  lists the MSI 645 ultra333 for $124, but NOT in stock. I havent been able to find the Asus P4S333 listed anywhere yet. Hopefully when Im ready,the Asus board will be available as im very happy with my current Asus board.

[ 11-23-2001: Message edited by: Camel ]

[715]

Thanks for the info guys.