What is the best Motherboard that supporting DDR ??

SUMMARY OF Intel D845BG2 (Support DDR ) :
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intel d845ebg2 billings 2 ; i845e , 533fsb , on-board ac97 audio , 2x ddr , 6x pci , 1x cnr , 1 x agp , usb 2.0 - oem pack

What's your opinion about it ?

When I buy a mobo that supporing DDR , can i use it with the following :
[1] PC1200 and more.
[2] CL 2.5, CL2, CL1.5
[3] deffrent memory bus speed.

Hi Smith123go!

Motherboards that support DDR memory run it at 266mhz or 333mhz (or more ?).  As for most 133mhz RAM work fine on most 100mhz clocked board, I suppose that 333mhz DDR RAM should work ok on slower boards.  (Haven't tried it though...)

As for the brand of the board, my experience tells me that most motherboards are divided in two categories:  well known ones and less known ones.  Performance is slightly different from one brand to another.  In fact, unleast your actually use your computer purely for benchmark purpose, you won't notice a difference between two boards with same specs (let me write it again: WITH SAME SPECS.  There.)

The main difference I see between brands is the drivers and update availability.  Brands like INTEL and ASUS are quite good at keeping their site up to date and offering BIOS updates quite often.  This is one of the most under estimated aspect when it comes to choose a board.  You'll find it usefull if you want to update your hardware someday.  Less known brands could not let you update your system as easily

I have a MICROSTAR motherboard in my own system.  MSI is one of the top seller brand in the world and also one of the cheapest.  I've sold hundred of those without any major issues.  I recommand 845E Max2 (MS-6398E) http://www.msi.com.tw/products/mainboard/mainboard.php?model=MS-6398E .  If you're ready to pay more, INTEL D845EBG2 is my first choice followed by ASUS P4S333 (SIS chipset).

I hope I've answer your Q clearly!



(NB.  PLEASE guys, DO NOT post millions of comments telling me I'm wrong 'cause your kick ass 300$ ASUS MB really outclasses your brother in law's CHAINTEK piece of crap he bought at a flee market for 25¢ and a T-Shirt.  The thing is that you're probably right but I stand that for same specs, performances are relatively the same, or at least difficult to notice without an actual benchmark.  I hope I won't cause a debate!)

Thanks alot Mr. Gas ..
What do you prefre ?(regardless the money .. my aim is the high performance and speed)
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[1] Gigabyte GA-8SRX
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/products/8srx.htm              http://www17.tomshardware.com/mainboard/02q2/020403/sis645-08.html
-------------------------
[2] Intel D845EBG2
http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/bg2/index.htm?iid=ipp_browse+motherbd_d845ebg2&
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[3] FIC VC15
http://www.fica.com/site/html/products/mb/detail.asp?cat_id=240000048&C_ID=240000051
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Note: My new PC will be P4 2GHz  512KB and I'll use it for programming+internet+graphics and some times games!

Q: Is it OK to run WinXP Pro with PC1200 DDR128MB? If not , what about PC1200 DDR256MB ?

Thanks alot .. I'm watting for your comments and replays!

<<{ Smith }>>

Hello Smith123go!

My suggestions:

-NEVER go under 256mb RAM with winXP (all versions)!!

-Personnaly, I'd go with the INTEL board (regardless the money).  If you'd get some AMD hardware, I'd recommand a good Gigabyte board a friend of mine just bought but with a P4, nothing beats INTEL's boards.

Hope it helps!

How many times are you planning on asking the same question?  Just curious.

-dog*

Firstlly, thanks to Mr.Gas and Mr.Dogztar for your comments and replays!

I found some reviews about these three mobos :
[1] FIC VC15      got (8/10)
[2] Intel D845EBG2     I did't find any review about it!
[3] Gigabyte GA-8SRX  got (5/5),(9.5/10),(4.8/5),(4.75/5) and Golder Award from one of the hardware sites!

So, if you can help me to find review(s) about this Intel mobo I'll be so happy..

Finally: Now I should buy eaither this Intel mobo or this Gigabyte mobo... can you help me??

Note: this Gigabyte mobo support 266DDR & 333DDR , but this Intel mobo just supporting 266DDR as far as I know.. and the problem with 266DDR is not a good choese for the future.. because it's not supporting more that (PC1200)!
Whaere the this Gigabyte mobo support (PC1200 in 3 slots & PC2700 in 2 slotes ).. this was my point, what about you ?

Thanks again for your help.. and I'm watting for your finally advice!

($mith)

One thing to consider is Intel warranties their boxed boards for 3 years; most other companies you'll be lucky to get 1 year warranty.  Plus they are a huge company with offices all over the world so you don't have to worry (if you do have a faulty board, which is unlikely) about dealing with some fly-by-night company.  No, the Intel board won't beat many other boards out there, but it is a quality board that should last a long while.

The real-world difference that PC2700 (333MHz DDR) makes over PC2100 is pretty small.  See this page:

http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2001q4/p4-chipsets/index.x?pg=7

The differences are measured in seconds at most, its nothing that you would ever notice in any real-world appliation.

-dog*

Oh...and I don't think I'd buy either of those DDR modules available at your "market".  For really high-quality, high-speed memory you need Corsair, Mushkin, etc.  I don't know if I mentioned that before.

-dog*

Mr. Dogztar ...
Actually, that link was great!

I read that review and I notice some thing:
-------------------------------------------
[1] "For enthusiasts looking to get the most for their money, both the P4X266A and the 645 are better choices than any chipset Intel has to offer right now."

[2] "SiS has managed to create the absolute fastest Pentium 4 platform money can buy."

[3] "I can only characterize the 845/DDR's performance as disappointing. Not terrible, but disappointing."

Does this mean DDR333 (Gigabyte GA-8SRX) is better than DDR266 (Intel D845EBG2)??

Please, can you help me to find review(s) about Intel D845EBG2 motherboard?

Thanks
Smiht

I found in Tom's Hardware site the following:
"In Toms test SIS645DX outperforms i850 in 10 out of 16 tests!".

Let me quote myself: «In fact, unleast your actually use your computer purely for benchmark purpose, you won't notice a difference between two boards with same specs».

Yep, dog's right with three things.  

1- You won't notice performance difference.
2- Get the INTEL board.
3- We discussed the question enough.

Why would you want a computer that boots 1/10 of a second faster if it crashes at every 3 startups ?  As a good hockey player is also a player that don't get hurt every game, a good board is one that is reliable.  INTEL provides some.

Please close the question once for all.

OK, I'll close this question soon!!(I promice you)

When I want to buy a mobo, what should I consider first,second,..etc?[If I want the best performance & speed ] ? (Soory agin, this is the last time,,,I promice you!)

{1} The Motherboard
--------------------
[*] More Memory Boundwidth
[*] More FSB (400MHz or 533MHz)
[*] Peak theoretical interconnect bandwidth. (266MB/s or 533MB/s)
[*] Interconnect bus width. (8 bits or 16 bits)
[*] Peak theoretical memory bandwidth. ( 2.1GB/s or 2.66GB/s)


{2} The Memory
---------------
[*] Memory Latency (CL2 is better than CL2.5)
[*] Effective memory clock speed. (266MHz or 333MHz)
[*] Memory types. (PC2100 DDR266  or PC2700 DDR333), Will I notice the differance?

I promice you, I'll close this question(s) after your final replay!! and I'm sorry for that ¿!


=============================================
=  NOTE TO EVERYBODY (Please, read it all). =
=============================================
Please, this help me and this is maybe tha last time you see "Smith123go" on this site.. just because this my bad qestions!!
So, soory for that and agin .. I need -not want- your help now more than before .. just in this question ,please.
I hope to see your comments (last comments) about my bad questions :

Plesae, don't let me cary "!(@)_(@)!"..I hope than.. and remember I'm a starter in hardware.. and to be more accurate just before 2 days I knew what mobo nean?!!!!!! -really-.

 
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The FSB is very important; if you ever want to upgrade this system to a faster CPU in the future, Intel isn't going to have 400MHz FSB Pentium 4 3.5GHz chips (for example) they're going to be 533 (at least).  DDR333 is certainly preferable, if the board doesn't support it directly you can achieve basically the same setting with overclocked FSB speeds and high-quality DDR RAM.  If given a choice between lower CAS latency and faster FSB, a higher FSB will generally perform better.

As I said, you would be extremely hard pressed to notice a difference between 400MHz FSB and 533MHz FSB, or DDR266 vs DDR333 for that matter.

-dog*

One other thing...this question has generated a ton of feedback from many experts (especially myself!), and 20 points seems a bit low...

There is no need for you to leave E-E, the whole purpose of this site is to learn.  It just seems that you were asking the same question over and over (plus I was in a fairly bad mood after a long day at work when I posted that "Get whatever you want" comment).

-dog*

Mr. Dogztar
Thanks for your comments.. and FYI my English langiage is very low .. because it's my 3rd or 4th languae.!! -really-.

NOW, I'll calose this question(s)... Are you hapy?
Yes.. and me too !

Thnk you all.
{ $mith }