TR Forums

FroBozz_Inc · Fri Jul 23, 2004 2:09 pm

What do you guys think of this motherboard?

I was thinking about building 3 or 4 of them for our accounting department w/ lower end P4's...Like P4 2.26 533bus ones which are selling for $115 at Newegg...Newegg also is asking $99 for the ASUS board...Seems like a great board with good integrated video.

The only thing that scares me is I have no experience w/ ATI chipsets and I wonder if the support for the board will continue and not be orphaned as an oddity over time.

I'm open to other suggestions to.. I'm sure there will be some from the AMD side of the coin...Specifically lowest end A64 solutions since I prefer the heatspreader CPU design over the exposed core...IS it jsut me or are there not very many NForce AMD boards w/ intergrated video anymore (new boards). I thought that was one of their claims to fame...hmmm

FWIW, Here's what I had spec'ed out so far:

Antec Beige ATX Mini Tower PC Case with 350W Power Supply, Model "SLK1650" -RETAIL
Item# N82E16811129149 $59.00

ASUS "P4R800-V Deluxe" RADEON 9100 IGP Motherboard for Intel Socket 478 CPU -RETAIL
Item# N82E16813131151 $99.00

Intel Pentium 4/ 2.26 GHz 533MHz FSB, 512K Cache - Retail
Item# N82E16819116141 $115.00

Kingston ValueRAM Dual Kits 184 Pin 512MB(256MBx2) DDR PC-3200
Item# N82E16820141413 $93.00

Teac 1.44MB 3.5inch Floppy Disk Drive, Model FD235HFC291, OEM
Item# N82E16821103118 $11.99

Western Digital Special Edition 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model WD800JB, OEM Drive Only
Item# N82E16822144122
$62.49

Samsung 52X32X52X16 DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive, Model SM-352NRNS, Retail
Item# N82E16827151043 $41.00

Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack SP1a - OEM
Item# N82E16837102143 $141.00

Microsoft Office Professional 2003 (Upgrade) - RETAIL
Item# N82E16837116144 $270.00

Tax: $.00
Subtotal: $ 892.48
1 year extended warranty fee: $ 0.00
Shipping & Handling: $19.99
Grand Total: $ 912.47

Yahoolian · Fri Jul 23, 2004 3:50 pm

pecifically lowest end A64 solutions since I prefer the heatspreader CPU design over the exposed core

Well the slowest OEM A64 runs for $165 at newegg. I think an AXP would be better. Another thing to consider is that it's quite hard to find an A64 board with integrated video.

IS it jsut me or are there not very many NForce AMD boards w/ intergrated video anymore (new boards). I thought that was one of their claims to fame...hmmm

Well there are several NF2 IGP chipset boards availible on newegg.

The IGP chipset has been left unupdated for a while now, so there's little reason for new boards to be coming out with it.

FroBozz_Inc · Fri Jul 23, 2004 4:00 pm

Do you have an opinion on the 9100 IGP chipset?

Yahoolian · Fri Jul 23, 2004 4:21 pm

FroBozz_Inc wrote:
Do you have an opinion on the 9100 IGP chipset?

It looks pretty good.

See http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/chipse ... i915g.html
and http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/chipse ... p9100.html

Would it be possible for you to use OpenOffice instead of paying for MS Office?

FroBozz_Inc · Mon Jul 26, 2004 7:11 am

Gotta conform to the official corporate standard here. MS Office it is....

I'm just a little bit leary of the ATI chipset.
I hope they keep supporting it, and I hope there's no software conflicts or anything like that. Hmmmm Cannot decide.

donut · Mon Oct 04, 2004 5:46 pm

I just thought I'd chime on this old thread in case anybody thinks about buying this motherboard.

You'd be better off using your money for toilet paper.

I bought the Deluxe version from Newegg. Aside from Newegg not mentioning that it is not compatible with Windows 98SE, I'd later find that it is an XP-only board. Ok, fine, I was finally forced to downgrade to XP Pro. On both 98SE and Windows 2000 Pro, I couldn't burn CDs or DVD. I tried upgrading and changing around DirectX, etc.

Single-drive SATA doesn't work well. It's very slow, and ASUS doesn't give you any info as to how to install it.

Now, the second-channel memory slots don't work, so I'm stuck with single-channel memory. I'm trying to get a RMA from ASUS, which is like pulling teeth.

There are far better, more stable boards, which don't give you the hassles ASUS does. So, there is no reason to go with ASUS.

FroBozz_Inc · Mon Oct 04, 2004 6:08 pm

I ended up going with Asus i865 boards for this application.
I think the part was P4P800MX if I recall.

The ATI chipset ASUS board requries newer drivers for SATA, I read somewhere when I was researching the board. Some complained of network issues..I was a little leary since their was a fair number of complaints..many of which I thought might have been operator error...but I was scared away still.

Just because you have a problem with this lowest-end Asus board, that doesn't mean you can make a blaket statement that all Asus boards suck, cuz that's way off.

Tue Oct 05, 2004 12:49 am

PLus the fact that not that many people would consider XP a downgrade to win98. I was a hardcore 98 fanboy for the longest time, but even I had to admit that XP is much better than 98 ever was. Memory management is many times better along with massive improvements in stability along with support for new technologies. I would only use 98 on an old system that I could not run XP or 2K on.

donut · Sun Oct 24, 2004 9:27 pm

I was thinking from a security perspective, XP is a nightmare. It's difficult to harden without losing a lot of functionality, whereas 98 is easy. I will agree that it is more stable, though.

Just because you have a problem with this lowest-end Asus board, that doesn't mean you can make a blaket statement that all Asus boards suck, cuz that's way off.

I don't seem to be the only person who has recognized the problems with Asus. I don't care to rehash the 100-year war over Asus, except to say that among many other issues, their products are known to be very finicky about memory.

I will point out, though, is that their customer service is virtually non-existent, and getting an RMA number from them is like pulling teeth.

mrfixitx100 · Sun Oct 24, 2004 9:40 pm

I have a P4R800-VM here with a 2.6c in it.

Minuses:
limit of 512m in dual memory mode
Slow, well slower than a comparable Intel board

Pluses:
The intergrated video is ok, better than comparable
Supports 'triple view', though who would use it
Good stable 'idiot proof' board

Of course I don't run anything but XP on it.
NO problems good general all purpose board/system

TR Forums

ASUS P4R800-V mobo w/ the ATI 9100 IGP chipset...

ASUS P4R800-V mobo w/ the ATI 9100 IGP chipset...

Who is online