Which motherboard....

[dowser]

Hi All - first post

I want to upgrade my PC - last time I just bought a 'good deal' machine (P3 450) which was OK.......but I then got into gaming a bit!

This time I want to do it right, so I guess I'll build my own - this is my first attempt at learning what I need to know to build a decent platform....

I've got the following points which I'm trying to pay attention to. Can anyone comment whether I'm on the right track and what specific motherboard I should be looking for please (...and what have I missed!). Any advice, comments or suggestions gratefully received....I really don't have much of a clue at this stage. Thanks;

Motherboard
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* What's the highest bus speed for the memory? Seems there's RIMM and PC266 - how fast is RIMM and does it make a difference?

* Is PC266 the fastest non rimm speed? And is DDR memory available for pc266?

* AGP - is agp4 still the best?

* Processor - I want to stick with Intel really; is P4 a viable option now, or should I be looking at a 1ghz P3? Are the other processors types better/faster/as reliable?

* Chipsets - what's best? Only really know of Via.

* If I choose to go SCSII (see below), is there anything special I should be looking for from the motherboard?

* Soundcard - please tell me there are mother boards *without* and on-board sound card chipset?! This feature was the bane of my life on my current motherboard - lol!

* USB - I'll probably upgrade my game controller to a USB one. Should I be looking for anything special with USB to ensure better performance?

* Overclocking/cooling - umm - yes, I'd like to be able to do this!

Peripherals
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Videocard - got a 1st generation geforce ddr which I'm very happy with. Should I redeploy this or go for a new gf3 iteration (is there a 64mb ddr version available?)?

Soundcard - SB Live Value?

Hard Disk - should I bother going SCSII for the faster disk access speeds? Is there still a large difference between the two (I remember hearing something about IDE Ultra ATA?)? And what's the relationship between disk rpm/access time and actual throughput to motherboard?

Umm - I *think* that's it. Any suggestions/comments gratefully received.

Many, many thanks
Richard

 

[Jasonh100]

pc266 is another name for pc2100 which is DDR PC133. I would use the name PC2100 If I were you because it is more common. Also, they now have special overclockable ram known as PC2400, which is DDR of PC150.

 

[Jasonh100]

You can't really get a P4 platform that supports DDR ram, so you are stuck with RIMMs. If you aren't on a tight budget, by all means get SCSII, but if you are, no big deal. GeForce3s are MUCH faster than a Geforce DDR, but you may as well wait till there is a game you can't play. Don't even worry about USB, chances are you will have two, and probably 4 or 5 USB controllers straight out of the box. For overclocking, get a good case and get a GOOD heatsink for your processor--rather than a GOOD LOOKING heatsink. Most motherboards support AGP 4x, althoug most graphics cards don't take advantage of it yet.

 

[dowser]

Thanks Jason

Should have mentioned that cost is not an issue - my private company is paying

I want the best performance available....and to be as future proof as it's possible to be, lol!

So maximum bus speed for Intel is 133Mhz, but it can be overclocked to 150Mhz - can you get faster with a different processor make?

Cheers
Richard