P4 423pin question on MBs

[stompah]

Ok I have come across a decent deal on a p4 1.5g with 423pins.

I had intentions of using this CPU as a brief o/c toy then couple it up with a nice video card and use it as my main system. That would leave me to abuse my p3/celly and AMD systems as much as I would like.

After reading a few threads I have a change of heart on my choice. Unfortunately I am staring deeply into the retail p4 box realizing taht good deal or not I really should have waited a while for the new cores.

Anyway should I unload this on Ebay for a slight loss and wait? Or should I suck it up and buy a MB and start the tinkering? Or not a big option I could build a non-o/c system make it as stable as possible and sell it to a friend or locally through the newspaper? I guess I need more help deciding on to keep it or to sell it. what I do with the sale ould be a personal choice. And to keep it would mean I would have to tweak it ;)

I have traveled over to newegg.com to search for 423pin MBs I found the following:

ECS Intel 850 Chipset P4ITA ATX Motherboard Sockets 423 for Pentium® 4 processor. Four 184-pin RIMMs with Rambus DRAM support, up to 2GB. 5 PCI slots, 1 4X AGP slot.
Gigabyte GA-8TX intel 850 Chipset Motherboard 5 PCI, 1 ISA, with Creative CT5880 Sound, 4 RAMBUS DIMM SLOT, 400MHz FSB, 4 USB Dual Bios Retail Box Version - For Pentium 4 Processor
MSI 850 Pro2LE motherboard. Support Socket 423 for Intel® Pentium® 4 (FC-PGA) Processor. P4 (FC-PGA) up to 1.8GHz Intel® 850 chipset. 400MHz FSB. Up to 2GB maximum memory (RAMBUS). AGP Pro interface with 4x SBA/Data Transfer. Intel® ICH2 chipset. AC97 Controller Integrated. 2 full IDE channels, up to ATA100. Low pin count interface for SIO. 4 USB ports. One CNR. One AGP 4X. Four 32-bit/33Mhz Master PCI bus slots. Supports 3.3v/5v PCI bus interface. (MS-6523).

MSI 6339 850 Pro motherboard, Socket 423 (socket 1) for Intel(R) Pentium(R)4 processors. Intel(R) 850 / ICH2 chipset 400 MHz FSB. 168-pin Gold-lead RIMM x4, maximum 2GB. Ultra DMA 100. AGP x1, CNR x1, PCI x5. On-board Audio ICH2 chip integrated. ATX
Also I have a 300w p4 compatible PSU that I could use with the system should I upgrade?

Anymore? just let me know.

[RocknBull]

I would buy a board and start the fun, hold off on the PSU see what that one does. You can always turn around and sell it.

Just my thoughts , i know i would :p

[stompah]

Originally posted by RocknBull
You can always turn around and sell it.



Thats a joke right? sell something? I am a packrat... it was HARD for me to sell 2-18g scsi drives that I never used. lol funny!

anyways I wouldnt sell the PSU just cause I could put it to use in another system.


I am really leaning towards making a system out of the P4 but my wallet is leaning towards getting rid of it. But I do own my wallet so who knows?

PS I hate my AMD systems. SO I am really leaning towards making it a system.

[batboy]

As you now realize, the 423 pin P-4 will soon be dead. But wait! I can tell you want to build a system with this P-4 that is burning a hole into your quivering little hand. The cheapest option is to get either Abit or Asus i845 motherboard for about $150 US (shipping extra). That way you can use the SDRAM that a packrat might already have or that you can buy for only $30 to $40 for a 256 stick of good PC133 RAM. Yes, you'll take a performance hit using SDRAM rather than RDRAM, but on the other hand, two 128 meg sticks of RDRAM will set you back $200 or more. Considering you all ready have the CPU, you might as well overclock what you got. Getting 1.7 to 1.8 gig out of that CPU should be easy. Who knows, maybe as high as 2 gig? Good luck. Almost forgot, if you have an older power supply, you might need to get a newer more powerful one with the special P-4 connectors. Another item to budget, sorry.

Posted later: I saw after initially posting the above, that you already have an extra P-4 compliant power supply, so no worries there.

[stompah]

batboy,

It came with 2 64mb sticks of rdram. so I guess I should go for the 850 chipset. I do have plenty of 256mb pc133 sticks laying around. But I think I will rather go rdram.

Anyway I am thing the Asus p4t??? anybody using this board? Tc as it and he is getting a decent overclock on it... I think its $170 but I need to double check.

[batboy]

Yes, I've heard good reviews on that Asus motherboard. The only other overclocking friendly i850 mobo to consider is the Abit TH7. Most reviews I've read seem split about which one of those two are really better.

If you have the RDRAM, then go for the i850, no question. That RDRAM is still expensive, even with recent price drops. I'm going to settle for a pair of 128 meg Samsung RDRAM PC800 modules. RDRAM memory prices are bound to get better.

Looks like I'm going to try building a 478 pin version of the P-4 1.5 gig CPU paired with an Abit TH7-II RAID motherboard. Just ordered a new Antec case for the project today. Hello 2 gig.

[stompah]

That high of an overclock eh? Goodluck, I just want 1.7-1.8 to make me happy then I will just use it as my main rig and never open the case again!

Looks like I may go with the Asus p4t. It will be my first asus board. I hope it is stable, more than I want a decent overclock. My be6 kinda let me down overclocking wise cause it would hang hard sometimes it would take a day before I could reuse it, very odd. I just want an easy board to o/c. I have no plans to max o/c this so I will be fine.

ok enough rambling... I know I am not making sense at this point.

Time to find $ for a new system :-(

[batboy]

Hey, I got 1.1 gig out of my P-III 700, why not hope for 2 gig from a 1.5 P-4? It's the same core as the 2 gig P-4 chips being sold right now for 4 times the price. I can dream.

[Burning Phoenix]

No problems here using my ASUS P4T with a 1.7ghz chip.

[stompah]

hehe batboy you have more luck than I do I could only get my p700 to boot to 135fsb, anymore and I got registry errors. Since then I have changed a few things and cannot recreate a reliable 133fsb :-( I wonder if I damaged my video card some how?

[Skywarp99]

I was thinking the same thing. If you look at the steppings in Intel spec sheet the new 478 pin 1.5-1.8Ghz chips are the older C1 stepping not the newer 1.9 and 2.0 Ghz D0 stepping. Intel have just made some new D0 stepping 1.5 - 2.0GHz chips in the 423 pin package these are the newer 1.9 and 2.0 GHz flip chip style on the 423 pin package. The SL spec is SL5SX for the 1.5Ghz model and it's an OEM chip. I'm thinking about trying to run the chip at 133Mhz fsb on a i850 Abit TH7 and if I have to set Rambus memory to PC600 which at 133MHz fsb would be PC800 speed. This would give 2.0 GHz speed and PC800 memory speed along tith 66 and 33 Mhz AGP/PCI speeds. Do you see any problems? Jerry

check this out

http://www.aceshardware.com/Spades/read.php?article_id=45000217

[JetMech]

Originally posted by stompah
batboy,

It came with 2 64mb sticks of rdram. so I guess I should go for the 850 chipset. I do have plenty of 256mb pc133 sticks laying around. But I think I will rather go rdram.

Anyway I am thing the Asus p4t??? anybody using this board? Tc as it and he is getting a decent overclock on it... I think its $170 but I need to double check. I use the Asus P4t and am satified with it. AnandTech has an article on their website that compares all i850 motherboards and I think you can get a lot of info from that. Also look at the MSI 850 Pro2 Lite. It is a 4 layer board and supposedly has a lower price. www.anandtech.com.