Advice on a motherboard that works with my hardware

I know a little about computers, but sometimes I need the help of
experts such as yourselves. I am in need of a motherboard upgrade.

I currently have a Gigabyte 8IHXP. The FSB is 133 and the max AGP is
4X. It is very stable, but I am looking for some speed increases.

I also have 4-256mg PC1066 Rimms, a P4 3.0 w/ hyperthreading and an
ATI 800XT Pro (AGP).

Would anyone know of a motherboard with all of these features? (or
most):

4 memory slots for PC1066
Max AGP 8X
FSB 533?
hyperthreading capability
onboard RAID
5 PCI slots

I am not asking anyone to do research for me. Just wondering if
anyone is familiar with something that will work here? Or maybe you
can point me in the right direction?

Thanks,
Scott

Your current board has a 533MHz Front side bus and all of the requested
features already, with the exception of 8X AGP support; your current MOBO
has 4X AGP. Since you're using PC1066 RDRAM and the 3.06GHz HT 533Mhz
Pentium 4, you're pretty much limited to the 850E series Intel chipset, and
motherboard manufacturers aren't building new boards based on this chipset.
You won't notice any real world performance gains by using an
identically-spec'd board using 8X vs. 4X AGP. The GA-8IHXP is an excellent
motherboard and I wouldn't waste money on another 850E chipset motherboard
to replace it.

If you later decide to upgrade, you should consider a different
chipset/BTX/CPU/memory/PCI-Express, once prices lower on new/upcoming
technology. You have a great system as is and I think that a current
upgrade is a waste of money.

My .02 cents,
--
Russell
http://tastycomputers.com

"Scott" wrote in message
...
I know a little about computers, but sometimes I need the help of
experts such as yourselves. I am in need of a motherboard upgrade.

I currently have a Gigabyte 8IHXP. The FSB is 133 and the max AGP is
4X. It is very stable, but I am looking for some speed increases.

I also have 4-256mg PC1066 Rimms, a P4 3.0 w/ hyperthreading and an
ATI 800XT Pro (AGP).

Would anyone know of a motherboard with all of these features? (or
most):

4 memory slots for PC1066
Max AGP 8X
FSB 533?
hyperthreading capability
onboard RAID
5 PCI slots

I am not asking anyone to do research for me. Just wondering if
anyone is familiar with something that will work here? Or maybe you
can point me in the right direction?

Thanks,
Scott

Thanks for your reply Russell. I stand corrected on my FSB specs. As
usual I learn the hard way with a little embarrassment. I misread the
specs on Sisoftware Sandra. It actually states 4 X 133. On the other
hand if I run the new Futuremark '05 benchmark the results tell me
that my FSB is 133. I'm not into benchmarking for the sake of
benchmarking but is there something wrong here? I believe in real
life results, but I do run some of these to see if there is something
major that needs attention. When I compare my system to others I find
that nearly every systems has a higher FSB setting. Is this due to
overclocking on their part? Would anyone know what the deal is here?

I've also read the same thing you have about the differences btween 4X
and 8X AGP. I'll stick with what I've got. Thanks again.


Your current board has a 533MHz Front side bus and all of the requested
features already, with the exception of 8X AGP support; your current MOBO
has 4X AGP. Since you're using PC1066 RDRAM and the 3.06GHz HT 533Mhz
Pentium 4, you're pretty much limited to the 850E series Intel chipset, and
motherboard manufacturers aren't building new boards based on this chipset.
You won't notice any real world performance gains by using an
identically-spec'd board using 8X vs. 4X AGP. The GA-8IHXP is an excellent
motherboard and I wouldn't waste money on another 850E chipset motherboard
to replace it.

If you later decide to upgrade, you should consider a different
chipset/BTX/CPU/memory/PCI-Express, once prices lower on new/upcoming
technology. You have a great system as is and I think that a current
upgrade is a waste of money.

My .02 cents,