Motherboards and Dual Heading

Hi Everyone,

I'm just about to build a new system, this old Athalon K7 is a bit of a dog
now.

I'm gonna go for a P4 with 800Mhz FSB.

I'm on a bit of a budget but have regretted compromising on the motherboard
before. A friend whole heartedly recommends ASUS and any reviews I've read
seem very good. I've been looking at the S478 Intel 875P ATX A L R, not a
cheap option - any comments on that board?

I'm not that bothered about graphics performance and thought I'd throw in my
old Geforce 2 MX 32mb, however I do really want to dual head the machine.
Obviosuly if I buy the above board, that will mean putting an old PCI
graphics card in aswell as my Geforce 2 in the AGP slot, any comments on
that?

If I buy a motherboard with onboard graphics (bad idea?) e.g. the cheaper
Asus S478 Intel 865PE ATX A L R, and then plug in an extra graphics card can
I dual head like that or will the on-board be disabled?

Phew that was long,

Oh one last question what do you think of putting a 2.4Ghz chip in for a
while and then say a 3.2Ghz when the price drops? Considering my budget do
you think I'll notice a huge performace difference?

John Talbott

go with the 865 chipset board...they are the same only 865 does not support
ECC memory but the performance etc. is the same.

"John Talbott" wrote in message
...
Hi Everyone,

I'm just about to build a new system, this old Athalon K7 is a bit of a
dog
now.

I'm gonna go for a P4 with 800Mhz FSB.

I'm on a bit of a budget but have regretted compromising on the
motherboard
before. A friend whole heartedly recommends ASUS and any reviews I've read
seem very good. I've been looking at the S478 Intel 875P ATX A L R, not a
cheap option - any comments on that board?

I'm not that bothered about graphics performance and thought I'd throw in
my
old Geforce 2 MX 32mb, however I do really want to dual head the machine.
Obviosuly if I buy the above board, that will mean putting an old PCI
graphics card in aswell as my Geforce 2 in the AGP slot, any comments on
that?

If I buy a motherboard with onboard graphics (bad idea?) e.g. the cheaper
Asus S478 Intel 865PE ATX A L R, and then plug in an extra graphics card
can
I dual head like that or will the on-board be disabled?

Phew that was long,

Oh one last question what do you think of putting a 2.4Ghz chip in for a
while and then say a 3.2Ghz when the price drops? Considering my budget do
you think I'll notice a huge performace difference?

John Talbott

I agree. The P4P800 is an excellent value/performance board. Also, I think
the P4 2.4C will please OP plenty. As to the dual head issue, I'm fairly
certain that onboard graphics will be disabled, automatically, when you put
a card in the AGP slot. I believe you'll have to go with the PCI + AGP
route. Could be wrong, though.

-
Joseph stood up at show-n-tell, in ,
and said:

go with the 865 chipset board...they are the same only 865 does not
support ECC memory but the performance etc. is the same.

"John Talbott" wrote in message
...
Hi Everyone,

I'm just about to build a new system, this old Athalon K7 is a bit
of a dog now.

I'm gonna go for a P4 with 800Mhz FSB.

I'm on a bit of a budget but have regretted compromising on the
motherboard before. A friend whole heartedly recommends ASUS and any
reviews I've read seem very good. I've been looking at the S478
Intel 875P ATX A L R, not a cheap option - any comments on that
board?

I'm not that bothered about graphics performance and thought I'd
throw in my old Geforce 2 MX 32mb, however I do really want to dual
head the machine. Obviosuly if I buy the above board, that will mean
putting an old PCI graphics card in aswell as my Geforce 2 in the
AGP slot, any comments on that?

If I buy a motherboard with onboard graphics (bad idea?) e.g. the
cheaper Asus S478 Intel 865PE ATX A L R, and then plug in an extra
graphics card can I dual head like that or will the on-board be
disabled?

Phew that was long,

Oh one last question what do you think of putting a 2.4Ghz chip in
for a while and then say a 3.2Ghz when the price drops? Considering
my budget do you think I'll notice a huge performace difference?

John Talbott


--
Strontium

"It's no surprise, to me. I am my own worst enemy. `Cause every
now, and then, I kick the livin' **** `outta me." - Lit