question about boards

[mccompunerd]

okay, here's my dilemma, i'm looking into getting a new rig set up and can't decide on a mobo. it's gonna be a p4, but i want to use ddr(limited budget). from what i'm seeing my options for chipsets are the intel 845pe, and the sis648, at least that's what all the boards i've been looking at use. so, any suggestions? i would like to have SATA in anticipation of the drives, but if it's a major price diff. i can do without, raid is optional, as is sound and lan... i won't be overclocking much, if at all, so that's not an issue.. so basically, i'm looking for a p4 board, ddr, pref. SATA, and all the other extras are completely optional...

btw, i'm not a noob to building my own sys, just to building an intel rig. i chose to switch after frying 3 amd chips and 2 boards in less than 2 years :-/ my current sys., which is nothing to brag about, is in my sig. well, off to surf i go.....:D

thanks in advance for any input :)

[Tweaked!]

Take a good look at the Abit IT7 max. I just built a Intel system for a friend and was impressed with this board. It's not the cheapest option out there, but a very good board.
The front page has a good review on the MSI GNB MAX Granite Bay Motherboard. Might want to check it out. Looks like a contender.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=207&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

The Asus P4G8X doesn't look too bad either though, here's a review on it:
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2002/asus/p4g8x/p4g8xp1.htm

So, in other words, do some homework first, there's some decent options hitting the streets. Enjoy:)

[worthless]

I'd suggest staying away from SIS...

If you won't be overclocking, and you are on a budget, you might want to look at some of the i845pe Albatron boards. I've been hearing good things about them. They are nice and cheap, and supposed to be pretty solid performers.

If you want a board with more bells and whistles, the Abit IT7-Max 2 v2.0 is a NICE board, but costly. Abit also just announced the BE7-G... looks to be pretty nice too (serial ata, gigabit ethernet), but I have no idea how much that's gonna cost.

[DDTUNG]

Originally posted by worthless
I'd suggest staying away from SIS...

If you won't be overclocking, and you are on a budget, you might want to look at some of the i845pe Albatron boards. I've been hearing good things about them. They are nice and cheap, and supposed to be pretty solid performers.

If you want a board with more bells and whistles, the Abit IT7-Max 2 v2.0 is a NICE board, but costly. Abit also just announced the BE7-G... looks to be pretty nice too (serial ata, gigabit ethernet), but I have no idea how much that's gonna cost.

I concur on the Albatron i845PE boards. I am using 12 of them running P4s at 3GHZ 24/7 in my folding farm. Solid performers.

DDTUNG:cool:

[mccompunerd]

thanks for the responses guys.. from the looks of the albatron, it may just be the board i'm looking for... i've got about 3 weeks to decide, and by then the prices on some of my top picks may have dropped enough, just wanted some input from y'all on some of the less expensive boards.... i really like the looks of the GB boards that are gonna be coming out, but i'm gonna try to have the sys put together by early january... i'll be using most of my current hardware, and using my current sys. for nothing but Folding, which i'm already doing, but only time it gets anything done is when i'm sleeping or not home, lol... rest of the time i've got too much crap running, hehe.... well, time to read up on the albatron, and try to decide on the chip... thanks once again for the input :)