VOGONS


First post, by Boohyaka

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Hi guys,

As I'm missing toying and testing stuff and having read a lot on the subject I'd just like some real-life opinions.

I have a modded P3-S Tualatin 1.4 running on a MS-6905 Master slotket on a P3B-F at 133 FSB. I also have a (currently unused) VIA C3 100x10 1.45V CPU and I want to toy with it with setmul etc.

My chain of thoughts was then to use the P3B-F and slotket with the VIA C3 to play with, and do a "ultimate" Win98 build around the Tualatin. I don't need an ISA slot for that build. So naturally I thought a s370 board would be a good choice for more performance but after reading some more, it seems the 440BX boards performance was still pretty much the same as i815 based boards, even taking into account the AGP2x vs 4x...

So basically my question is, is there a s370 board/chip that would be a noticeable performance increase to build around my modded Tualatin or is my P3B-F already about as good as it can get?
Would the AGP4x actually be able to make a good difference in some cases? Any other reason to look at s370 boards over my current config?

Thank you 😀

Reply 1 of 3, by bofh.fromhell

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ASUS P3B-F is close to the pinnacle of the P6 era motherboards.
Sure theres a few later chipsets, but they mostly address the lack of (official) 133MHz FSB support and add faster AGP speeds.
If your BX MB (and graphics card) are happy at 133 FSB I don't think there are anything that can beat it at the same frequency's.

That said, I like my ABIT ST6 (i815).
Official support for Tualatins.
No need for a slotket.
Native 133MHz FSB.
Limited to 512MB, tho realistically what would you do on a 2000-ish system that needs more? =)
Faster native IDE speeds.

Reply 2 of 3, by The Serpent Rider

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815 mobos are not interesting, because most of them lack ISA slot, few of them are excellent overclockers though. So ultimate option would be VIA 694T or 440BX motherboard.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 3 of 3, by Boohyaka

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OK then that's it, thanks for confirming. I'll keep it as it is, as it's happily running at FSB133 and got the slotket already there's no real incentive to switch it. I'll look at other options for the VIA C3. I have another build with a Gigabyte GA-6BXS and got another MS6905 master slotket, I tried some time ago and it didn't like the VIA cpu for some reason but I didn't spend much time on it. I'll try it properly again.

Thanks!