Go with the 865, especially if you plan to overclock the processor. It also supports more than 2GiB of RAM (3.6GiB to be exact).

The PT800 is single channel DDR400, so while it supports 533 and 800FSB CPUs, it won't give them full memory bandwidth

dominusprog wrote on 2025-10-07, 15:08:

Go with the 865, especially if you plan to overclock the processor. It also supports more than 2GiB of RAM (3.6GiB to be exact).

Is the 865 better than the 875?
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel-d875pbz-bonanza
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-p4p800-x

Guy wrote on 2025-10-07, 15:22:

Is the 865 better than the 875? https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel-d875pbz-bonanza https://theretroweb.com/motherboard […]
Show full quote

dominusprog wrote on 2025-10-07, 15:08:

Go with the 865, especially if you plan to overclock the processor. It also supports more than 2GiB of RAM (3.6GiB to be exact).

Is the 865 better than the 875?
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel-d875pbz-bonanza
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-p4p800-x

Yes, but in this case I'll go with the Intel board. The overall quality for the Intel board is much better.

dominusprog wrote on 2025-10-07, 15:27:

Guy wrote on 2025-10-07, 15:22:

Is the 865 better than the 875? https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel-d875pbz-bonanza https://theretroweb.com/motherboard […]
Show full quote

dominusprog wrote on 2025-10-07, 15:08:

Go with the 865, especially if you plan to overclock the processor. It also supports more than 2GiB of RAM (3.6GiB to be exact).

Is the 865 better than the 875?
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel-d875pbz-bonanza
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-p4p800-x

Yes, but in this case I'll go with the Intel board. The overall quality for the Intel board is much better.

Sorry for busting your balls but why is the 865 better than the 875 chipset? I thought that the higher the number the better.

Guy wrote on 2025-10-07, 16:24:

dominusprog wrote on 2025-10-07, 15:27:

Guy wrote on 2025-10-07, 15:22:

Is the 865 better than the 875?
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel-d875pbz-bonanza
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-p4p800-x

Yes, but in this case I'll go with the Intel board. The overall quality for the Intel board is much better.

Sorry for busting your balls but why is the 865 better than the 875 chipset? I thought that the higher the number the better.

No problem. Well, I have this memory in the back of my head that 865PE is a better chipset but after a little digging I found out that 865PE and 875 are the same. And the only difference between 865P and 875 is that the 865P doesn't support the PAT.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_acc … tion_technology

Some manufacturers had PAT enabled on 865PE under different names, which made difference practically practically non-existent. But 875P also has SMP support, which allowed to make workstation motherboards like ASUS PC-DL - https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-pc-dl

Ok got it, I guess I'm gonna make the switch to the Intel board. I should stick to a Northwood cpu right, not Prescott?

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2025-10-07, 16:41:

Some manufacturers had PAT enabled on 865PE under different names, which made difference practically practically non-existent. But 875P also has SMP support, which allowed to make workstation motherboards like ASUS PC-DL - https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/asus-pc-dl

That Asus board is a socket 604, I have a couple of nocona netbust xeons, but unfortunately no socket 604 motherboards.

They are not hard to find, no overclocking though, except few models.

Guy wrote on 2025-10-07, 16:51:

Ok got it, I guess I'm gonna make the switch to the Intel board. I should stick to a Northwood cpu right, not Prescott?

Stick to the Northwood. Prescott gets too hot under load, so you'll need something like the Gigabyte G-Power.

There's a bunch of revisions for S478 Prescott. Last one is cool enough.

dominusprog wrote on 2025-10-07, 17:58:

Guy wrote on 2025-10-07, 16:51:

Ok got it, I guess I'm gonna make the switch to the Intel board. I should stick to a Northwood cpu right, not Prescott?

Stick to the Northwood. Prescott gets too hot under load, so you'll need something like the Gigabyte G-Power.

The attachment s-l500-1603775397.jpg is no longer available

I have a 3ghz Northwood with ht, I'm gonna use that. Unfortunately the Intel doesn't post.
Don't know what the problem might be, it beeps 3 times and I get no signal. I can see one of the small caps is slightly bulged, maybe that's the problem. The Asus works just fine though I'm gonna go with that.

Based on the BIOS, three beeps indicate an issue with the RAM or graphics card.

I will say that VIA Technologies PT800 chipset is comparable to Intel 848P chipset.
Both support 800 MT / s (200 MHz Quad Data Rate or QDR) and DDR400 DDR SDRAM.
Personally, I will not say that VIA chipset around 2003 / 2004 time frame to be bad.
Generally speaking, Intel chipset tends to perform a few percent better on benchmarks compared to VIA / SiS chipsets, assuming similar configuration, but the difference is often so small that you may not notice it without benchmarking.
By 2003 or so, AGP related compatibility issues have been resolved.
At this point, whatever retro piece of equipment you can get a hold of is valuable.
I will not toss the mainboard unless it is completely broken (i.e., cracked PCB, smoked out PCB copper trace, etc.).

Guy wrote on 2025-10-07, 14:36:

I have a P4 system, it came with a MSI PT8 Neo-V mobo:
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/msi-pt8-neo-v

Is the pt800 a good and stable chipset, or should I switch to an Intel one, I have both 865 and 875 motherboards.

dominusprog wrote on Yesterday, 20:21:

Based on the BIOS, three beeps indicate an issue with the RAM or graphics card.

Yeah I used multiple different ram sticks, I cleaned the contracts on the mobo, tried different ram positions and graphics cards, it's all the same.
The Asus worked immediately.
It's very hit or miss with these old boards, I tested 2 crappy chips and tech. socket 370 boards and a socket A yesterday, all dead 🙁

bracecomputerlab wrote on Today, 05:21:

I will say that VIA Technologies PT800 chipset is comparable to Intel 848P chipset. Both support 800 MT / s (200 MHz Quad Data R […]
Show full quote

I will say that VIA Technologies PT800 chipset is comparable to Intel 848P chipset.
Both support 800 MT / s (200 MHz Quad Data Rate or QDR) and DDR400 DDR SDRAM.
Personally, I will not say that VIA chipset around 2003 / 2004 time frame to be bad.
Generally speaking, Intel chipset tends to perform a few percent better on benchmarks compared to VIA / SiS chipsets, assuming similar configuration, but the difference is often so small that you may not notice it without benchmarking.
By 2003 or so, AGP related compatibility issues have been resolved.
At this point, whatever retro piece of equipment you can get a hold of is valuable.
I will not toss the mainboard unless it is completely broken (i.e., cracked PCB, smoked out PCB copper trace, etc.).

Guy wrote on 2025-10-07, 14:36:

I have a P4 system, it came with a MSI PT8 Neo-V mobo:
https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/msi-pt8-neo-v

Is the pt800 a good and stable chipset, or should I switch to an Intel one, I have both 865 and 875 motherboards.

I'm definitely not throwing it out, it's good to have multiple working back ups:)

PT800 is usually coupled with flawed implementation of the VT8237 south bridge which can't work with modern HDDs/SDDs. There are some issues with AGP, but mostly due to how VIA doesn't lock AGP frequency while overclocking FSB. The next best thing after Intel are late SIS chipsets, not a lot of high end boards though.