VOGONS


The Motherboard Thread

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First post, by Oldskoolmaniac

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Have you ever tried searching for opinions and specification on a motherboard but cant seem to find any good reviews on it.... Well then this is the place for you.

Read Rules:
Post pick of said board as well as Specs and your opinion on it
When posting pic, just post a plain view of the motherboard
Give it either a 1 out off 5 star rating
One can quote and add in their opinion as well

Heres the first post:

Asus P3V4X
Memory Slots: 4 168-pin DIMM Slots supports up to 2GB of pc-133 SDRAM
CPU interface: Slot 1
Chipset: VIA Apollo Pro 133A, VIA 694X North Bridge, VIA 596B South Bridge
Form Factor: ATX
Expansion Slots: 0 AMR Slot, 1 AGP 4x Slot, 6 PCI Slots (6 Full Length), 1 ISA Slot (1 Shared / 1 Full Length)
IDE: ATA66
Year: 2000

My Rating: ****

Pros: Very good overclocker if you are not using a Slocket adapter or powerleap. Powerleap does run fine on this with a 1.4GHz plll-s. Strong solid caps, overall durable.
Cons: I would like to push my 1.4GHz a little further but it very unstable with adapters.

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Last edited by Oldskoolmaniac on 2016-07-07, 12:19. Edited 2 times in total.

Motherboard Reviews The Motherboard Thread
Plastic parts looking nasty and yellow try this Deyellowing Plastic

Reply 1 of 29, by PhilsComputerLab

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Oldskoolmaniac wrote:

I should also put the year

Year:2000

You can edit the existing post and just make the changes 😀

There should be an edit button at the top right section of the screen. Try to avoid making multiple posts one after the other.

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Reply 2 of 29, by keenmaster486

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PhilsComputerLab wrote:
Oldskoolmaniac wrote:

I should also put the year

Year:2000

You can edit the existing post and just make the changes 😀

There should be an edit button at the top right section of the screen. Try to avoid making multiple posts one after the other.

Notice the Hardware Mod in his natural habitat. He quickly and efficiently provides forum advice, skillfully interspersing emoticons as needed. This kind of skill is quickly disappearing in the internet world, and may soon be declared endangered. (dramatic music)

Sorry, couldn't resist 🤣

World's foremost 486 enjoyer.

Reply 3 of 29, by Oldskoolmaniac

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ok gotcha, is there a way to delete the other?

Motherboard Reviews The Motherboard Thread
Plastic parts looking nasty and yellow try this Deyellowing Plastic

Reply 4 of 29, by PhilsComputerLab

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Oldskoolmaniac wrote:

ok gotcha, is there a way to delete the other?

Done!

keenmaster486 wrote:

Notice the Hardware Mod in his natural habitat. He quickly and efficiently provides forum advice, skillfully interspersing emoticons as needed. This kind of skill is quickly disappearing in the internet world, and may soon be declared endangered. (dramatic music)

Sorry, couldn't resist 🤣

🤣

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Reply 5 of 29, by Imperious

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Please change the RED writing, it's not that easy to read with this background.

Atari 2600, TI994a, Vic20, c64, ZX Spectrum 128, Amstrad CPC464, Atari 65XE, Commodore Plus/4, Amiga 500
PC's from XT 8088, 486, Pentium MMX, K6, Athlon, P3, P4, 775, to current Ryzen 5600x.

Reply 6 of 29, by SRQ

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Is AGP-Pro rarer than I thought? Both of my PIII boards (CUSL2 and TUV4X) have it, but I can't find any others. Reason being my 3DLabs Wildcat 3 6110 doesn't work on them- not sure if it's the boards or the card. So, Vogon peeps- how often do you find boards with AGP-Pro?

Reply 7 of 29, by oerk

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SRQ wrote:

Is AGP-Pro rarer than I thought? Both of my PIII boards (CUSL2 and TUV4X) have it, but I can't find any others. Reason being my 3DLabs Wildcat 3 6110 doesn't work on them- not sure if it's the boards or the card. So, Vogon peeps- how often do you find boards with AGP-Pro?

It's an Asus thing. They were pretty much the only ones with AGP Pro slots. Didn't catch on.

Reply 8 of 29, by Trank

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The only AGP-Pro board i have ever seen in my life and own is an IBM Intellistation M Pro 6XXX. A very expensive workstation computer(I got it for free). I always assumed AGP-Pro was super rare myself. The one i got had a Quadro4. But it also could have came with a 3DLabs Wildcat 3 6110 or 7110. Seems like these boards were made with that 3dLabs card in mind.

Reply 9 of 29, by Carlos S. M.

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I have this old Pentium 4 Motherboard.

QDI Platinix 2 and varaints:

QDI Platinix 2A (With AC97 Audio)(Also the one i have)
QDI Platinix 2I (With an ISA Slot)
QDI Platinix 2L (With onboard Intel NIC)
QDI Platinix 2I-L (With both ISA slot and onboard Intel NIC)
QDI Platinix 2I-A (With both ISA slot and AC97 Audio)
QDI Platinix 2I-AL (With both ISA slot, onboard Intel NIC and AC97 Audio)

Memory Slots: 3 168-pin DIMM Slots supports up to 3 GB PC133 SDRAM (Supports ECC)
CPU Interface: Socket 478
CPU Support: Pentium 4 Willamette/Northwood, Celeron Willamette/Northwood
FSB Support: 400 Mhz (100 Mhz Base FSB clock)
FSB OC/UC Options: 105/108/114/120/123/128 MHz (Base FSB Clock)
Multiplier setting: Yes
Chipset: Intel 845 + ICH2
Form Factor: ATX
Expansion Slots: 1 AGP 4x Slot (1.5 volt only), 6 PCI Slots (6 Full Length), 1 CNR Slot, ISA Slot Optional
Audio: Crystal 4299 AC97 (Optional, Windows XP recorgnizes and install the standard Intel ICH2 AC97 Driver)
NIC: Intel 8255x 10/10 (Optional)
IDE: ATA-100
Year: 2001

My Rating: ***

Pros: SB-Link connector, allows changing multiplier in unlocked CPUS (untested)
Cons: Lower perfomance due to SDRAM, limited to FSB 400 MHz, only USB 1.1 Ports

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Last edited by Carlos S. M. on 2016-07-07, 12:47. Edited 1 time in total.

What is your biggest Pentium 4 Collection?
Socket 423/478 Motherboards with Universal AGP Slot
Socket 478 Motherboards with PCI-E Slots
LGA 775 Motherboards with AGP Slots
Experiences and thoughts with Socket 423 systems

Reply 10 of 29, by Oldskoolmaniac

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Imperious wrote:

Please change the RED writing, it's not that easy to read with this background.

Does the darker red work?

Motherboard Reviews The Motherboard Thread
Plastic parts looking nasty and yellow try this Deyellowing Plastic

Reply 11 of 29, by Imperious

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Oldskoolmaniac wrote:
Imperious wrote:

Please change the RED writing, it's not that easy to read with this background.

Does the darker red work?

Heaps better thanks

Atari 2600, TI994a, Vic20, c64, ZX Spectrum 128, Amstrad CPC464, Atari 65XE, Commodore Plus/4, Amiga 500
PC's from XT 8088, 486, Pentium MMX, K6, Athlon, P3, P4, 775, to current Ryzen 5600x.

Reply 12 of 29, by Carlos S. M.

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Another QDI motherboard i have, An old QDI Superb 4

Memory Slots: 3 184-pin DIMM Slots supports up to 3 GB DDR 333 SDRAM
CPU Interface: Socket 478
CPU Support: Pentium 4 Willamette/Northwood, Celeron Willamette/Northwood
FSB Support: 400 Mhz (100 Mhz Base FSB clock)
FSB OC/UC Options: 133 Mhz (Base FSB Clock)
Multiplier setting: No
Chipset: SiS 645 + 961 Southbridge
Form Factor: ATX
Expansion Slots: 1 AGP 4x Slot (1.5 volt only), 6 PCI Slots (6 Full Length), 1 CNR Slot
Audio: Realtek ALC201A AC97 (Optional)
NIC: None
IDE: ATA-100
Year: 2001

My Rating: ****

Pros: Good perfomance, unofficial FSB 533 support (via OC), DDR333 support
Cons: No multiplier OC, only USB 1.1 Ports

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What is your biggest Pentium 4 Collection?
Socket 423/478 Motherboards with Universal AGP Slot
Socket 478 Motherboards with PCI-E Slots
LGA 775 Motherboards with AGP Slots
Experiences and thoughts with Socket 423 systems

Reply 13 of 29, by Oldskoolmaniac

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Edit: Had to make some changes

ASUS P4P800-E

Supported CPU: Socket 478, Pentium 4 Prescott / Celeron D FSB 800/533 MHz, Hyper-Threading Technology
Chipset: Intel 865PE, South Bridge: Intel ICH5R
Onboard Video: None
Memory: DDR 400, Number of Memory Slots 4×184pin, Maximum Memory Supported 4GB, Dual Channel
Expansion Slots: 1 x AGP 4X / 8X, PCI Slots 5 x PCI Slots, 1 x ASUS Wi-Fi slot for optional wireless LAN upgrade
Storage Devices: PATA: 3 x ATA100, 4 x SATA 1.5 Gb/s, SATA RAID RAID 0/1/0+1, Multiple RAID, Additional RAID Controller Promise PDC20378
Onboard Audio: Realtek ALC850 8 Channels
Onboard LAN: Marvell 88E8001, Second LAN Chipset: Intel, Max LAN Speed 10/100/1000Mbps
Rear Panel Ports: 2x PS/2, 1x COM, 1x LPT, 4x USB 2.0, 1x IEEE 1394a, 1x Optical, 1x Coaxial, 6 Audio Ports
Form Factor: ATX
Dimensions: (W x L) 12.0" x 9.6"
Power Pin: 20 Pin
Year: 2004
Drivers & Downloads: (These drivers are for the deluxe, but still work for board just don't use the bios)http://www.asus.com/support/Download/1/15/19/1/8/

My rating: **

Pros: Very good performance with windows xp, it does have decent overclocking p4 3.4GHz @ 3.84GHz stable
Cons: Very bad 9x support, Bios updates are not existent cause Asus decided to end this board very fast in favor of the deluxe board also discussed in other forums on that note good luck finding a newer bios.

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Last edited by Oldskoolmaniac on 2017-01-04, 04:27. Edited 2 times in total.

Motherboard Reviews The Motherboard Thread
Plastic parts looking nasty and yellow try this Deyellowing Plastic

Reply 14 of 29, by Carlos S. M.

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Oldskoolmaniac wrote:
ASUS P4P800-E DELUXE […]
Show full quote

ASUS P4P800-E DELUXE

Supported CPU: Socket 478, Pentium 4 Prescott / Celeron D FSB 800/533 MHz, Hyper-Threading Technology
Chipset: Intel 865PE, South Bridge: Intel ICH5R
Onboard Video: None
Memory: DDR 400, Number of Memory Slots 4×184pin, Maximum Memory Supported 4GB, Dual Channel
Expansion Slots: 1 x AGP 4X / 8X, PCI Slots 5 x PCI Slots, 1 x ASUS Wi-Fi slot for optional wireless LAN upgrade
Storage Devices: PATA: 3 x ATA100, 4 x SATA 1.5 Gb/s, SATA RAID RAID 0/1/0+1, Multiple RAID, Additional RAID Controller Promise PDC20378
Onboard Audio: Realtek ALC850 8 Channels
Onboard LAN: Marvell 88E8001, Second LAN Chipset: Intel, Max LAN Speed 10/100/1000Mbps
Rear Panel Ports: 2x PS/2, 1x COM, 1x LPT, 4x USB 2.0, 1x IEEE 1394a, 1x Optical, 1x Coaxial, 6 Audio Ports
Form Factor: ATX
Dimensions: (W x L) 12.0" x 9.6"
Power Pin: 20 Pin
Year: 2004
Drivers & Downloads: http://www.asus.com/support/Download/1/15/19/1/8/

My rating: *****

Pros: Very good performance hands down best socket 478 board (in my opinion), very good overclocking p4 3.4GHz @ 3.84GHz stable
Cons: I have yet to find one

Nice, i have this motherboard too, currently with a 3.4 ghz Prescott at stock clocks, is one of my best i865PE motherboards along with my Abit AI7 and my Gigabyte GA-8IPE1000-G. Btw, you put the worng pic, the pic is from a ASUS P4P800-X

here the right pic

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What is your biggest Pentium 4 Collection?
Socket 423/478 Motherboards with Universal AGP Slot
Socket 478 Motherboards with PCI-E Slots
LGA 775 Motherboards with AGP Slots
Experiences and thoughts with Socket 423 systems

Reply 15 of 29, by shamino

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Scraphoarder posted about these recently. IBM 03N2499 motherboard, I have one which I removed from an IBM Intellistation M Pro Type 6889. These are old high dollar EATX workstation boards with nonstandard front panel wiring so they're a tough sell to somebody without the original chassis. They're also a tough sell to somebody who -does- have the original chassis because those people probably already have working boards. Liquidators might let you have them for not much more than the cost of shipping (which may be considerable in itself though).

The motherboard and case are EATX with standard mounting points. For whatever reason it seems to be a standard feature of EATX boards in that time period to have that piece cut out in the corner. I even have a generic EATX case from back then which requires that cutout for boards to fit.
It uses a normal ATX power supply. There's an additional 6pin ("half AT" or whatever) aux power connector but it ran for years without that plugged in, and that was with dual Katmais and full load of RAM installed. I don't know how it's connected electrically, maybe it's providing extra power for expansion cards.
Dual slot-1, 440BX chipset
4x PC100 SDRAM sockets, max 1GB using 4x 256MB Registered ECC. Unbuffered memory supported but I don't remember if it limits how much you can install.
1 AGP, 5 PCI, 1 ISA (the extension on one of the PCI slots can be ignored, it's for a particular RAID card)
Intel 82558 10/100 ethernet
Crystal CS4235 sound (no idea how this behaves in DOS, but you have an ISA slot anyway)
Adaptec AIC-7895H onboard SCSI
National Semiconductor chip marked "VS9912AB SI163090 PC97307-IBX/VUL (don't know what it is)

Caps: Sanyo OS-Con at CPU Vcore (extremely reliable) and Nichicon PL at the VRM input (ditto). Tantalums all over the board - very reliable for a board that's being used, but if the board sits for years then the tantalums could blow when repowered.

BIOS flash chip is a surface mounted TSOP. Don't plan on ever being able to replace it.

check this out - these motherboards were made in the UK. Board markings declare that it's designed and copyrighted by IBM themselves.

CPU support - originally intended for Deschutes 100FSB Pentium 2s, but will run up to dual Katmai CPUs. The BIOS refuses to run with Coppermines. My board supported Coppermine voltages but when I tried using them, the BIOS displays an error message stating that the CPU is unsupported and refuses to boot any further.
With Katmais I remember the BIOS complained about not having a suitable microcode update, but they worked. I think there was a setting in the BIOS to skip the warning. To be honest I don't remember for certain if I ever fully updated the BIOS on this board, but I think I would have done that when trying to get the Coppermines to work.

The main problem with this board is that the front panel connector(s) is proprietary, as it usually is with OEM boards. I don't really blame the PC manufacturers for doing that because generic front panel connections suck, but I wish an improved connector had been standardized instead of every manufacturer doing it their own way.
When I swapped a modern ATX motherboard into the Intellistation case, I had to work out the pinout of the original connector on the case side. I think there might have been some info buried on the internet but I remember also probing some pins with a meter so I don't remember how thorough the internet info was. I figured out at least 2 if not all 3 LEDs and the power switch, but I don't remember about reset. The "adapter" I rigged up was held together with tape and looked ghetto but it worked fine. [As an aside, the other issue with that swap was that the original IBM case only has 6 expansion card cutouts, because that's what this board uses. If anybody reading this wants to adapt an ATX board into that case, be aware of this when picking what board to use.]

To adapt in the opposite direction, using this motherboard with a standard case's front panel connectors might be trickier because you wouldn't have the connector that fits the board socket(s). I'm looking at the board now and I see a 7pin which is marked "power", "HDD", and something like "LTAN" or "LIAN". I guess that's power switch and the HD/LAN LEDs, not sure about the power LED. The pins are the smaller, closer spaced type that you see sometimes on OEM boards, and would need that type of small connector to plug into them.
There's a nearby 4 pin marked "HF LED", whatever that is. Maybe that's 2 separate things.
There a 2 pin with an unusual style of connector which is chassis intrusion. Presumably those pins could be left open but I'm not sure if it's normally open or normally closed.

------------------------------------------------------------

Summary: Quality is top notch, definitely better than typical retail boards, but the front panel issue and Katmai limitation kind of sucks. Lesser complaints are the lack of a replaceable BIOS chip and of course no support for overclocking. Requires an EATX case. In a pinch maybe you can just lay it on a table and figure out which 2 pins to short together as the power switch.

Personal Rating: 2/5 **
Quality is 5 star, but having to modify wiring to fit an ATX front panel is 1 star. Limitations as noted also make it less appealing to bother with for me. I guess I'll say 2 star, but if you don't mind the issues with integrating it into your system then you might score it way higher.

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Reply 16 of 29, by brostenen

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oerk wrote:
SRQ wrote:

Is AGP-Pro rarer than I thought? Both of my PIII boards (CUSL2 and TUV4X) have it, but I can't find any others. Reason being my 3DLabs Wildcat 3 6110 doesn't work on them- not sure if it's the boards or the card. So, Vogon peeps- how often do you find boards with AGP-Pro?

It's an Asus thing. They were pretty much the only ones with AGP Pro slots. Didn't catch on.

Somehow feels more stable than the average AGP, and they are all universal.
I can not complain about AGP-Pro slots. Never had any cards though.

Don't eat stuff off a 15 year old never cleaned cpu cooler.
Those cakes make you sick....

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Reply 17 of 29, by Carlos S. M.

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Long time i didn't post there, but i came again with another QDI board. The QDI Platinix 2E/333, i use that board on a P4 build with a sngle 1 GB RAM stick and a Radeon 8500 LE

Memory Slots: 2 184-pin DIMM Slots supports up to 2 GB DDR 333 SDRAM
CPU Interface: Socket 478
CPU Support: Pentium 4 Willamette/Northwood, Celeron Willamette/Northwood, HyperThreading support
FSB Support: 400/533 Mhz (100/133 Mhz Base FSB clock)
FSB OC/UC Options: Up to 166 MHz
Multiplier setting: No
Chipset: Intel 845PE + ICH4 Southbridge
Form Factor: ATX
Expansion Slots: 1 AGP 4x Slot (1.5 volt only), 6 PCI Slots (6 Full Length), ISA Slot optional
Audio: Realtek ALC650 AC97 (Optional)
NIC: None
IDE: ATA-100
Year: 2002

My Rating: *****

Pros: Good perfomance, HT support, DDR333 support, possibility of SB-Link, Two front USB Headers
Cons: No multiplier OC, no FSB 800 OC unlike most i845PE motherboards

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    173 downloads
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What is your biggest Pentium 4 Collection?
Socket 423/478 Motherboards with Universal AGP Slot
Socket 478 Motherboards with PCI-E Slots
LGA 775 Motherboards with AGP Slots
Experiences and thoughts with Socket 423 systems

Reply 18 of 29, by gdjacobs

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Can't find the SB-Link header (even unpopulated)...

Maybe it's just too early in the morning.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder