Chipset advice needed

OK given i'm posting in here, i'm looking at a new motherboard with Intel
chipset.
I have been out of the hardware scene for some time so i'm very rusty, I
have an old P4 running on an old 875P Chipset.

I'm not a gamer so not into this doubling up of video cards neither am i
into over clocking in anyway etc, but i do have some old IDE hardware that i
would like to be in my new PC, a few old IDE hard drives as well as a couple
of DVD Burners, I guess nowadays these may have to be taken care of via a
promise IDE/PCI card or something like that, of course over time these will
all be replaced by SATA but funds are tight so no rush for me to go down
this route yet.

I would like the chipset to be able to take Core2 Quad / Core2 Duo as i'll
be using a Duo to start with and at a later date updaing to a Quad, I have
been looking at Asus boards as i've heard there quality and reliability are
forst class, so checked out some prices of ram at Crucial and it seems DDR3
is way to expensive so chipset must be able to take DDR2.

I have seen some boards mention "Intel® 45nm CPU Ready" can anyone sahed
some light on what this means please and is it something i should worry
about.

I will need chipset to be able to take 3 PCI boards ADSL card/tv card/modem,
also i have seen boards mention black and blue pci/e sockets yet i see no
mention of this on Intel's site can any help on this as well please.

Sorry for so many questions but as i say i'm rusty

Jim

Computer Hardware
Motherboards
Intel Motherboards (x)
ASUS (x)
CPU Socket Type : LGA 775 (x)
North Bridge : Intel P43/P45 (x)
PCI Slots : 3 (x)
(1-7 of 7 Results)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200280+50001315+ 1070509908+107172615+1073507581&Configurator=&Subc ategory=280&description=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&Ord er=BESTMATCH&srchInDesc=

On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:51:34 +0100, "Jim"
wrote:

OK given i'm posting in here, i'm looking at a new motherboard with Intel
chipset.
I have been out of the hardware scene for some time so i'm very rusty, I
have an old P4 running on an old 875P Chipset.

I'm not a gamer so not into this doubling up of video cards neither am i
into over clocking in anyway etc, but i do have some old IDE hardware that i
would like to be in my new PC, a few old IDE hard drives as well as a couple
of DVD Burners, I guess nowadays these may have to be taken care of via a
promise IDE/PCI card or something like that, of course over time these will
all be replaced by SATA but funds are tight so no rush for me to go down
this route yet.

I would like the chipset to be able to take Core2 Quad / Core2 Duo as i'll
be using a Duo to start with and at a later date updaing to a Quad, I have
been looking at Asus boards as i've heard there quality and reliability are
forst class, so checked out some prices of ram at Crucial and it seems DDR3
is way to expensive so chipset must be able to take DDR2.

I have seen some boards mention "Intel® 45nm CPU Ready" can anyone sahed
some light on what this means please and is it something i should worry
about.

I will need chipset to be able to take 3 PCI boards ADSL card/tv card/modem,
also i have seen boards mention black and blue pci/e sockets yet i see no
mention of this on Intel's site can any help on this as well please.

Sorry for so many questions but as i say i'm rusty

Jim

Jim wrote:
OK given i'm posting in here, i'm looking at a new motherboard with Intel
chipset.
I have been out of the hardware scene for some time so i'm very rusty, I
have an old P4 running on an old 875P Chipset.

I'm not a gamer so not into this doubling up of video cards neither am i
into over clocking in anyway etc, but i do have some old IDE hardware that i
would like to be in my new PC, a few old IDE hard drives as well as a couple
of DVD Burners, I guess nowadays these may have to be taken care of via a
promise IDE/PCI card or something like that, of course over time these will
all be replaced by SATA but funds are tight so no rush for me to go down
this route yet.

You'll find that the latest Intel chipsets X38 & X48 don't have any
support for the old-line IDE (PATA) connections anymore. The older
900-series chipsets do. If you want the latest chipset then your
motherboard will have provide PATA through an extra chipset. Many of
them do that in some cases, so you won't have to necessarily get a
Promise IDE card. However, they may only provide 1 channel of PATA,
which means you'll only get 2 IDE devices to connect to it. Another
alternative would be to buy an IDE-to-SATA converter for your hard disks.

Intel® Product Comparison Chart
http://compare.intel.com/pcc/default...&culture=en-US

I would like the chipset to be able to take Core2 Quad / Core2 Duo as i'll
be using a Duo to start with and at a later date updaing to a Quad, I have
been looking at Asus boards as i've heard there quality and reliability are
forst class, so checked out some prices of ram at Crucial and it seems DDR3
is way to expensive so chipset must be able to take DDR2.

I have seen some boards mention "Intel® 45nm CPU Ready" can anyone sahed
some light on what this means please and is it something i should worry
about.


The 45nm-ready stuff probably just means that the particular board has
support for all of the new voltages required for the 45nm versions of
the Core 2 family. The 45nm Core 2's run on the same socket at the 65nm
Core 2's, but require different voltages. The older boards may not have
those new voltages available. Also it's likely that some small BIOS
changes are required to detect the new Core 2's, so the BIOSes built
into these boards are already aware of these newer Core 2's.

Be aware that in a few months, a totally new architecture of Intel CPUs
is coming out, called Intel Core i7, originally codenamed Nehalem. These
will be completely incompatible with existing motherboards and chipsets.
Core i7 will be more like AMD's Phenom & Athlon in architecture with an
integrated memory controller, and a point-to-point interconnect called
QuickPath (similar to AMD's Hypertransport).

So by the time Core i7 comes out, either of two things will happen: (1)
cheaper older versions of Core 2 Quad will become rare, or (2) there
will be a flood of Core 2 Quads for sale on the market. These days
they're more likely to become rare than flooded. So you might want to
consider not bothering with a Core 2 Duo, and go straight to a low-end
Core 2 Quad right away.

I will need chipset to be able to take 3 PCI boards ADSL card/tv card/modem,
also i have seen boards mention black and blue pci/e sockets yet i see no
mention of this on Intel's site can any help on this as well please.


All motherboards provide PCI-Express these days rather than old-line
PCI. However, PCI-Express downwardly compatible with PCI, so you'll
actually get old-line PCI slots alongside one or two PCI-Express x16
slots for plugging graphic cards into. The PCI-e x16 has replaced the
AGP as the graphics card slot. Check the motherboard manufacturer's
descriptions to see what you really will get.

As far as motherboard manufacturers go, don't get too hooked on Asus.
The vast majority of boards I've owned have been Asus, but I can't say
that's because I prefer them -- they are just the most commonly
available most of the time. I've gotten some good boards from them, and
then some stinkers as well. Don't be afraid to buy a board from a lesser
known board maker, such as Gigabyte, MSI, ASRock, Shuttle, ECS, etc.

Yousuf Khan

"Yousuf Khan" wrote in message
...
Jim wrote:
OK given i'm posting in here, i'm looking at a new motherboard with Intel
chipset.
I have been out of the hardware scene for some time so i'm very rusty, I
have an old P4 running on an old 875P Chipset.

I'm not a gamer so not into this doubling up of video cards neither am i
into over clocking in anyway etc, but i do have some old IDE hardware
that i would like to be in my new PC, a few old IDE hard drives as well
as a couple of DVD Burners, I guess nowadays these may have to be taken
care of via a promise IDE/PCI card or something like that, of course over
time these will all be replaced by SATA but funds are tight so no rush
for me to go down this route yet.

You'll find that the latest Intel chipsets X38 & X48 don't have any
support for the old-line IDE (PATA) connections anymore. The older
900-series chipsets do. If you want the latest chipset then your
motherboard will have provide PATA through an extra chipset. Many of them
do that in some cases, so you won't have to necessarily get a Promise IDE
card. However, they may only provide 1 channel of PATA, which means you'll
only get 2 IDE devices to connect to it. Another alternative would be to
buy an IDE-to-SATA converter for your hard disks.

Intel® Product Comparison Chart
http://compare.intel.com/pcc/default...&culture=en-US

I would like the chipset to be able to take Core2 Quad / Core2 Duo as
i'll be using a Duo to start with and at a later date updaing to a Quad,
I have been looking at Asus boards as i've heard there quality and
reliability are forst class, so checked out some prices of ram at Crucial
and it seems DDR3 is way to expensive so chipset must be able to take
DDR2.

I have seen some boards mention "Intel® 45nm CPU Ready" can anyone sahed
some light on what this means please and is it something i should worry
about.


The 45nm-ready stuff probably just means that the particular board has
support for all of the new voltages required for the 45nm versions of the
Core 2 family. The 45nm Core 2's run on the same socket at the 65nm Core
2's, but require different voltages. The older boards may not have those
new voltages available. Also it's likely that some small BIOS changes are
required to detect the new Core 2's, so the BIOSes built into these boards
are already aware of these newer Core 2's.

Be aware that in a few months, a totally new architecture of Intel CPUs is
coming out, called Intel Core i7, originally codenamed Nehalem. These will
be completely incompatible with existing motherboards and chipsets. Core
i7 will be more like AMD's Phenom & Athlon in architecture with an
integrated memory controller, and a point-to-point interconnect called
QuickPath (similar to AMD's Hypertransport).

So by the time Core i7 comes out, either of two things will happen: (1)
cheaper older versions of Core 2 Quad will become rare, or (2) there will
be a flood of Core 2 Quads for sale on the market. These days they're more
likely to become rare than flooded. So you might want to consider not
bothering with a Core 2 Duo, and go straight to a low-end Core 2 Quad
right away.

I will need chipset to be able to take 3 PCI boards ADSL card/tv
card/modem, also i have seen boards mention black and blue pci/e sockets
yet i see no mention of this on Intel's site can any help on this as well
please.


All motherboards provide PCI-Express these days rather than old-line PCI.
However, PCI-Express downwardly compatible with PCI, so you'll actually
get old-line PCI slots alongside one or two PCI-Express x16 slots for
plugging graphic cards into. The PCI-e x16 has replaced the AGP as the
graphics card slot. Check the motherboard manufacturer's descriptions to
see what you really will get.

As far as motherboard manufacturers go, don't get too hooked on Asus. The
vast majority of boards I've owned have been Asus, but I can't say that's
because I prefer them -- they are just the most commonly available most of
the time. I've gotten some good boards from them, and then some stinkers
as well. Don't be afraid to buy a board from a lesser known board maker,
such as Gigabyte, MSI, ASRock, Shuttle, ECS, etc.

Yousuf Khan

Yousuf fantastic answer many thanks for taking the time to answer, i'm
looking at Asus just because they give a 3 year warranty, I have limited
funds so will have to check out the price of a low level Quad core, I was
think if i could not get decent IDE support i'd get a promise card or
IDE-to-SATA converter looks like these may be much easier, thanks for
letting me know about Core i7 I had no idea of this, i can't wait for this
plus i don't wan to adopt to early as knowing my luck it will be poo, I'll
think i'll end up going for something along the line of P35 or P45 as i say
not a huge gamer just do a fair bit of video encoding mpg to avi and DVD9 to
DVD5 using CCE and DVD-RB.

Once again many thanks for your input Yousuf

Jim

Jim wrote:
Yousuf fantastic answer many thanks for taking the time to answer, i'm
looking at Asus just because they give a 3 year warranty, I have limited
funds so will have to check out the price of a low level Quad core, I was
think if i could not get decent IDE support i'd get a promise card or
IDE-to-SATA converter looks like these may be much easier, thanks for
letting me know about Core i7 I had no idea of this, i can't wait for this
plus i don't wan to adopt to early as knowing my luck it will be poo, I'll
think i'll end up going for something along the line of P35 or P45 as i say
not a huge gamer just do a fair bit of video encoding mpg to avi and DVD9 to
DVD5 using CCE and DVD-RB.

Once again many thanks for your input Yousuf


You're welcome, but since when did Asus start offering a 3 year
warranty? I haven't checked recently, but I'm pretty sure none of my
boards came with a 3 year warranty.

Yousuf Khan

"Yousuf Khan" wrote in message
...
Jim wrote:
Yousuf fantastic answer many thanks for taking the time to answer, i'm
looking at Asus just because they give a 3 year warranty, I have limited
funds so will have to check out the price of a low level Quad core, I was
think if i could not get decent IDE support i'd get a promise card or
IDE-to-SATA converter looks like these may be much easier, thanks for
letting me know about Core i7 I had no idea of this, i can't wait for
this plus i don't wan to adopt to early as knowing my luck it will be
poo, I'll think i'll end up going for something along the line of P35 or
P45 as i say not a huge gamer just do a fair bit of video encoding mpg to
avi and DVD9 to DVD5 using CCE and DVD-RB.

Once again many thanks for your input Yousuf


You're welcome, but since when did Asus start offering a 3 year warranty?
I haven't checked recently, but I'm pretty sure none of my boards came
with a 3 year warranty.

Yousuf Khan

Hi Yousuf, I'm in UK and found the info at there UK site
http://support.asus.com/repair/repai...Language=en-us

Jim

On Aug 21, 1:08 am, "Jim" wrote:
Hi Yousuf, I'm in UK and found the info at there UK sitehttp://support.asus.com/repair/repair.aspx?no=201&SLanguage=en-us

Okay fine, another question, why are you only looking at Intel parts,
rather than AMD parts too? If you're on a bit of a budget, you'd be
better off going with an AMD triple or quad-core processor with an AMD
780G chipset. You'll get to use DDR2, and the graphics capabilities of
AMD chipsets are far superior to Intel ones. Although you said you're
not interested in playing games, you'll never know if a game tickles
your fancy, and the GPU of integrated AMD chipset is passable at
playing games, whereas Intel integrated GPUs are completely unsuited.
Plus the AMD chipsets have built in H.264 video decoding if you ever
plan on playing Bluray disks or just if you download such files from
the Internet.

Yousuf Khan

"Yousuf Khan" wrote in message
...
On Aug 21, 1:08 am, "Jim" wrote:
Hi Yousuf, I'm in UK and found the info at there UK
sitehttp://support.asus.com/repair/repair.aspx?no=201&SLanguage=en-us

Okay fine, another question, why are you only looking at Intel parts,
rather than AMD parts too? If you're on a bit of a budget, you'd be
better off going with an AMD triple or quad-core processor with an AMD
780G chipset. You'll get to use DDR2, and the graphics capabilities of
AMD chipsets are far superior to Intel ones. Although you said you're
not interested in playing games, you'll never know if a game tickles
your fancy, and the GPU of integrated AMD chipset is passable at
playing games, whereas Intel integrated GPUs are completely unsuited.
Plus the AMD chipsets have built in H.264 video decoding if you ever
plan on playing Bluray disks or just if you download such files from
the Internet.

Yousuf Khan

Hi Yousuf, sorry for delay in getting back to you, my 2nd build was AMD
route as you seemed to get more bang for you buck but last build was Intel
based and never had i have so few problems whole thing just seems more
stable, i just don't have the need for half decent graphics the only games i
play nowadays are stuff like backgammon, pacman, space invaders, I'm a kid
from the 80's so that's what rocks my boat, not cool to admit it i know but
that's me i guess, it looks like I'm going to go for P45 chipset, still
unsure of manf yet, like Asus as always read good things about them, Epox I
like but seem to have not done much of late and GigaByte i like as well but
i have a large tower case and it seems sometimes they place IDE socket at
strange place and makes it hard for people like me with big cases, but it's
not a huge worry, just need to make my choice in next day or so then i need
to look at CPU, do i go for high end Duo or low end Quad, Christ it's not
fun is it, it was so much easier in the days or 486 SX25 or even the quick
DX33

Jim