I got a free P4 mobo from Asus today! Need advise.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 2:45 pm

Dunno WTF is going on. Got an RMA return from Asus. It's a P4B Socket 478 mobo.

Thing is, I've never sent one of these back for RMA replacement. For that matter, I haven't sent ANYTHING to Asus for RMA in well over 10 months.

Just looked up the specs. It's no great mobo, but it sells for $100 at Essential computer. It's a socket 478 with ATA100, onboard AC97 audio, and uses standard SDRAM.

Well, well. Should I sell it or upgrade my P3-1000 LAN party system?

I checked prices real quick and I can get a P4 1.8Ghz at NewEgg for $132. Would I see much of an improvement over the P3-1000 or will the standard SDRam hold me back?

BTW, NewEgg also has a P4 1.8A for $141. Am I correct in assuming the only difference between the two is that the "A" version has a 512K cache as opposed to 256K, and should work in this mobo?

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 3:08 pm

both cpus would work, but the 1.8A is faster with the 512 cache, cooler - i think its the .13 process - the As also overclock a lot better, with a little loving you can get ~2.4 out of that simply by running it at 133 instead of 100 fsb - the sdr willhold you back significantly though i think because the p4s need lotsa bandwidth

you could probably trade it for a ddr board - 1.8 or more on a ddr board would be mucho faster than your 1.0

chottoED · Post by **chottoED** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 3:52 pm

sell it and buy a P4S533

smb · Post by **smb** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 7:53 pm

even if you overclock it to 133 it would still run like a cow. I would hae said dog, but it would still be slower than a dog. Pc133 really hold back p4's

nexus_7 · Post by **nexus_7** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 8:10 pm

yea, I would sell your older setup...why not....amybe even sell this board and buy a nicer one, cpu and some ddr.

Greg

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 9:48 pm

Well look boys, the P3-1000 is NOT my main system. It's my customer loaner/LAN party rig, and for video right now it only has a Geforce2 GTS. My main rig is an AMD XP 2000+ and I'm happy with that.

I'm not out to spend any extra money right now (just dropped $2500 for a new tranny in my '93 Suburban so my @ss hurts a bit right now

).

The question (which no one has answered

) is will a P4 1.8 running on this FREE P4B mobo with SDRAM (I'm not even going to count on being able to overclock, but if it does that's gravy) run appreciably faster than the P3-1000 that's in the loaner/LAN party rig right now?

I don't mind coughing up some money for the CPU since I can make it back by selling off the P3-1000 and the P3B mobo it's in to someone. However I'm not going to go crazy here.

The P3-1000 is more than adequate for a loaner system, but I wouldn't mind a little more horsepower when I use it for LAN parties. Right now it only has a GF2 GTS in it but whenever I upgrade my main rig's video next year, the GF3 Ti500 will go into the Lan Party rig.

So resist the urge to suggest a better mobo. Just tell me if you think I'll see any improvement with THIS mobo and a P4 1.8 over the P3-1000. Is the ram going to be a serious enough bottleneck to negate any benefit of the faster CPU?

Otherwise I'll probably just look for a deal on a 1.5Ghz P4 CPU, and put the mobo and CPU on the shelf for a spare in case a customer blows up a mobo.

Thanks...

PreDatoR · Post by **PreDatoR** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 10:04 pm

honestly i wouldn't waste my time. Its only gonna run at 100Mhz FSB when the actual chip can handle 400... The rams only gonna have bandwidth for 100 so the performance will be pretty crappy. There is a reason why P4 SDR boards never made it big. The P3 1 gig will probably perform just as good as the P4 on the crippled SDR board.

ShibasScotch · Post by **ShibasScotch** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 10:20 pm

id say sell it all and get a new car

))

Pugsley · Post by **Pugsley** » Tue Oct 22, 2002 1:36 am

$2500 for a tranny?!?!?! What you put in it? A strip ready powerglide? Dear god! I can get perfromance / towing 700R4 trannys for about 1500 each. And changing a trans on a surburan isnt that diffcult.

-EDIT-

Forgot you said its for a 93. them got the electronic crap in em.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Tue Oct 22, 2002 6:55 am

Yeah - lots of selenoids and electronics. Could have gotten the old one rebuilt for around $1800 but I really didn't want to try to salvage the old one. I know how badly it's been abused.

Got a GM Rebuilt unit (although I got it installed by a place I trust not the dealer - the dealer sux around here). Labor was $300, the rest was for the new tranny.

Truck has 130,000 on it but it's in great shape. Problem is the wife used it a lot the first several years, we towed a lot back then, and the woman is brutal on a transmission.

It's cheaper than buying a new truck