I'm planning my next project, which is named sceptre. It will be Pentium 3 based (yes, Pentium 3), but which motherboard should I run? My first, obvious choice, was the Abit ST6, with the Intel 815EP chipset, which with a P3 should be so solid that it makes any AMD/VIA system seem painful.... But, for only £30 more than the abit, I can get the Gigabyte GA-6VTXD. The advantages of the gigabyte are that it supports correctly the 1.4GHz, 512K cache PIII, while the Abit only supports the 1.266GHz 256K version. Further, the Gigabyte supports TWO of these faster CPUs. I question the stability of the gigabyte, being a VIA chipset, but I know Gigabyte make VERY stable boards (at the cost of overclocking features). However, I don't really think Sceptre needs Dual CPUs, but it seems so tempting, with the board so cheap (£105 for the gigabyte). The 815EP chipset also limits the Abit to only 512MB RAM. The other thing is that the system is going to be built in a VERY small case, which may make heat a problem, although the P3 chips I'm looking at only dissipate a similar amount of heat to a 700MHz Duron. However, a pair of them will generate about 2/3rds what my 1.633 Tbird puts out. The case cooling will be limited, as the intention for the project is a small, silent, yet fast machine. What do people reckon?
I could be wrong, but doesnt the ST6 support the 1.4 Tualatins with a BIOS update............. As for the Gigabyte, I would leave it............if you are after a stable system then dont get it for it has a VIA chipset (not as stable as Intels) and it sounds like you wouldnt be using it for heavy design stuff (cos the SCSI drives and stuff you may want would be noisy plus need cooling, so no use for a small case or silent system), and youso dual cpus is wasted IMHO Also, try getting a dual cpu board into a very small case and see why the Abit is a better option. 512Mb is plenty IMHO unless you want to be doing design work or video editing........... my 2p
True, it wouldn't be used for design work.... It's going to be a secondary machine to the one in my sig, which will also be upgraded (probably to AT7 and DDR, then a Tbred 2800+ or something). The other components for sceptre are likely to be matrox G550 graphics, 40GB barracuda IV, on board-sound, combined DVD/CD-RW, etc It's just the allure of dual CPUs...MUST RESIST.... And, it's not a BIOS thing...it's something to do with power requirements of the 512K cache PIII apparently. However, people have had the 512K cache versions work fine in Asus TUSL-C mobos...but there's no way I'm buying an asus. I reckon the abit would be ok as well (but it would be expensive finding out I was wrong...).
