Tech Blackhole: Where I have been living

[OmnipotentKiwi]

Alright, it's that time of year (well, it comes a little early this year since my motherboard is possibly bad on my comp) where I might upgrade my computer. However, I have a nasty habbit of not following the tech trends when I can't afford stuff, because it just makes me want to spend money I do not have.

Anyhow, my main concern is the motherboard. Since it is distinctly possible mine is bad, and is unfortunately the one part I can't return in my computer, it is very likely I will need to replace it. My main concerns for a motherboard at this point is:
1. Upgradability (If that is a word)
2. Performance
3. Tweakability

My current system specs which will need to be supported by the motherboard are:
P4 2.2Ghz
2 512MB Sticks of Mushkin High Performance Black CAS222
Western Digital "J" Hard Drive 120GB
Sound Blaster Audigy

It's literally been probably 6 months since I've checked up on mobo technology advances. I know a little about the new i875P, but that is about it. Any suggestions would help.

[LesserShade]

I'm personally am looking forward to Serial ATA and will probably be making sure my next mobo has SATA support.

[OmnipotentKiwi]

Anything else besides the i875P chipsets have that yet?

Also the dual DDR stuff. Sounds nice, but expensive. Think that will end up floating?

[SpaceDrake]

You'll need one of the new P4 3ghz CPUs with the 800mhz FSB if you want to use a i875. It can be worth it, though: going the dual channel route, you can attain transfer speeds of 6.4 gigabytes per second between the CPU and memory. You'll need major cash forkage if you want all this, though.

[OmnipotentKiwi]

Yeah, I noticed all of that. :D

Question is though.... is that going to be the most likely "next step" in tech? If so, having a motherboard that could handle future upgrades is always nice (if it is fully backwards compatable that is).

And again, what about other mobos?

[Daleon]

Well I have been AMD since Thunderbird and haven't cared to much for P4's. The canterwood and 800mhz Intel really does improve things for Intel. They finnally have HyperThreading working right and actually improving performance, even in games, instead of hurting performance. The 800mhz bus is insane. This is also one of the first boards that dual channel will make a serious improvement with. That all being said, the mobos are going to cost quite a bit, atleast for the really good ones that use Intel gigabit chips instead of 3com's. And the 3ghz chip is easily gonna be $600 prolly, even though they say its being released for $400 in orders of a 1k or something. We'll see when it comes.

Newegg does have the Gigabyte GA-8IK1100. Its one of the only canterwood mb's out I can find. Its $195, uses the intel gigabit which is important. Supports older p4's also so you can upgrade later which is one of the most important things. Other than that, the Asus P4SDX SiS 655 chipset is an excellent mb and supports dual channel also, just doesn't implement it anywhere near as good as canterwood.

[Zatrais]

Next step now is the 800 mhz cpu fsb's running dual channel 400mhz DDR's on a 875 chipset...

course thats gonna cost a pretty penny hehe.....

Would help if you posted the money you have to toy whit.

[CDL Full Otto]

I have the Asus P4G8X motherboard, it has SATA support, Firewire and USB support. It supports up past the 3.0 Speed. Supports 8x AGP and has a Gigabit nic built in (sound is built in to but everyone usually has a better one and disables it)

This also has 4 memory slots and is dual channel.

As for upgradability, in today's computer world, seems like you always have to replace your system board anyways.

I think Asus just released an even newer one that has more SATA support (2 raid and 2 non raid drives via SATA) has 8 USB and a couple of Firewire if I am not mistaken. These boards run from $240+ in price I believe.

Otto

[OmnipotentKiwi]

Zat: Money isn't a serious issue. I have about $600 USD I can spend on my comp but I obviously don't want to sink that all into a new mobo ;) Basically what the biggest concern for me is the value of my money spent. I am basically looking for a replacement that will be most cost effective, and I actually think the new expensive boards may be more cost effective for one big reason:
I'll probably be doing a rather extensive computer upgrade in about six months.

That being said. If these new boards ARE going to be the next line of technology, they would probably still be the boards to have in six months. If that is true, no point spending $100 now on a normal boards and $100 later, might as well spend $200 now.

[Zatrais]

Originally posted by OmnipotentKiwi
Zat: Money isn't a serious issue. I have about $600 USD I can spend on my comp but I obviously don't want to sink that all into a new mobo ;) Basically what the biggest concern for me is the value of my money spent. I am basically looking for a replacement that will be most cost effective, and I actually think the new expensive boards may be more cost effective for one big reason:
I'll probably be doing a rather extensive computer upgrade in about six months.

That being said. If these new boards ARE going to be the next line of technology, they would probably still be the boards to have in six months. If that is true, no point spending $100 now on a normal boards and $100 later, might as well spend $200 now.

They're new so they're buggy. New hardware always have some issues to iron.

If you're planning on doing a major comp revival in 6 months then i'd just get a cheap granitebay board as a holdover and wait for second batch 800mhz fbs boards.