[B1acku1a]

Hello, long time reader. First time poster. HA!!

I am about to start building my first PC. I am looking for opinions on mobo's. I was very close to purchasing the Soyo Dragon 2 Platinum. That was until I read a thread here where a couple of people described Soyo as being flaky.

I would like to buy P4 3.0GHz 478-Pin 800MHz FSB 512 KB L2 cache, etc., etc. processor.

I would like a good mobo to accomodate this processor. I would also like to spend less than $200.00.

Anybody got got an opinion? TIA!

[McTimson]

I don't kow much about Intel motherboards, but I've heard a lot of good stuff about the Asus boards. ]Here is a list of all the Asus boards Newegg has to offer, just pick the one with the features you need.

[B1acku1a]

I should have also mentioned that I would like it to support Serial ATA... and have a Flash/Smart card reader as well.

[sy2902]

Do you intend on doing any overclocking or run the CPU at rated speed?

If you want to OC, I would go with a board using the Intel 875 chipset vs the Intel 865. If you want to just run the machine as its designed, the 865 is fantastic and you will have no problems. As far as manufacturers, the aformentioned ASUS boards are very stable and I have been a rabid ABIT fan for years. They are both just rock solid hardware.

The suggestion of newegg.com is also a good one, great prices, great customer service.

A good 865 board will run you around 100-110 with SATA/raid support and the 875's are probably going to be closer to 160. If you go high end, check out the ABIT IC7-MAX series.

Gary

[RSM123]

B1acku1a

You might care to do some more background reading at one or two of these sites :

http://www.motherboards.org

http://www.overclockers.com

http://www.hardocp.com

http://www.techimo.com

http://www.sharkyextreme.com

The last four have both impartial product reviews and user forums where people post details of their setups - and discuss what sort of performance they got.