Suggestions for a new Motherboard

[UechiJ]

I have about $200.00 to spend on a new Motherboard for my new video machine I'm going to build. I was wondering what I should look for so it will be the best for video processing? Any recommended brands, features, etc. Or even what to stay away from? Any help would be appreciated. Thanx

[jfl330]

I am sure that you will get as many suggestions as response, many good m/b's out there.
If you're going to process mpeg2's and have software that'll support dual processors, then dual processors it is.
I have seen data which shows the Pentium 4's to be faster than the AMD's for video work.
I use an Abit KX7-333R with an single Athlon XP 2100. Very happy with it. I do not use Raid support for drives, but this would help for capture purposes when computer spends loads of time writing to disk. Not an asset for conversion as this is processor intensive, not hard drive.
512M ram is a must, more is probably a waste for most applications.
Windows XP Pro is fast and stable.
There are ALWAYS new m/b's and chipsets coming on the market which keeps prices down. If you buy right behond the curve, you can get a lot for your money.
Check out tomshardware.com and anandtech.com for very good reviews on all types of hardware.

[ya_jai]

I used Soyo PS4 dragon support up to P4@2.53GHz and 3 GB or 266-366 memory(3 slots), which is good for lower/cheaper class (less than $150)

This one comes with raid ide support also (4 ide channel) plus audio on board which supports 5 channel speaker. Oh and also network/lan on board.

Cons: with chipset SIS645D you won't have USB2.0 but have 6 ports of USB1.1 instead, but this one is not a problem for me becuz I can buy an add-on card later when I need it.

So far I don't have any problems with it, pretty stable in my case.

[UechiJ]

Thanks for the suggestions. I hear that the pent. 4 is the way to go.

[3dcandy]

P4 is probably the way if cost is no issue. Athlon's are still much better if you have a smaller budget, and you can generally pick up both Athlons and motherboards for less than P4 stuff. Whichever way you go, choose a quality motherboard with the features on that you really need, not extras that you think are cool, and choose one that has been well reviewed.

I personally tend to stick with a few manufacturers when putting PC's together - my Favourite has been Abit for many years, but ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI have also proved to be good choices.

[kayfam]

UechiJ,
I have 2 web sites in mind that you might want to check out. Both have pretty extensive reviews of all the new motherboard's and perfomance comparisons.
http://www.motherboards.org
http://www.tomshardware.com