ABIT AG8-V - motherboard - ATX - i915P

Advantages: New chipset, and processor socket.
Disadvantages: Isn't as advanced as it's made out

...For a new LGA775 Pentium 4 motherboard boasting raft of high-speed technological highlights, Abit's AG8 has a remarkably short and demure name. While I'm not overly averse to product names using the words 'hyper', 'ultra', 'mega' and 'superbadass', it's rare to see a new product that isn't shouting about it's various innovations. The AG8 supports the new Intel LGA775 Pentium 4 CPUs, so the most immediate noticable aspect of it's appearnce is the huge buckle-like 'socket' itself. The AG8 uses the Intel 915P chip for the Northbridge, bt it is buried under a chunky heatsink with a 40mm fan attached to it. The 915 is the cutdown version 925, as the 865 was the cutdown version of the 875P, and the Pvariant denotes a lack of on-board graphics. While this isn't a serious omission, the AG8 also lacks the next iteration of on-board sound, Intel... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Solid, good features, reliable,
Disadvantages: Price

...Express Chipset - Intel 915P / Intel ICH6R Express Chipset - Supports Hi-Speed Universal Serial Bus (USB 2.0) Flexible Memory - Four 184-pin DIMM sockets (Un-buffered Non-ECC DIMM) - Supports Dual channel DDR 400/333 (Max. 4GB) PCI Express x16 graphics - PCI Express x16 graphics delivers up to 8GB/s per direction for 3.5 times more bandwidth than AGP8X at 2.1GB/s PCI Express x1 I/O - PCI Express x1 I/O offers 500MB/s concurrently, over 3.5 times more bandwidth than PCI at 133MB/s SATA Matrix RAID - Four ports SATA 150 RAID 0/1, deliver higher performance and data protection - Supports SATA AHCI, providing native command queuing and native hot plug 6 Channel Audio - On board Theater-class 6 Channels Audio - Professional digital audio interface supports auto jack sensing and optical S/PDIF In/Out IEEE 1394 - Supports 3 Ports IEEE... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Fast - stable - loves games - latest features
Disadvantages: might cost you a little more than most boards

...If you have ever considered building ur own PC but not sure what motherboard or CPU to use then consider AMD Althon with a Asus K7v motherboard they are stable, extremely quick compared to almost every other motherboard on the market (abit being the other). I have been building AMD for years now and its always been an up hill struggle with AMD CPU's and motherboards but thats all changed Mid 1999. I have had Pentium III 800 performing under par compared to an AMD 700. Why the motherboard is one of the most important aspects and this combined with AMD athlon or the new thunderbird will blow away any INTEL chip like for like. Games really do run like silk GTS 2 loves these boards. One final comment being a system builder i have encounter so many problems with the INTEL chipset over the last year ie...815...820... also Pentium 4 850 has... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful