Can anyone recommend a Socket 370 MB?

OmegaZero · Post by **OmegaZero** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 11:48 am

Can anyone recommend a Socket 370 motherboard?

Two criteria: Quality/stability and availability.

Obviously the latter of the two is the most difficult. I have found quite a few boards that look promising, but none that are available. I'd love to make use of the Celeron Tualatin (1.3GHz) that I have sitting in my closet...

(I should add that I am not a huge fan of DFI)

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 2:35 pm

You should be able to find an Intel 815 MB on ebay dirt cheap (used). I have one in a PIII 866 that I just semi-retired and they are very stable.

OmegaZero · Post by **OmegaZero** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 7:10 pm

m0002a wrote:You should be able to find an Intel 815 MB on ebay

None at the moment

.

Ok... What do people think about the Soyo 7VBA133U? It looks pretty decent to me - I can get it for $45 shipped.

Honestly, I REALLY need some help here. I have no idea what was good in the PIII/Tualatin generation of motherboards. Even more troublesome is that the only ones I can find with decent reviews are all discontinued. Has anyone had experience with this board? Are Soyo boards good in general? Please advise...

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 7:33 pm

There are at least 20 Intel D815xxx MB's for sale right now on Ebay. Look under PIII motherboards and serch for "Intel". They have slightly different configurations depending on whether they have on-board video, etc. Some were sold with Gateway Computers (like mine).

You should check the manufacturer website to make sure any board you are considering supports your specific CPU.

OmegaZero · Post by **OmegaZero** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 7:44 pm

m0002a wrote:There are at least 20 Intel D815xxx MB's for sale right now on Ebay.

All the ones I saw came with CPUs or were taken out of an old OEM build. I wouldn't buy a gateway - I am certainly not going to build a PC around a second-hand Gateway motherboard. Thank you for the suggestion though, I do appreciate it.

Any thoughts on that Soyo board? It's a VIA 694T chipset - Is that any good? Tough to find reviews on such an old product...

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 7:59 pm

I mentioned in my first post that they Intel 815 boards for sale are all used. The Intel D815EEA boards that come from Gateway machines are not any different than other Intel D815EEA boards. The D815EEA was certainly better than the any PIII Via chipset board, but I don't know what CPU's either board supports.

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 8:09 pm

If you insist on a new MB, I would consider this one with an Intel 815 Chipset:
http://www.biostar.com.tw/products/main ... name=M6TSU

OmegaZero · Post by **OmegaZero** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 8:46 pm

I hear what you are saying about VIA vs. Intel chipsets. How is Biostar as a company? Do they generally make good boards? The fact that they aren't listed once on the recommended motherboards page is not very comforting.

I'm definitly going to have to try to get hold of an 815 though....

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 8:57 pm

I have a Biostar Socket A board that runs fine. The M6TSU has a fairly recent bios update (for a 370 MB) and specifically claims to support the 1.3 Celeron.

I thought the "recommended list" was just a compilation of undervoltable MB's. If you need to undervolt, then more research may be needed into the Biostar.

el_ · Post by **el_** » Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:48 pm

okay look at the overclockers.com cpu database for your chip and find what mobo the overclockers are/were using buy that one as it will be stable and have tons of options to raise/lower vcore. An added bonus is it tells you how well the chip will run if you decide to overclock it or under volt it. google for reviews once you find the mobo you are interested in.

Asus CUSL2-C from above

link http://www.cpudatabase.com/index.cfm?Action=search

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 5:43 am

el_ wrote:
Asus CUSL2-C from above

link http://www.cpudatabase.com/index.cfm?Action=search

CUSL2-C will not run a Tualatin CPU without an adapter socket. For Tualatin support you'll need a TUSL2-C, which happens to be one of the best, most stable S370 boards ever built.

As an ex-Tualatin junkie (see my early posts here at SPCR) I would recommend the following (and they will be hard to find. No decent S370 board has been produced since mid/late 2001):

-Asus TUSL2 series

-Abit ST6 series

-Intel 815E series (or even 815G with integrated graphics)

(and, in a pinch, just about any board with an 815 chipset. They're far and away the most stable of the S370 platforms, with their only limitation being 512MB max RAM. I' stay away from the various VIA and other non-Intel chipset S370 boards)

OmegaZero · Post by **OmegaZero** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 6:13 am

Ralf Hutter wrote:They're far and away the most stable of the S370 platforms, with their only limitation being 512MB max RAM.

That is per slot/bank, right? I've seen many boards with 1.5GB max total RAM.

I am definitely going to look for an 815E - Thank you all for that info.

I think I might be able to get a Soyo SY-TISU. Will start looking for that Asus TUSL2-C.

Can anyone recommend a possible source for these boards? Anyone have a flux capacitor I can borrow for a week or so?

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 9:39 am

The Intel 815 boards have a limit of 512 MB RAM total. I don't know about all the other boards that use the 815 chipset, but the Biostar one I mentioned has the same limit. The fastest DRAM is usually PC133.

OmegaZero · Post by **OmegaZero** » Tue Apr 19, 2005 10:38 am

What about using a Slot 1 motherboard with a PowerLeap Slot 1 -> Socket 370 adapter. If I did this I could use all 768MB of PC133 that I have laying around. Would that be faster? Slower? Less stable?

I have used this setup before with this processor, and even have a nice big passive heatsink that works with it. I thought that getting an actual socket 370 board would be a better idea though, no?

OmegaZero · Post by **OmegaZero** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 6:41 pm

Has no one used one of these slot adapters? Any opinions on Slot 1 vs. Socket 370 motherboards/chipsets?

pony-tail · Post by **pony-tail** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 11:37 am

It is far easier to get a Socket 370 quiet cooler (or passive) than a Slot 1 cooler .
I would recomend Just about any i815 chipset board - note that the limitation of 512meg ram is the 815 northbridge itself and there is no work around for it
Our internet gateway uses an i820 chipset is completely stable (runs 24/7) with a passive cooled 1gig PIII and has done for years - BUT it takes Rambus ram .
It slightly out performs the other PIII chipsets - but unless you have a source of cheap ram is NOT worth the bother.
If cost is the problem - I would go a Pentium 4 1.6a (northwood) on an 845 chipset board as these are not much dearer than a 1ghz PII and are better technology - Asus made some very good 845 boards - Check out eBay as I have seen these older P4 boards go for less than $50 AU and the 1.6 gig 512k P4s are very easy to cool

bzo · Post by **bzo** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 11:52 am

I will reiterate the warning about the 512mb limitation on intel 810 and 815 chipsets. I was pretty irritated when I tried to upgrade the RAM in my server at home to find out about this limitation.

I'm planning on moving my server over to a via 694d chipset or to an old athlon xp setup I have (undervolted and underclocked) as either should support up to 1.5G of PC133 (that I also have a bunch of laying around).

I would imagine the biggest problem going to slot 1 is that most boards with it are going to have older chipsets. P3 boards are already antiques and ones with slot 1 are more so.

OmegaZero · Post by **OmegaZero** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 1:23 pm

I have actually decided to go with a Celeron D @ 2.53 GHz on a Asus P4C800-E instead of bothering with my old stuff (gotta love tax returns!).

Anyone want the antiques?

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 1:26 pm

OmegaZero wrote:(gotta love tax returns!).

Do you mean "tax refunds"? You would not have liked to pay the amount I owed with my tax return.

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Tue Apr 26, 2005 1:41 pm

pony-tail wrote:It is far easier to get a Socket 370 quiet cooler (or passive) than a Slot 1 cooler .

It's pretty easy to get a silent Slot 1 cooler, if your mobo doesn't have excessively tall caps near the CPU slot. A Zalman ZM80A or ZM80C VGA cooler works great on a Slot 1 processor! I have one on my Slot 1 Pentium III 550, although I'd recommend having at least some slight airflow over it.

I decided to leave mine completely passive for some time, and I think it popped something...I'm not sure. Anyway, it was completely silent before for many months, but after "something" happened, I hear a soft "boiling" rumbling whenever the CPU is taxed.

mb2 · Post by **mb2** » Sun May 01, 2005 11:47 am

OmegaZero wrote:How is Biostar as a company? Do they generally make good boards? The fact that they aren't listed once on the recommended motherboards page is not very comforting.

look a little closer... "Biostar M7NCG-400"

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Sun May 01, 2005 2:41 pm

mb2 wrote:look a little closer... "Biostar M7NCG-400"

It doesn't matter if Biostar is listed or not. It is not a a list of recommended mtherboards. It is a list of Undervoltable Motherboards, and I don't think it is guaranteed to be a complete list.

sixscrews · Post by **sixscrews** » Mon May 02, 2005 7:56 pm

If you can find one, the Supermicro P3TDDE is a nice board. It can be run as a DP or SP rig and can handle 4 GB of RAM (PC133).

Here's a link:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/moth ... P3TDDE.cfm

It's discontinued and I haven't checked eBay but there might be some available.

I have owned 8 SM boards over the years and never have had any problems with them. They are pricey but you get what you pay for. My present farm has two SM systems: a P3TDDE with 2 'Tulatin's' and a P4DC6 (Intel 860) with two 2 x Xeon 1.8 Ghz 'Prestonia' Both have been running 24 x 7 for three years w/o hardware-related problems.

ss

trxman · Post by **trxman** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:26 am

Ralf Hutter wrote:As an ex-Tualatin junkie (see my early posts here at SPCR) I would recommend the following (and they will be hard to find. No decent S370 board has been produced since mid/late 2001):

-Asus TUSL2 series

-Abit ST6 series

-Intel 815E series (or even 815G with integrated graphics)

I have an old Abit BE6-II board. I've found this:
http://www.burlakov.com/pl/

It seems that Intel BX440 board can run Tualatin core with specific adapter.
Is it enought that adapter have 133MHz and 1.5V settings?