0. COST <--- most important b4 u decide to buy anything
1. Chipset
2. PWM (Pulse Width Modulator)
3. MOSFET
4. Capacitor
5. PCB layers
6. BIOS Options
7. Warranty Issue

dude....thx for the guide....

but when i saw the price list .......it showed the value of PCB n clock, beside the price n product........

so that s y im asking......

i think my ques still not answered........

but charge.....thx

This post has been edited by Cyclone: Oct 25 2005, 08:25 PM

No probs

actually the clock shows the FSB. Faster means better, however nowadays most of the board has a base clock of 200MHz, so u cant realy differentiate them by using FSB only.

For PWM, MOSFET & Capacitors, you can actually see them on the spot and check if they are good or not. BIOS options can be found in online review, or even online manual from the motherboard websites.

Hope i can clear yr doubts

ya talking about caps, how do you differentiate taiwanese and japanese caps from the ciplak caps?

can anyone confirm this

i read somewhere b4 for AGP.. example AGP8X, the write to VGA memory is full 2GB but write to system memory(RAM) 1/10th of that or around 250MB..

they did a benchmark for that.. but i duno where izzit oledi..

what i know is PCIE is full bidirectional

How do you differentiate PWM, MOSFET & Capacitors of good and bad qualities?

AFAIK, HIP6301 is a very high quality PWM, not sure if any good one available nowadays.

MOSFET I'm not sure about the brand, general guideline is to choose a higher Ampere rating MOSFET (80A and above). Higher rating one allows can handle higher current and has less internal resistance, thus wont heat up that easily.

Good capacitors are those japanese one, such as Sanyo, Rubycon, KGZ and etc.. Not very sure about the brand though, hahaha. Higher capacitance value (usually 3000-3500nF) is better. Besides, there's also a voltage rating, higher means the capacitor able to operate with higher voltage.

There's another important factor : The power phase. Usually a motherboard has 3 phase power. Board with 4 phase power like the DFI Expert series can output smoother and more stable voltage. Well, this doesnt mean 4 phase is better than 3 phase too, bcoz we must see if the components in each phase is good enough. FYI, each phase consist of MOSFET and some inductor in a group. A 4 phase power system with crappy MOSFET perform worse than a 3 phase power with good MOSFET.

Actually you guys can js go google and search for some good info, I'm js providing some guideline about how to determine a good motherboard.



Jinaun, AGP 8X should be able to transmit up to 2.133GB/s theoretically --> able to write to system RAM at 2.13GB/s. Local VRAM write speed depends on the VRAM speed and the GPU memory interface. It has nothing to do with AGP8x or PCI-e 16x

This post has been edited by charge-n-go: Oct 27 2005, 04:03 PM

well.. i read abt it somewhere... its regarding writing to system memory through vga card is 1/10 slower... but system to vga is full speed... anyway.. i'll try to find the article..

by the way.. here is a VAR benchmark for my AGP card

=====================================================
C:\VARMemBench.exe sysmem
Allocating system memory array...OK
Running system memory benchmark...Done
System memory set speed: 1968 MB/s


C:\VARMemBench.exe agpmem
Getting wglAllocateMemoryNV proc address...OK
Getting wglFreeMemoryNV proc address...OK
Allocating AGP memory array...OK
Running AGP memory benchmark...Done
AGP Memory set speed: 3745 MB/s


C:\VARMemBench.exe vidmem
Getting wglAllocateMemoryNV proc address...OK
Getting wglFreeMemoryNV proc address...OK
Allocating video memory array...OK
Running video memory benchmark...Done
Video memory set speed: 3748 MB/s

============================================

here is the link to the site... http://cwdohnal.home.mindspring.com/var_me..._mem_bench.html

hmm.. wierd values... how come when go across the AGP bus.. its over 3.5GB?

This post has been edited by jinaun: Oct 27 2005, 11:50 PM

ah.. i see.. thanks lots. so i guess its worth to pay rm 200 more to go for DFI infinity ultra-D instead of modifying DFI infinity ultra into a 'fake' DFI infinity ultra-D
the capacitors are different.... and there is also an added fan on the chipset if i have not mistaken. NF4 chipsets are hot.

This post has been edited by joylay83: Oct 28 2005, 01:17 AM

The values seemed ok. AGP memory = Video memory in this case. They are the VRAM of your graphic card. System Memory refers to yr RAM.

As I mentioned earlier, theoretically the max System Memory access by AGP is 2.13GB/s, and we would never get the perfect value in real life. 1968MB/s is close to the theoretical value already.

Both 3748MB/s and 3745MB/s are very identical, hence they usually come from the same source connected with the same bus.


Joylay83, I didnt know the Ultra-D and Ultra has components difference LOL. Thanx for your info

discovered by accident too. these two boards are identical but one lack the 'cool accessories' which includes 100% jap caps and the super chun 'cmos reloaded' to over/underclock your mobo in 20 secs

lanparty ultra-D : rm 400+ http://www.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_product_s...TYPE=LP&SITE=US

infinity ultra (no D) : rm 600+ http://www.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_product_s...TYPE=LP&SITE=US

correct me if i'm wrong

This post has been edited by joylay83: Oct 28 2005, 02:57 PM

how to recognise E3 and E6?

the simple way"
http://www.amdcompare.com/us-en/desktop/

type your code (OPN) under the 'quick search'. select OPN and then search.

......what if at retail shop?

Okay it's my turn to post a noob question.
Read through everything, but still unsure.

My mobo is Asus P4PE. (Ancient, I know)

According to the specs, it supports AGP 4x (1.5v). Currently I'm using Nvidia GeForce 2 MX. (OMG, that's so 10 years ago. I know.)

I want to upgrade my graphic card, but I noticed that most of the AGP new ones are 8x.

In Empire's A-Z of Mobo, I learnt that AGP 4X and 8X graphic cards are not backward-compatible with 2X mobos.

But what if I use the AGP 8X ones on my mobo?
Is it right to assume that it will simply 'become' 4x, like how a DDR400 will 'downshift' to a slower speed if the mobo doesn't support the higher speed?

AGP2x = 3.3v
AGP4x = 1.5v
AGP8x = 0.8v
^correct me if i'm wrong. most if not all 8x card support 4x, means it can run 1.5v. just don't plug 8x card to mobo that only support 2x, unless you like a smoking casing

you must have bought the mobo when agp4x just came out. that time agp4x cards are expensive. so i think that explains why you have a agp2x card while your motheroboard supports agp 4x.

IMHO its better to get a 2nd hand agp4x card and put it into ur mobo. If you put an agp8x card inside, it will run too. but what's the point of paying for something that you can only use half of its power? Its not like in the future you are going to upgrade to a board that supports agp8x.

just my opinion.

plz look at this url b4 u go to the shop then

for all others too:
amd 64 what core, pin, wat, max temp, blah blah blah blah... here

http://www.amdboard.com/amd64_opn.html

hrm...seem like cannot recognise......
http://www.amdboard.com/amdid.html

xxboxx and joylay83, thanks for the answers, they're really helpful.