At 10:17 AM 10/14/00 -0400, you wrote:
>Greetings to all list members,
>
>A friend has offered to assemble my new computer.  He suggests that I
>choose the one of the 2 following motherboards: Asus P5A or Asus P5A-B.
>I would like to know what the
>knowledgeable members of this list and actual owners of said
>motherboards think of these products.  Are they fairly recent boards?

Sylvie: If you have not already done so, you really should decide what you
want the computer to be able to do. But, for what it is worth, I use the
ASUS P5 A-B motherboard in both my computers. I think they are great. I've
had one of them for almost two years and selected it to be able to still
use my old AT computer case and CPU as well as some of my other hardware.
Just recently I got another P5 A-B and a mid tower AT case to build another
computer from spare parts I had on hand. My "main" computer has an AMD K6
450 MHz CPU, 128 MB PC100 SDRAM, ATI Expert & Play video card with 8 MB
ram, a Yamaha sound card, 56 K win modem, 2 large HDs, SparQ internal
removable drive,  a Mitsumi CD burner, a UMAX Astra SCSI scanner and an HP
Deskjet 812C printer. It is perfect for my office and Internet type needs.

The other computer only has a 200 MHz CPU and 32 MB of RAM. This machine
has fewer demands placed on it but I am pleasantly surprised at how well it
performs. Both have Win 98 SE installed.

If I had chosen the P5A board I would have had to buy a new ATX case and
CPU. It has the same features as the A-B but a different form factor for
the CPU. Unless I read the specifications wrong, neither board can be
upgraded very much. Go to www.ASUS.com  and have a look. So, unless you
have a lot of hardware on hand to go in the new computer I don't know why
you would choose either board. There are several ASUS boards that take the
current technology and could be upgraded.

>What
>processor would you recommend to go along with each board?

The last A-B board cost me $120 CDN in Kingston, Ontario- just down the
road from you. If you can find one and at that price, I would stick with an
AMD processor. According to the ASUS specs, the P5s will take "all socket 7
processors prior to Mar 2000" . There is an ASUS P3V board, for one
example, that does not cost much more and takes faster Intel CPUs. You
might go http://www.com-depot.com/ and have a look at their Parts listings.


>  Are there any documented problems with particular
>hardware components, peripherals?

None that I have encountered.

Good luck,

Peter Darrach

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