This is wonderful. I've been looking for a PC-building list for some three
years now, while messing around with ancient computers to give away, and
rebuilding my own computer. Now I find PC-Build just in time for this
project!

-----Original Message-----
From: Walter R. Worth <[log in to unmask]

>I'm not friendly to "just" any motherboards--I
>expect alot from them. IMHO, they're the most important component of a
>machine; their purpose is to please their silicon driving master.  It
>stands to reason, then, that like many of you, I expect top-notch
>performance from a motherboard.

<bobbit>

<What I
>want from a board is stability, speed, and if possible, ease of setup.
>Lately many overclockers have been jumping for boards with     more nifty
>features, more voltage settings, and more bus speeds, sometimes
compromising
>that very stability we should all be striving for.  A       motherboard
>isn't the sum of a few BIOS settings and benchmark-tests.  The  mobo's
>performance has to be considered in a wide-spectrum of use, and stability
>has to be considered.

Yes! The most important things for me - since this computer is being built
by a group of friends including children and young people - are:

* Stability
* Ease of building
* Tech support for non-geeks
* A good manual that can be understood by non-geeks (and here the Abit
scored: I downloaded the manual as a .pdf and it's reasonably ungeeky)
* Price
* International availability

>The ASUS P3B-F is a unique moniker in the mobo world.  To the best of my
>knowledge, it's the first motherboard "model" to (confusingly) house
>multiple slot configurations and actually ships in a few different
>varieties!  There's a 5 PCI/2 ISA/1 AGP version, a 6PCI/1 ISA/1 AGP
version,
>and a 6 PCI/1 AGP version (no ISA for you!).  What does this mean you may
>ask?

I may, and I do. What *does* this mean? I'm slowly
beginning to learn. PCI slots are what you plug IDE cables into, right? ISA
is "industry standard architecture", which isn't standard any more and which
you don't plug anything into? AGP means "accelerated graphics port" and is a
place you stick a video card (?) to make it work better?

The myriad configurations have an upside, pf course,
>and that is choice.  You can shelter all your PCI components without the
>annoyance of unused ISA slots taking up space in your case.

What are PCI components, please?

>All that you
>have to do is purchase the mobo config that you want, and you're set (if
you
>can find that config,     of course).  For me, the 5/2/1 board, a
>configuration Abit users have grown quite affectionate with, was beckoning
>me. For the overclocker in you <lol>, you'll be happy to know that ASUS has
>stuck with the 83781D/WINBOND combination for hardware monitoring.

5/2/1? Five PCI slots, for plugging in your hard drive cables, CD-ROM cables
and things? Two ISA slots, for (?) And one AGP port for sticking in your
video card so it works better?

Overclocking is not important to me. What I want to build, with my young
friends, is a reasonably priced, good computer which will also be good for
playing the games they want to play.

>Both company's have excellent tech
>support, etc.  Aside from the personal biases, there are a lot of great
manu
>facturers of mobo's and you will have to decide for yourself which one will
>do what you want to accomplish.  I apologize for the long post.  HTH. :-)

Do they have good tech support internationally, by email? This  is important
for my group.

>One of the most interesting features of this motherboard is that it can
>utilize both dipswitches and a SoftMenu-style configuration tool (they call
>it JumperFree&#8482;).  Their answer to Abit's SoftMenu is,
>well...interesting.  The term that I can best use to describe it is
>"kludge".  Being neither as intuitive nor as user-friendly as Abit's,
>JumperFree clearly reveals it's frosh status.  The interface just isn't
>that great.  Then again, chances are, once you get everything set the way
>you like it, you won't be messing with it too much.

JumperFree is the Asus configuration menu? Does the manual tell you how to
set it?

Sorry to be so ignorant of computer building. I have actually rebuilt my own
computer, so I know where all the parts go, and so on - but I don't know the
terminology, so choosing a motherboard is proving extremely difficult. -
Conor

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