Looking 4 value P4 Mobo's

[0iD]

OK chaps, here's the drill. Looking for a middle-of-the road P4 mobo to put in a couple of PC's.

Was looking at the Abit AI7, any experiences? Hav plenty of experience of the IC7, had 3 northbridge heatsinks fall off, one fell onto & shorted out a v-expensiv graphics card

Any other suggestions?

[-mb-]

The SiS 655 FX and TX chipsets are excellent budget ones - as good as the Intel 865, but without the overclocking. They do have stuff like SATA, RAID, 800Mhz FSB, dual channel DDR400 etc. (The TX is slightly better than the FX)

Mainstream motherboard manufacturers make very cheap boards with them, such as the top quality Asus P4S800D and P4S800D-E Deluxe:
http://uk.asus.com/products/mb/socke...d/overview.htm
http://uk.asus.com/products/mb/socke...d/overview.htm

The Asus P4S800D is £41 from ebuyer.com:
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...=54501&_LOC=UK

While the Asus P4S800D-E Deluxe is £70 from overclock.co.uk:
http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/...roductid=17273

Trust me that both the SiS 655 FX and TX are a better buy that the cut-down Intel 848P which isn't cheaper, and is slower, with fewer features...

The cheapest 865PE motherboard I can find is the Shuttle P4 AB60N at £48 from microdirect.co.uk:
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...ource=Dealtime

However, it will not have all the features of the Asus SiS motherboards, and the Asus is better quality, and has features like passive Northbridge cooling, which is nice.
I would not recommend the Abit, as they are not known for reliability, especially with cheap, noisy Northbridge fans.

[0iD]

Cheers m8, i'll give them a look. Reliability is what i'm really after as theyre not going to be o'clocked, but will be running 24/7.

[Rythmic]

If you're just looking for one or two motherboards - then overclockers currently have a few in the clearance section:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal..._Lines_16.html

might get you a cheap 875 board