| I recently decided to upgrade my Pentium III 800 | | | | means I should have expected. So I installed a |
| MHz machine, which at the time was being used as a | | | | Radeon 9600 Card into the machine for the test 256 |
| gentoo server. I am and most likely will always be a | | | | MB DDR version. It should be more than sufficient to |
| very big fan of Abit and Asus motherboards. Simply | | | | run this. Keeping in mind that this machine is still only |
| because their robust features, scalability and just all | | | | a Celeron with 512MB ram. My Pentium 4 3.4 Gig HT |
| out performance. However at the time I did not feel | | | | rig sometimes has problems playing 2 accounts Alt |
| like spending more than $200 to upgrade this old | | | | Tabbed. |
| server that hardly runs anything anymore except as | | | | |
| an archive for older files which I don't use anymore | | | | |
| either. So I opted out to go a different path. I | | | | Drivers installed and I log in to the first account, |
| strolled about a computer store and came about a | | | | once in game everything looked great, it was smooth |
| Biostar P4M800-M7A Motherboard combo. Now being | | | | no problems what so ever. I then ran the second |
| in the computer industry for about 15 years, biostar | | | | copy of camelot and logged in. Things became a bit |
| unfortunately in the early years had quite a few too | | | | choppy but nothing that I didn't expect. I left the |
| many problems for me and I completely left them | | | | machine on and started the timer. Here is some |
| out. However I finally decided to give it a shot. The | | | | information for you on the background networking of |
| motherboard comes bundled with an Intel Celeron D | | | | MMORPG games. These games are pretty network |
| Processor, which is pre-mounted on the motherboard. | | | | intensive and unless your network card runs well you |
| I walked over 3 feet picked up a good cpu cooler. | | | | will go linkdead often. Wether you have a fiber |
| Then walked 5 more feet and picked up a stick of | | | | connection or a DSL line it does not matter. I started |
| 512MB DDR ram. And a new ATX Power supply. | | | | doing laundry and inbetween had the characters run |
| Motherboard was $80, Ram was $45 CPU Cooler | | | | around through heavily populated areas. To check on |
| $25, and the new power supply $40. All out I spent | | | | the memory leak as well as to prevent from the |
| just a little less than $200 for a practically new | | | | accounts logging out automatically due to leaving |
| machine.Very skeptical I now head home to install | | | | them unattended. After about 4 hours of testing the |
| this new hardware. Very easy installation as with | | | | machine was still up and running, suprized by this I |
| most. Installed the CPU cooler with the heat transfer | | | | started running the characters around more and |
| gel it was supplied. Mounted the motherboard in the | | | | testing frame rates etc. I could notice a bit of |
| case and installed the power supply. Then installed | | | | graphics and video lag, this was not at all bad |
| the RAM and all the cables. I was now just about | | | | however since I have seen much worse in much |
| done. I started the machine up went through the | | | | shorter times on higher level machines. 2 Hours 19 |
| basic CMOS setup and configured everything as it | | | | minutes later the machine crashed while going |
| should be. At this time I was using all motherboard | | | | through 2 zones at the same time. |
| based resources. Sound is a 16 bit full duplex AC'97 | | | | |
| Rev 2.3 compatible six- channel audio system. I set | | | | |
| that up and also ran the cat 5 cable to the | | | | This now has completely surpassed my expectations |
| motherboard. Now with past experience I normally | | | | of my new machine which I paid less than 200 dollars |
| never use motherboard based networking due to so | | | | for. Before the video card install that is.Bottom line |
| many issues and problems that come about when | | | | for this article is : If you can't afford to spend the big |
| doing so. However it was a test run so I figured it | | | | bucks to get the biggest and the best, then the |
| would be worth it to see how things run. | | | | Biostar Combo Motherboards might be what you |
| | | | need. So far I now own 2 of these combo |
| | | | motherboards, I had been so impressed with it that 1 |
| Went to my online store ordered a new copy of | | | | was not enough!The Motherboard Model and |
| Windows XP Professional, and used my current stock | | | | Information follows below :Biostar P4M800-M7 A |
| copy of Windows XP Pro to install it on the new | | | | VIA P4M800/VT8237R+ Socket 775 |
| hardware. Everything went smooth and easy. Now | | | | Micro ATX |
| my type of testing is not quite the same as that of | | | | FSB 800 |
| most by using utilities to test the machines. I rather | | | | DDR 400 |
| use a real environment test. For this I decided to use | | | | Video |
| Dark Age of Camelot - Darkness Rising expansion. | | | | 6 CH Audio |
| Why would I do this you might ask? Well if you log 2 | | | | 8 USB 2.0 |
| accounts into Camelot by alt tabbing it creates a | | | | Lan |
| small memory leak. The better motherboards that I | | | | 3 PCI |
| have tested run about 8 hours alt tabbed on 1 gig of | | | | ATA 133 |
| ram without crashing or major lag etc. Where as | | | | 2DDR (2 gig max) |
| machines with 512MB take about 2 to 3 hours to fail. | | | | 2 SATA/RAID |
| Installed Camelot and noticed that the onboard | | | | AGP 8XIf I had to give this motherboard a score I'd |
| screen card was not at all sufficient, which by any | | | | give it 9 out of 10 for price versus performance. |