asus cubx vs. ecs p6s5at

[thp123]

hi every one
after 3 days of searching and reading, i am still indecisive:
should i mount my p3 700mhz onto a cubx or a p6s5at

- i like the cubx because it has 4 ram slots , 4 ide's and 5 usb's
and the best bx chipset
it would be great in the future as a server/firewall pc

- i like the p6s5at because it has ddram slots and a 4x agp

i need your opinion in so far as:
- oc ability
- and its future role as a server/firewall

any comment is appreciate
tia

[Peter M]

"Best" BX chipset? Well yes, that was true in 1998. Move on.

P6S5AT takes you further, in terms of maximum DIMM size per slot. This is important because plenty of DIMMs in the stores today can't even be run on CUBX. (Intel BX chipset has a limit of 128 MBytes per DIMM side; SiS 635T is at 512 MBytes per DIMM side.)

Besides, P6S5AT does have four USB ports, two on the rear panel and two more on board headers for front USB or extra slot brackets.

Furthermore, 2x-only AGP slots don't run 8x AGP cards since the latter cannot step down further than 4x mode.

Finally, P6S5AT lets you run Tualatin CPUs as well should you wish to upgrade a bit in the future.
Oh, and of course, Intel BX runs neither the processor nor the RAM at 133 MHz; nor can it use DDR RAM.

Overclock? Server? In the same sentence? Sorry ... that makes no sense. You want your server to be adequately fast, but as stable and quiet as possible. Cranked up voltages, an armada of fans, and questionable stability is NOT what you want there.

[$1500-P4 gamer]

"Overclock? Server? In the same sentence? Sorry ... that makes no sense. You want your server to be adequately fast, but as stable and quiet as possible. Cranked up voltages, an armada of fans, and questionable stability is NOT what you want there."

Well said Peter.
;)

[thp123]

thanx peter
i know oc and server should not be on the same sentence :)
the server role (running at rated speed) is what may happen in the future. right now i just want to play ;)
and gain more experience with oc

so i should go with the sis635 chipset?
it is kinda limiting in oc'ability, isn't it?

this is what i am thinking of putting together right now:

p3 700
cubx or p6s5at
2x256 sdram ecc pc133 or 2x256 ddram 2100
adaptec 2940u2w with fujitsu mae 3901 hd for o/s
segate 40gb ata66 for data
radeon 7000 vid

what do you think?

[Peter M]

I think you should use one big DIMM on the SiS chipset, and I also think you should use an LSI or Tekram SCSI controller, not an Adaptec. This because Adaptec's are notorious for BIOS compatibility issues, particularly on newer chipsets.

Read my lips again on overclocking: FORGET IT.

Oh, and if that's a server, you don't want the data on the slower drive.