The new 845E chipset motherboards look like the best platform for Pentium 4. The 845E chipset inherited its robustness and reliability from its predecessors. The new kid on the block can also speak in USB 2.0 fluently. If you add the cross platform availability, price advantage, and the popularity of DDR, this is the chipset to go for. All motherboard manufacturers have begun to offer their best features and solutions using the 845E platform. There is a fierce battle among the top motherboard manufacturers for market share. The more features you squeeze onto the same square inches of PCB, the more market share you conquer.
Not so native features like, 5+1 Digital sound with optical output , Firewire , and Smart Media Readers have started to pop-up on motherboards for just a few dollars more. The cost of a SC reader chip is $2, so why not? Let' say we pay $20-25 for additional toys. If just two of them work for us, for instance sound and LAN, we may save money.
The thing we must consider is, to squeeze those chips in without decreasing the reliability, requires the experience, technology, and a lot of testing. Gigabyte is one of the best manufacturers among the top ranking boards we have reviewed. So here is the Gigabyte GA-8IEXP or the P4 Titan 533.
