Hi guys, I am going to buy a mobo for my 1.6a that is reported to run stable at as high as 183-188 Mhz FSB at 1.7v on IT7, so I need a good overclocker. The RAM I will be using is OCZ PC3500 CL2 (2x256MB). The video card is Radeon 9700 Pro.
The "must have" features for the mobo are:
845PE chipset,
RAID (non SATA or at least SATA with IDE adaptors)
RAM/CPU ratios of 3:2 and 4:3
Good vCore adjustment options (>1.7V)
FireWire (not a must but would be a big bonus)
Basically need something that will take my proven 1.6a to 2.9 and perhaps accept an intermidiate CPU upgrade in the future when CPU prices come down and successful overclocks of ~4 GHz become attainable.
I don't have too many good o/c types of motherboards available where I live (Toronto, Canada) but there's a few ones I've been looking at:
ABIT BE7-II Raid (Cad $190 - US $122)
Abit IT7 Max 2 (Cad $269 ~US $170)
ASUS P4PE Raid Cad $229 ~ US $145)
Albatron 845PEV Pro non-Raid (Cad $168 ~US $115)
I've read a crapload of reviews on all of them and it looks like while having the most features the IT7 Max 2 and P4PE Raid do not allow to adjust vcore past 1.65-1.7 V which may hinder my overclock. The BE7-II R has a good minimum features set but "suffers" from the same vcore limitation. The Albatron seems to be a very impressive overclocker but it does not have Raid (I know the Raid version exists but it's not available where I live), in addition the only place that sells them here (www.bigfootcomputers.com) lists the non-Raid version for Cad $168 before tax (~US $115 before tax) which seems too much since it's sold in the US for about US $85.
I am not considering any GraniteBay boards at this time because of their prohibitive cost, absence of RAID on the first iteration boards and less than impressive performance gains when compared to overclocked 845PE boards.
I am welcoming any advice you guys may have to help my buying decision. And thanks for reading my lengthy post
Igor
The "must have" features for the mobo are:
845PE chipset,
RAID (non SATA or at least SATA with IDE adaptors)
RAM/CPU ratios of 3:2 and 4:3
Good vCore adjustment options (>1.7V)
FireWire (not a must but would be a big bonus)
Basically need something that will take my proven 1.6a to 2.9 and perhaps accept an intermidiate CPU upgrade in the future when CPU prices come down and successful overclocks of ~4 GHz become attainable.
I don't have too many good o/c types of motherboards available where I live (Toronto, Canada) but there's a few ones I've been looking at:
ABIT BE7-II Raid (Cad $190 - US $122)
Abit IT7 Max 2 (Cad $269 ~US $170)
ASUS P4PE Raid Cad $229 ~ US $145)
Albatron 845PEV Pro non-Raid (Cad $168 ~US $115)
I've read a crapload of reviews on all of them and it looks like while having the most features the IT7 Max 2 and P4PE Raid do not allow to adjust vcore past 1.65-1.7 V which may hinder my overclock. The BE7-II R has a good minimum features set but "suffers" from the same vcore limitation. The Albatron seems to be a very impressive overclocker but it does not have Raid (I know the Raid version exists but it's not available where I live), in addition the only place that sells them here (www.bigfootcomputers.com) lists the non-Raid version for Cad $168 before tax (~US $115 before tax) which seems too much since it's sold in the US for about US $85.
I am not considering any GraniteBay boards at this time because of their prohibitive cost, absence of RAID on the first iteration boards and less than impressive performance gains when compared to overclocked 845PE boards.
I am welcoming any advice you guys may have to help my buying decision. And thanks for reading my lengthy post
Igor
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