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Budget P4C Board - IS7 or P4P?

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TC

Senior Seti Addict
Joined
Jan 15, 2001
Location
Denver, CO
My A7N8X died, so I've decided to add another P4C system and sell the rma replacement. I've already got a P4C800, but that's more than I want to spend on a second setup. I've been trying to decide what would make a good budget choice. I was leaning towards the regular P4P800 for awhile, but I just read Anand's article in which they chose the IS7 as best all around for the price point. Now I'm sort of undecided and looking for something to close the decision process. The only issue is that I might want IDE raid - I'm going to put a WD raptor in my current P4C and that will leave me with two identical IDE drives I could use. I was thinking I might as well setup an IDE raid array since I'll have the drives. If I want IDE raid what does that leave me with? I guess I could buy the sata adapters, but if I buy the cheaper mobo that only has sata raid will the adapters make up the difference between that board and one that includes IDE raid? Any comments or suggestions are appreciated.
 
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well i don't consider the p4p800 budget... at 150 its more than an IC7.

i am going with the IS7 with firewire and sata raid onboard for 109 at newegg.

these boards are the best if you can get one with little to no temp problems.
 
Well the P4P800 Deluxe is $140 at Newegg, but the regular is about 120 - so it's basically IS7 for $110 vs. P4P for $120. I sure have heard a lot about the temp problems on the Abits. I haven't had any temp problems on my P4C.
 
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the p4p regular doesn't have firewire and the p4p dlx has gigabit lan... which doesn't mean anything to me but its something that makes a diff in price.

newegg also lists the dlx as having PAT. not sure if you can turn that on on the non dlx or not...

when i first was shopping i didn't realize the reg p4p had raid until i was just now looking at the specs. missed it somehow. this makes my decision difficult again. :(
 
Heh, well I don't need firewire for anything in my case. PAT doesn't seem to make much difference from what I've read. Most people are suggesting it be turned off when you go much higher than 200. Don't know if the P4P regular has it or not.
 
There is a new budget 865 asus board, the P4P8X. I know a guy that has one already, he likes it. But he's got a 2.66 on it so I can't tell you how it is at high fsb.
 
Well after reading the Anand review and one at Hexus I went ahead and ordered the standard p4p800 for $122 at Newegg. I picked up a thermaltake tiger 1 for the chipset too. Hope this will do a decent job.
 
i went with an IS7 (no E or G) for 119 here locally. i figure 10 bucks isn't much when i'm keeping my money in-state.

i'm going to look into those NB cooling solutions though. looks very interesting.

(even though i only have a 2.4b, it'll be fun :))
 
TC said:
Well after reading the Anand review and one at Hexus I went ahead and ordered the standard p4p800 for $122 at Newegg. I picked up a thermaltake tiger 1 for the chipset too. Hope this will do a decent job.
Decent job as long as you don't try to run seti on it. ;) My P4P rig is getting 18.15wu's a day (14 day avg) and I am only running a modest 3.3Ghz.

I actually prefer my P4P800 over my IS7. I do prefer the award bios over ami but Asus just never asked my opinion. :D Price/Performance - Looks like a good choice. :beer:
 
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