Overclocker456
07-13-03, 06:39 PM
Before I got rid of my Abit it7-max 2 I ran a few tests to see exaclty how this affects the max OC for your CPU. The results were as I suspected. I always felt that it limited me the OC of my 2.8B. The max I could reach 100% stable was 3.5GHz and no more, even with super cooling it to 0C gave me no increase. I knew then the board was the bottleneck.
When getting my new P4P800 I'm able to get the system way past 3.65MHz stable, and the CPU is now the limiting factor.
Having a 2.6C on hand I wanted to see if the It7-max 2 had a issue with high Bus speed or high CPU speed. So I popped in the 2.6C in the abit board and sure enough it worked stable at 200MHz bus speed which is 67MHz more than the 845PE chipset is spec'd at. Abit claims that the board can support 200MHz CPU's unoffically. This proved to be true, but not all is well.. The max the CPU would work stable at was 205MHz bus speed. Anymore than that and the PC would crash. So the board could reach 205MHz bus speed at 2.6GHz. ok fine.. Now here's the other part of the story.. With the 2.8B in place the MAX the board could do was 167MHz bus speed which is 3.5GHz. Any more than that and the board would crash. Yet this CPU's limit is about 3.7GHz. So while the IT7-max board can run up to 205MHz bus speed it can't do this at High CPU frequency. I think everyone overclocking on this board should know this. The board had a 80MM fan blowing on it for all tests.
I want to say that I e-mailed abit and I asked them the differences between the BH-7 and the It7-max 2. They told me both products were identical, they are just marketed differently. The BH-7 is a stripped down version of the It7-max 2 that red. Period. So if you have BH-7 this might also interest you. The BH-7 allows high voltage for the memory and AGP but this DOES not affect the results in my tests as abit confirmed with me..
When getting my new P4P800 I'm able to get the system way past 3.65MHz stable, and the CPU is now the limiting factor.
Having a 2.6C on hand I wanted to see if the It7-max 2 had a issue with high Bus speed or high CPU speed. So I popped in the 2.6C in the abit board and sure enough it worked stable at 200MHz bus speed which is 67MHz more than the 845PE chipset is spec'd at. Abit claims that the board can support 200MHz CPU's unoffically. This proved to be true, but not all is well.. The max the CPU would work stable at was 205MHz bus speed. Anymore than that and the PC would crash. So the board could reach 205MHz bus speed at 2.6GHz. ok fine.. Now here's the other part of the story.. With the 2.8B in place the MAX the board could do was 167MHz bus speed which is 3.5GHz. Any more than that and the board would crash. Yet this CPU's limit is about 3.7GHz. So while the IT7-max board can run up to 205MHz bus speed it can't do this at High CPU frequency. I think everyone overclocking on this board should know this. The board had a 80MM fan blowing on it for all tests.
I want to say that I e-mailed abit and I asked them the differences between the BH-7 and the It7-max 2. They told me both products were identical, they are just marketed differently. The BH-7 is a stripped down version of the It7-max 2 that red. Period. So if you have BH-7 this might also interest you. The BH-7 allows high voltage for the memory and AGP but this DOES not affect the results in my tests as abit confirmed with me..