New Motherboard

Well the time has come for me to pick up my 2.8C and now i need to know a mobo which would work best with it. im just copying my last post here cus it has the specs that i would like it to have. If it doesnt have all thsoe specs, then its ok i guess, i cant have everythign right? But i would like suggestions please.
Also, if anyone could get me the heads up on a type of ram which i should pick up for what specific boards, then that would be cool. ( the RAM i can get at local dealrs are the OCZ, so i might pick those up. Nothing two expencive, but PC3500 or up. either two sticks of 256 or 2 sticks of 512
Thanks

PS. Which would probably give me a better OC, a high end Asus or the Abit IC7-Max3 ?




I am looking to get a new board for a 2.8C chip which will last me through the many changes of next year. it has to have Serial ATA (RAID would be a plus but not nessasary ) gigabit LAN, 8x AGP, audio, firewire and usb2.0, it also has to be a good overclocker because i am hoping to get this chip running at 3.2+, and also the PCB cannot be beige/green in colour, it needs to be coloured ( like gigabyte boards which are blue ) since i have a window in my case.

The board should be midranged.
somewhere under $200 Canadian
Something i was looking at is the Abit IS7-G but would like other opinions aswell plz.
I will be getting the board sometime after the intel chip price drop ( Oct 26th ) and i will also be getting new memory at that time aswell.

So any suggestions would be appriciated.. thanks!

raven

SO just to make things a little bit easier.. i think i have narrowed my choices down to either the Abit IC7-G or the IS7-G

what kinda of physical and performance difference is there between the two? I know that one is a Canterwood and the other a springdale, and the canterwood should offer a 5% or so increase in performance. But other then that.. is overclocking and the speeds the same?

EDIT: i was just looking at the IC7-MAX3 and was wondering if the secure IDE and all the other features on it are all what they are cracked up to be? like do they offer that much security for the same speeds? or do the speeds decrese a bit?

If you are not out for absolute top speed in all diciplines, go for the IS7-G. It's a great motherboard for a good price, it's got everything you need, GIGALan, 5.1 Sound, optical out, SATA Raid. The 5% increase performance on i875 is not completly true, Anandtech did a roundup, and the IS7 performed as good as all i875 boards. It's a bit old and doesn't include the absoulte latest boards from Abit and ASUS. Yes the Max3 is a few % faster in some test, but in real world, you wont notice it.
Here's the link for the roundup:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1831

Thanks Fredrik
Thats all i needed, some reasurrance.
now as soon as i find out if there are any new motherboard designs comming out in the next month, im off to get me myself a new board,chip and mem

The Max3 is a great mobo, but not sure it's worth the extra $100. You'll be fine with the IS7. As for RAM, if you can find sticks with the BH-5 chips, that would be good. I have used OCZ PC3500 EL with good luck in my IC7 mobo. It did 220 FSB using the 1:1 ratio (3.08 gig) and 250 FSB using the 5:4 ratio with tight timings (3.5 gig). Most of the time I was able to get 2,3,2,5 timings with it. To be honest, you can probably get 250 FSB (3.5 gig) out of PC3200 if you use the 5:4 ratio if you are using the 2.8C and if the CPU will go that high.

I think you guys sold me aswell. I upgrade my system so often its hard to spend the extra $80-$100 for the Max3 or the Asus P4C800-E when I know I'm probably only going to have it in my box for a year before i get bitten by the bug again.

batboy said:

The Max3 is a great mobo, but not sure it's worth the extra $100. You'll be fine with the IS7. As for RAM, if you can find sticks with the BH-5 chips, that would be good. I have used OCZ PC3500 EL with good luck in my IC7 mobo. It did 220 FSB using the 1:1 ratio (3.08 gig) and 250 FSB using the 5:4 ratio with tight timings (3.5 gig). Most of the time I was able to get 2,3,2,5 timings with it. To be honest, you can probably get 250 FSB (3.5 gig) out of PC3200 if you use the 5:4 ratio if you are using the 2.8C and if the CPU will go that high.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice BatBoy, I have actually decided in getting the IC7-G mobo, and was wondering about the memory ( Im a total Newb when it comes to memory ), and how i can tell if it uses BH-5 chips. The only Ram that i can find in local stores are OCZ Ram and maybe just a handful of corsair XMS. I am just looking to pick up two sticks of 256 meg chips but dont know anything about what speeds are the best to get with what timings and CAS Latency.

The Ram i am looking at are as follows:

Corsair:
TWINX512-3200C2 2x256MB PC3200 $208
TWINX512-3200LL 2x256MB PC3200 $225
TWINX512-3700 2x256MB PC3700 $222

OCZ
2x256MB PC3200 Dual Channel Kit EL-DDR Enhanced Latency $200
2x256MB PC3200 Dual Channel Kit EL-DDR Platinum Edition $210
2x256MB PC3500 Dual Channel Kit EL-DDR Enhanced Latency $245
2x256MB PC3500 Dual Channel Kit EL-DDR Platinum Edition $275
2x256MB PC3700 DDR466 Dual Channel Kit Gold Series $300
2x256MB PC4000 DDR500 Dual Channel Kit Gold Series $300
PC3200-EL 2x256MB *PLATINUM* DUAL CHANNEL (512MB KIT) - OCZ $203
PC3200-EL *ECC/REG* 2x256MB Dual Channel (512MB KIT) - OCZ $244
PC3500-EL 2x256MB *PLATINUM* DUAL CHANNEL (512MB KIT) - OCZ $237
PC3500-EL *GOLD* 2x256MB Dual Channel (512MB KIT) - OCZ $203
OCZ PC3700-EL *GOLD* DUAL CHANNEL 2x256MB (512MB KIT) $289
OCZ PC4000-EL 2x256MB *COPPER* DUAL CHANNEL (512MB KIT) $238
PC4200 *PERFORMANCE* 2x256MB Dual Channel (512MB KIT) - OCZ $246



All these prices are Canadian mind you. I listed all the chips i can get because i am totaly lost with all of these choices to make. weather to get Corsair or OCZ, or GOLD or Platinum or EL-DDR , my head just starts hurting when thinking about it

EDIT: I also posted this in the memory Section ( probably will get more results there ) Here

Of the RAM you listed the only ones that are sure to have BH-5 chips is the "PC3500 EL-DDR Platinum Edition".

batboy said:

Of the RAM you listed the only ones that are sure to have BH-5 chips is the "PC3500 EL-DDR Platinum Edition".

Click to expand...

Thanks, That has made my life soo much easier cus now i dont have to choose from many options.. I will go and pick up this ram tomorrow so that it will be here when i get my new board and chip this week.