Need advice. Trying to chose a new Mobo for Prescot

Got the 3.0E Prescot sitting here. Going to get new mobo this weekend at computer show.Im leanning towards a Gigabyte board. BUT Want to Know What Abit board would be a good choice also. Dont really want to spend more than $120. Needs to be a socket 478 board.

Questions, Are Abit boards as easy to get to the bios settings i need to overclock as the gigabyte boards are? Is there a PCI/AGP lock option on Abit boards?

Ive had 2 asus boards before, and didnt like them. But ive hear alot of good things about Abit.

Any help would be great.

Harry

Hello, any help would be good. Show is saturday. TY


Harry

Just about all 865/875 chipset boards have an AGP lock. Personally I always recommend Asus. But if you are on a budget, I'd suggest either an Asus P4P800 or any of the abit boards such as the IC7 (875 chipset) or the AI7 (865 chipset). All of these boards have decent, easy to use bios's.

In the meantime, poke around the mobo forums and see what others are saying. I'm not sure of the success others have had with the AI7 and prescott.

Personally, I wouldn't trade my P4C for anything and have had bad experiences with the abit boards not doing what they were advertised to do. Also, post what other parts you're going to put into this system and what you'll mainly be using the system for.

going to basically use

My new Super LANboy case(have it running now and VERY nice temps with 2 120mm fans Better temps than i had with my other case with 10 fans LOL) Love it
1 gig of crucal Ram 2x512 Cas 2.5 PC3500 or 4000 whatever i pick up

buying an x800pro (getting this mext month) Putting an 9800pro @XT speeds for now

600W PSU

SATA HD New got that sitting here now

Useing an all Copper HS with 5000rpm Fan also.

Going to try to OC to atleast 3.4-3.5 on air.

Its going to be my new Gameing rig.

Harry

234 fsb might mean you'd be better off with PC3700 or PC4000 and that way you won't have to stress your memory too much.

From personal experience the Abit bios is a little easier to get around in than the Asus bios. That leaves you with 2 choices, the IC7 (875 chipset) and the AI7 (865 chipset). But oc'ing is still luck of the draw. 3.0E's aren't guaranteed to run at 3.4-3.5, but you have a good shot at hitting that. 250 seems to be the wall on some cpu's.

The IC7-Max3 is another option, but it's pricey.

harryinny3,

MSI 875 and 865 Neo motherboards handle Prescotts well also and overclock very easy.

Dave

Abit has the easiest to use and best overclocking BIOS of any I've used. Yes, all Abit has the AGP/PCI lock. I think you'll want the IC7-G although it will be pushing your budget a little (check out this link because I'm too lazy to retype everything).

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=315061