About to upgrade motherboard for my 478 2.66ghz - Please help

I have a old standard 478 P4 2.66ghz 533FSB (No HT, and I don't know if mine is a prescott or northwood) on an old MSI MS-6701 board. My setup is in my sig. It's quite unstable @ 3ghz, so I figure it's the mobo that's sux.

I therefore want to upgrade mine to a better one.

So far, the one that caught my eyes is the Abit IC7-G (MAX II Advance?) being the best bang for the buck - $138. I'd plan to oc to ~3.2+ stable. I don't plan to upgrade much on this setup since I'm doing my other system (LGA755). Prolly just an replacement set of DDR400 OCZ Value ram with the new mobo for some decent OC instead of the old ddr333. This rig is outdated, but yet have good cooling and air flow. I'd like to keep it a bit longer but don't want to spend a whole lot on it.

Please give me your suggestion.

thanks a lot.

I run the Abit IS-7 and my 2.66 northwood is stable at 3.2 it even has a little head room left over. Check out newegg i believe mine was like 50 to 75 bucks. It's rock solid and has lots of features. Check out the Abit section under motherboards there was a couple of really good threads about this board.

If it's an old 2.66, then it's probably a Northwood. You can download a free program called CPU-Z to check for sure. The IC7-G is a great mobo. That would allow you to upgrade to a Prescott socket 478 CPU later if you want.

Cool, thanks y'all. I double checked, mine is a northwood. I'm hoping it can OC to 3.2+ and stable. I'm so tempted to do these mods here:

http://www.thelab.gr/reviews/ic7mods_en1.php

Hopefully, these'll hold out well for my system

What do you guys think? My case has very good air flow, plus the SLK947U + Delta FFB0912EHE are cooling the CPU, couple Custom HS for the chipsets and such, I think I'll be okay at 3.2

You have a good shot at it. I had an early 2.66 that did about 3.2 gig on good air. You mileage may vary of course. You are almost guaranteed 3 gig.

cool, does that link to Hipro's mod is all I'd need to do or is there anything else I'd need to worry about?

Thanks again.

Hipro's mods are everything you will want and probably more than you really need. Volt modding is for the really hardcore on the cutting edge trying to milk every last drop of performance out of the components. As much as I'm into overclocking, I never volt modded any of my IC7 mobos. I have done cooling mods, but no volt mods. I have gotten some respectable O/C from my systems, so the choice is yours. Once you take a soldering iron to your mobo, you'll have no more warranty and if you mess up, you might have a fried mobo.