845e / 845g / 850e - Which one to buy?

I just picked up a P4 2.4b (Northwood) and ABIT BD7II-R, and am having second thoughts on the mobo.

I've read enough articles outlining the mediocre performance of the 845e (at least in comparison to the 845g and 850e), and am wondering if it's worth the time to return for an alternative?

Of course, if I were to opt fo the 845g, I'm looking at saving a few bucks. But, if I go for an 850e solution, it will prove quite a bit more expensive, as I already have a 512mb stick of Corsair XMS2700C2, and a stick of PC1066 RDRAM ain't cheap.

How much performance do you need?
I doubt there is any program or game that won't run fine with that motherboard and cpu.
If you want to try to set some world record go for the I850e and rdram just be sure to check the fsb limit on the board and see if it meets your needs.

No Guiness book stuff here

Since I've got the extra cash, I just wanted to know if it's even worth to move from 845e -> 845g or 850e. Of course, looking at the available boards, I'll probably have to pop for a HD controller card as well, since the 845g and 850e genrally seem to have the standard 2 ports.

speed = i850e

Re: No Guiness book stuff here

MoD said:

Since I've got the extra cash, I just wanted to know if it's even worth to move from 845e -> 845g or 850e. Of course, looking at the available boards, I'll probably have to pop for a HD controller card as well, since the 845g and 850e genrally seem to have the standard 2 ports.

Click to expand...

That is something you will have to decide.
Money is harder to get for some than others and how important getting a few fps in a game or score in a benchmark is to you might be different than to someone else.

Depending on the return policy where you bought the board you have now you might just want to try it out and see if it's acceptable or not.

The system in my signature is very fast and is slower than your's should be when overclocked. Windows xp really fly's. 3dmark default is 12,000 with my video card at stock speed. Sandra mem bench is just shy of 3000.

All good points, Placid. I think I'll bite the bullet and stick with the 845e I have (ABIT BD7II-RAID). Even if it's a few percent slow than the fastest, how bad is that?

AntmanMike said:

speed = i850e

Click to expand...

Hmm and why is that?

As far as I know you won't get any higher than 533MHz FSB with the even the lates and most expensive PC1066 stick.

Yet my P4S533 runs on 592MHz FSB.

Any comments?

MoD you think you got it bad? i was runing on an original pentium 233 until 3 weeks ago! And your worrying about what a measely 3 fps on a 3dmark score? don't worry about it man! the 845e chipset i have to agree is a peice of crap... (while it would still beat my ol' 233 but whatever...) however manufactureres like abit, epox, msi... they know intel wants to screw them over.... so they perfect the chipsets intel makes... I bet you didn't know that the original 845e doesn't support ddr higher than ddr 2100.... the abit board you got supports ddr400 when it comes out! manufactureres up the stats to the chipsets so they will sell better, so that board you have is a good buy (especially since it's an abit) stick with what you got!

How does the ABIT BD7II-R compare to the ABIT TH7 II w/v mod?

Can you v/mod the BD7II?