Is my motherboard holding me back?

OK. Just got the rig below.
Is it OK to leave some onboard components working if trying to achieve maximum OC'ing, or must I replace EACH AND EVERY MB subsystem with a PCI equivalent to truly know if my MB is holding me back?

On board sound/video often limits the OC....but what about the other things:

- Built in 10/100 Mbit enet
- USB 1.1/2.0 headers
- Serial ports
- IDE controller
- For that matter, the PS/2 ports?

This stinks cause not only am i paying for crap i dont need on the MB, but i won't have enough slots for everything to replace it.
BG-7 has 5 slots and I'm up to 8 if I gotta replace everything.

1) SIIG Serial card (like to lose)
2) USB 2.0 (like to lose)
3) Linksys 100Mbit enet (like to lose)
4) MyHD HDTV card
5) Audigy Sound
6) M-Audio 2496
7) 3Ware Escalade IDE
8) Geforce2 PCI 2nd video

My Rig
ABIT BG-7
Intel P4 2.26B Northwood
Corsair XMS3200 DDR400 CMX512-3200
Lian-Li PC-75/Clear side/top
Radeon AIW 128MB AGP video card
Yamaha 24x CRW Burn Proof
Pioneer 105S DVD
Enermax 431 Watt EG465AX-VE WFCA
Thermalright AX-478
Tornado 80mm Fan
Arctic Silver 3
RheoBus 2.0
Blue Cold Cathode

Have you tried overclocking with as few pci cards as possible? I thought that it is usually the other way around, the pci cards not being able to run as fast as the bus speeds. Also, if you overclock using the multiplier, you won't have to worry about pci speeds, but then again, you'd probabally have to unlock your processor, and by the way what processor are you using?

Its a 2.26Ghz P4 Northy.

I havent tried yet, just assembling all the hardware this week.

Should I try with fewer PCI slots? I thought the goal was to lock the PCI slots to 33Mhz and use as few on board MB components as possible.

anyone?

u can try bd7ii(raid).
it allows agp/pci lock

- Built in 10/100 Mbit enet got it
- USB 1.1/2.0 headers not sure
- Serial ports yes
- IDE controller yes
- For that matter, the PS/2 ports yes

1) SIIG Serial card (like to lose) it's got on board serial
2) USB 2.0 (like to lose) 2 usb2.0, maybe more headers
3) Linksys 100Mbit enet (like to lose) onboard lan.

seems to fit your needs.
i think most of the people here recommend it for 2.26 to 3.0 o/c.
it uses ddr also so your corsair shouldn't be a problem.
good luck though.

full stats here
http://www.abit.com.tw/abitweb/webj...p?pPRODUCT_TYPE=MotherBoard&pMODEL_NAME=BD7II

koosh

Thanks guys. I dont think im doing a good job phrasing my question.

Will a motherboard overclock higher if you disable the on-board USB, ethernet, serial ports, IDE, and ps/2 ports (assuming the latter ports are even possible to disable) and use PCI cards instead?