- Joined
- Jan 11, 2004
- Location
- New York, NY
I have played with many a mobo these past few weeks and have put together a "master list" of assorted problems and shortcomings of each of them. Thought it might be interesting/helpful/whatever. Please add to this list and I will try to maintain this if anyone cares. Also I am not going to list "Pros" here only "Cons", just to keep it shorter.
so here we go:
Abit AI7
-----------------------
cpu socket at 45deg. angle prevents installation of certain waterblocks (notably: dtek Whitewater)
cannot use "normal" thermal monitoring sw (mbm/speedfan) -- have to use crappy "uGuru" software which crashes games
ATX12V connector (the square one) is way to far from the regular ATX pwr connector just adds to cable clutter in the case
no CSA LAN/gigabit enet
FSB seems to "drift" occasionally from what you set in BIOS - i.e, you say "300" and when you reboot you will be at 299.
Abit IS7
----------------
no CSA LAN/gigabit enet
CPU socket at 90deg angle, same problems as AI7 when mounting waterblocks
wimpy voltage regulation caps and VCore coils have way fewer windings = less stability and power to CPU, esp. PressHots
very bad AGP slot arrangement = cannot remove DIMMs without taking out video card
AGP slot + several caps too close to Northbridge make it hard to mount certain NB cooling solutions including Z-chip + Swiftech MCW20
Abit IC7/IC7-G (not MAX3) rev 1.0
------------------------------------
seems to have major probems with 5:4 divider with most RAM I tested (BH-5, CH-5 and Hynix)
VTT mod needed if you do the VDIMM mod and that is a difficult mod + requires cutting traces on board (risky)
unstable RAM voltages, noticable "droop"
generally seems plagued with problems relating to BIOS/Memory and they generally can't be fixed with BIOS update-- seem to be hardware related
(-G only) problems with PCI slots 3-5 where sometimes the machine won't boot with certain cards in those slots
Asus P4P800-E Dlx rev 1.02
-------------------------------
cannot mount Z-chip Northbridge waterblock because of large capacitors too close to NB
no active cooling on NB (not a problem if you use water, but most don't)
poor VCore regulation... must do difficult "droop mod" to get stable VCore volts
poor AGP slot placement blocks RAM unless you remove video card
ugly color PCB
1 out of 2 boards I got was D.O.A.
Asus P4C800-E Dlx rev2.00
---------------------------------
out of 5 boards tested, *NONE* were stable over 288fsb
no active cooling on NB
ugly color PCB
poor VCore regulation... must do difficult "droop mod" to get stable VCore volts
expensive/overpriced...loaded with useless features that just add cost (Promise Raid/wifi slot/etc)
Out of these, the AI7 has the fewest shortcomings for serious O/Cers I think. If they would just make a Canterwood version of that board with CSA LAN and fix the placement of the CPU socket, Abit would have a real killer on their hands.
so here we go:
Abit AI7
-----------------------
cpu socket at 45deg. angle prevents installation of certain waterblocks (notably: dtek Whitewater)
cannot use "normal" thermal monitoring sw (mbm/speedfan) -- have to use crappy "uGuru" software which crashes games
ATX12V connector (the square one) is way to far from the regular ATX pwr connector just adds to cable clutter in the case
no CSA LAN/gigabit enet
FSB seems to "drift" occasionally from what you set in BIOS - i.e, you say "300" and when you reboot you will be at 299.
Abit IS7
----------------
no CSA LAN/gigabit enet
CPU socket at 90deg angle, same problems as AI7 when mounting waterblocks
wimpy voltage regulation caps and VCore coils have way fewer windings = less stability and power to CPU, esp. PressHots
very bad AGP slot arrangement = cannot remove DIMMs without taking out video card
AGP slot + several caps too close to Northbridge make it hard to mount certain NB cooling solutions including Z-chip + Swiftech MCW20
Abit IC7/IC7-G (not MAX3) rev 1.0
------------------------------------
seems to have major probems with 5:4 divider with most RAM I tested (BH-5, CH-5 and Hynix)
VTT mod needed if you do the VDIMM mod and that is a difficult mod + requires cutting traces on board (risky)
unstable RAM voltages, noticable "droop"
generally seems plagued with problems relating to BIOS/Memory and they generally can't be fixed with BIOS update-- seem to be hardware related
(-G only) problems with PCI slots 3-5 where sometimes the machine won't boot with certain cards in those slots
Asus P4P800-E Dlx rev 1.02
-------------------------------
cannot mount Z-chip Northbridge waterblock because of large capacitors too close to NB
no active cooling on NB (not a problem if you use water, but most don't)
poor VCore regulation... must do difficult "droop mod" to get stable VCore volts
poor AGP slot placement blocks RAM unless you remove video card
ugly color PCB
1 out of 2 boards I got was D.O.A.
Asus P4C800-E Dlx rev2.00
---------------------------------
out of 5 boards tested, *NONE* were stable over 288fsb
no active cooling on NB
ugly color PCB
poor VCore regulation... must do difficult "droop mod" to get stable VCore volts
expensive/overpriced...loaded with useless features that just add cost (Promise Raid/wifi slot/etc)
Out of these, the AI7 has the fewest shortcomings for serious O/Cers I think. If they would just make a Canterwood version of that board with CSA LAN and fix the placement of the CPU socket, Abit would have a real killer on their hands.
