Help me decide between Abit TH7II and Gigabyte 8ihxp

[cdbryan]

This is a GREAT forum. I've been taking everything in for the past month or so and feel I've learned a lot. I'm building my first computer, using parts from my Dell (yes, I got Dell'd ). I plan to purchase a P4 2.26 or 2.4b. Now, I'm having a hard time trying to decide on a motherboard. I have two sticks of Samsung 256-16 device PC800 RDRAM, which I purchased in January 2002. I really don't want to upgrade this memory just yet, although down the road I would like to go for the Samsung PC1066.

With all that said, would the TH7II or 8IHXP be better for me? Looks like I can get the TH7II for around $90-$100 and the 8IHXP for around $155. Using a 2.26 or 2.4B, I understand I'll probably need to set the memory at x3. Will I have any problems with the 8IHXP with this setup? To be honest, I really don't need all the bells and whistles on the 8IHXP right now (RAID, 10 USB ports, etc.), but it would be nice to have what seems a bit longer upgrade path. Maybe I'll just flip a coin. By the way, is it me or is the TH7II a little hard to find?

 

[DeviLduck]

Having used & love both boards extensively, here's my take:

1. If OCing is low priority, go for GA-8IHXP.
2. If using a P4 533 cpu, go 8IHXP.
3. If you think you'll upgrade your rdram 800 to 1066 within 1 year, go 8IHXP.
4. If your PSU is 400W or more, go 8IHXP.
5. If you plan to use one of the latest Nvidia or ATI Radeon cards, go 8IHXP.
6. If you like onboard networking, that works, go 8IHXP.
7. If you like stability combined with high performance & moderate OCing, go 8IHXP.

on the other hand....

8. If OCing is an extremely high priority & a burning passion, go TH7II.
9. If you have Samsung rdram 800-45ns & said yes to #8, go TH7II.
10. If you think you'll be happy with rdram 800 for another 18 months, go TH7II.
11. If you love tinkering, squeezing every bit of performance out of mobo, using hardware mods, various configurations, bios mods, software mods, etc., go TH7II.
12. If you have Samsung rdram 800-40ns & said yes to #8, going TH7II may become a disappointment.
13. If your PSU is less than 400W, go with TH7II.
14. If you're using a P4 533 cpu & said yes to #8 & #9, accept you'll never utilize full potential of that cpu, with TH7II-i850 mobo. (unless Abit makes major change to bios, which is unlikely OR unless you find modded TH7II bios as substitute.)
15. If you go with TH7II, accept the fact that even a board DRCGs professional upgrade (to 533 drcgs), won't allow you to run rdram 1066 (in the future) on a practical basis, without a major Abit bios revision (unlikely to happen). However, a DRCGs upgrade to TH7II will improve performance & OCing if using high quality Samsung rdram 800-45ns.

 

[cdbryan]

Thanks DevilDuck. I actually went ahead and put the order in for the 8ihxp yesterday. Based on your remarks, looks like I made a good decision. This is my first DIY computer, so OC will be done in baby steps. CPU will be 2.4B. PSU is Antec TP 430. And, I will definitely be upgrading to 1066 ram soon. Comment #7 sums me up perfectly. Thanks again for your reply.

 

[Gnerma]

Alright DeviLduck, about 40ns ram & 45ns ram /w the TH7II. What I gather is the 40ns doesn't overclock as well in this board. Is it the memory or the board? Could you explain what I could expect from 45ns pc800 samsung & and what I could expect from 40ns pc800 samsung? Thanks.

 

[skou]

CD, you can get a TH711 at newegg for $35 in the refurb section.

Go to AMD motherboards, ( yeah I know, sounds wierd) Abit section. They don't have'em in the Intel section.

steve

 

[cdbryan]

Thanks for the heads up skou!

That is a great price, but, lol...I already bought the 8IHXP. Went ahead and splurged on some samsung 1066 rdram (2X256) so I should be good to go. Waiting on the sammy sticks to come in, then I'll be making the jump to the DIY side. Wish me luck!

 

[Gnerma]

CD, you can get a TH711 at newegg for $35 in the refurb section.

Go to AMD motherboards, ( yeah I know, sounds wierd) Abit section. They don't have'em in the Intel section.

I saw that today Steve, my eyes about fell out of their sockets. I think I paid $160 for mine about 8 months ago.

 

[skou]

They're all gone, Azn and Maxvla got the last ones. My first was the same price, my last 2 were 100 dollars less ( 70).

steve