Mobo Shoot-out

[Vio1]

Hi, Im getting a 2.4c in a few weeks and I need a board to go with it. I was wondering what you guys think about the following.
For each I ask: Anyone buy one? How are they for overclocking cause I definetly want to o/c. Anything bad about them?

1) Gigabyte GA-8IK1100 (canterwood)($229 CDN)

2)MSI 865PE Neo-2 (springdale)($155 CDN)

3)Asus P4C800 (canterwood) ($285 CDN) Worth the extra $?

4)Intel D875PBZ (canterwood) ($239 CDN) Havent heard much about... anyone know anything about it?

5)Abit IC7 (canterwood) ($215 CDN)

6)Abit IC7-G MAX2 Advance (canterwood) ($285 CDN) Worth the extra $ over the IC7?

7)Gigabyte GA-8KNXP (canterwood) ($?) how does it compare? Anyone know the $?

8)Anything else Im missing? Anything worth mentioning?

I dont want to spend too much, but if P4c800 or the IC7-g Max 2 Advance turn out to be considerably better I would spend the money. I want on-board audio and lan and raid. What do you think?

 

[jazztrumpet216]

Personally, I'd go for the IC7. Good brand with a good price. I would definitely forget the Intel board as those are nearly impossible overclock.

 

[NiTrO bOiE]

I would go with the IC7 also. The only board I've been hearing about the most on the forums and like jazz said "good brand with a good price".

 

[Vio1]

The regular IC7 or the IC7-G?

 

[batboy]

The main difference between the IC7 and IC7-G is that the "G" stands for Gigabit built in LAN (the IC7-G also has 4 SATA connectors instead of 2). I have the IC7 and love it. The Asus P4C800 is the only other mobo I'd personally consider of the ones you listed. If you're on a tight budget, maybe look at the Abit IS7 (Springdale chipset). It basically has all the same features as the IC7 for a little less cash.

 

[ps2]

The main difference between the IC7 and IC7-G is that the "G" stands for Gigabit built in LAN (the IC7-G also has 4 SATA connectors instead of 2). I have the IC7 and love it. The Asus P4C800 is the only other mobo I'd personally consider of the ones you listed. If you're on a tight budget, maybe look at the Abit IS7 (Springdale chipset). It basically has all the same features as the IC7 for a little less cash.

what is the sata connectors for?hdd?

 

[batboy]

Yes... the IG7 has two Serial ATA150 connectors and two regular IDE ATA133 connectors. The new SATA harddrives are faster than the older IDE drives. The nice thing is with the IC7, you can use your old harddrives for now and upgrade to the new SATA later.

 

[gruvin2]

I'd recommend Abit/Asus/Giga, no need to look further. From what ive read in MaximumPC SATA 150 isn't being fully utilized yet. Even though it has a faster transfer rate "max" it stilll is equal to 133 and in some cases slower. It's new. I agree with batboy that the Abit is nice to have both 133/150 available for when you choose to upgrade.

 

[AZN]

for now basically the IC7-G with gigabit LAN is useless cuzz most routers, switches are only 10/100 and besides what good is 1 gigabit nic if ur other comps are only 100? u will neeed to upgrade cards and routers to make the G usefull.

I would consider the Asus P4C800 / abit IC7 / abit IS7 in that order. the first 2 are about even toss up but i kinda like asus now cuzz of this deluxe.

 

[Rasputin'sLiver]

8)Anything else Im missing? Anything worth mentioning?

I dont want to spend too much, but if P4c800 or the IC7-g Max 2 Advance turn out to be considerably better I would spend the money. I want on-board audio and lan and raid. What do you think?

Yes, I love my aopen AX4C-Max. Hallmark of this board is amazing stability with decent benchies, and there's no question i'm getting the most out of my 2.4b sl6rz week 45 @ 3.2+ ghz which is substantially better than the rest of the week 45's out there. is it coincedental? i don't think so. this board is a great overclocking board. only knock is that the vdimm max is only 2.8 when my twinMOS ram needs 2.7 at stock.

 

[Rasputin'sLiver]

Personally, I'd go for the IC7. Good brand with a good price. I would definitely forget the Intel board as those are nearly impossible overclock.

agreed re: intel board. stability is at an absolute premium, overclocking is nil.

 

[batboy]

Well, vdimm on the IC7 only goes up to 2.8v too

I didn't read that MaximumPC article, but it depends on which harddrive they tested. If they tested the Seagate which is really the only SATA readily available until just recently, then yes, they will only do about ATA133. That's because they are just ATA133 drives with some mods done to convert them to SATA. Try using the Western Digital SATA 10,000 RPM Raptors or the brand new Maxtor SATA DiamondMax Plus9 and you'll see that these new drives are significantly faster.

 

[Vio1]

Is there any other difference between the IC7 and IC7-G besides the lan?

 

[batboy]

The IC7-G has 2 more SATA connectors (total of 4) in addition to the Gigabit LAN. That's the main differences.

 

[Vio1]

does it have raid-0 for Ide hdds?

 

[baraka]

Try using the Western Digital SATA 10,000 RPM Raptors or the brand new Maxtor SATA DiamondMax Plus9 and you'll see that these new drives are significantly faster.

I'm looking forward to seeing some benches with the new maxtor drives. I'd really like to get some sata drives when I build my new computer.

 

[batboy]

V-dude, as near as I can tell, the RAID is only for the Serial ATA, but you can convert a standard IDE drive to serial with an adapter (I think). It just won't run as fast as a true SATA drive of course.

Baraka, here is a review about the new SATA Maxtors.

http://www6.tomshardware.com/storage/20030314/index.html

 

[pacino]

P4C800, hands down... IC7 is a yummy... I'm going P4C800 personally

 

[Vio1]

How about the MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R ? Anyone know if its good? How much $? Better or worse then the IC7?

 

[Big Nuttz]

P4C800 its a damn nice board.