MSI i815 LITE EP 6337 good choice?? socket 370 to overclock??

[hereandgone]

Hello,

I plan to buy a new mobo either the Abit BX 133 Raid i440 BCx or the Microstar i 815 Lite EP 6337 with the solano chip. Both of these boards get great reviews and from what I have read the 815 chipset is to replce the trusty stable fast 440 bx chipset. I had a BE6-II and I loved it. But I can get the Microstar for cheaper and it supports agp 4x the Abit does not.

Is Microstar good, anyone using it, I would expect that as bios revisions come out it should get better, performance seems to be equal in tests but they ran the BX board at 133 buss which it does not officially support while the MSI board does. I want to overclock my PIII700, but is the MSI board as good with bios settings and choices??

Thanks

 

[Slake]

From the reviews I read the 6337 is a great board, but not as good as the Asus CUSL2. They are close in price. I am mobo shopping too, and was originally going to get the MSI but the ASUS does outperform it. The MSI is alleged to be extremely stable, and the Bios is from what I read at tweaktown.com.(I think) the BEST. For OC support the Asus will probably be the choice over the MSI of most overclockers. Just look in the CPU database on the main page. Also do a search of the forum for matches on 815, cusl and 815 pro for more OC'ers opinions.

 

[Ericsson]

MSI boards are known to be quirky out of the box and require a proper bios update.

for example: i got the MSI i815E Pro (MS-6337) and the voltage adjustment option in the bios doesn't work. the temp readings are also whacked out. so i have my 550E@733 running at 1.55v and the idle temp is 53*C. i haven't updated the bios yet since there's no problem even if the 550E is already overclocked to 733 and even downvolted...

generally, boards aren't that great out of the box...so i suggest upate the bios. the MSI i815E/i815EP boards have potential...and they offer more value than asus or abit...they just need a bios update...hehehehe

personally, i'd still recommend the 440BX over the i815E/i815EP even if the newer chipset has the 1/2 agp divider, asynchronous RAM speed, ATA100, more USB ports, AGP4X and other stuff...

i believe that the BX is still faster and better in terms of performance and reliability. =)

 

[wild_andy_c]

I'm with ericsson on this - they are very high quality boards but very "quirky".

They are super stable but their BIOS always seems to be half programmed.

I'd steer clear of the BX chipset now - there is no need for it - look at a high end Via 694x solution - far more configurable than any intel tat they've made as a sideline whilst being screwed by Rambus