Looking to upgrade: best P4 motherboard?

Satyrist

Satyrist

Gawd
Joined
Mar 12, 2001
Messages
724
Abit AI7

Asus P4P800

DFI 875 Lanparty Pro

cliffs:
I'm more than a bit fed up with NF2 in light of the recent problems that it has with CPC and 512mb ddr modules, (which tends to hamper overclocks/stability) and the fact that with only 512mb, (2x256 mushkin special promo build, BH-5 chips) the swap keeps getting hit heavily while playing ut2k4/BF:V..The fact that the OCZ EB modules appear to be very hit or miss with NF2 in general aren't appealing to me either.

With the onset of nf3, and the fact that nf2 seems to quickly becoming budget legacy technology, (as I perceive it) NVidia seems to have less incentive to keep an updated driver set for nf2 as well...the problems they've had with getting a reliable native ide driver doesn't help either.

the setup:
XP2500+ mobile (I've gone to about 205x11.5, vdimm 2.8, vcore 1.7 with it so far)
NF7-S v.2
SLK-900 heatsink w/80mm blue led thermaltake smartfan2
2x256 Mushkin Special Promo Build Pc3200 (BH5)
FIC radeon 9700
seagate 7200rpm 2mb cache 120gb hdd
pioneer 16x slotload dvd
fortron/source aurora 350w p/s-blue led 120 fan
chieftec dragon mini-mid case (antec sx635 clone)

I've been on the fence for the longest time about this, what sort of performance change would I see going back to Intel?

Which of the top motherboards might be a good setup to upgrade to--Also, I'd probably be looking at a 2.6/2.8c northwood for the cpu. (prescott way too hot, as it seems to be)

Lastly, what's a good memory match--OCZ EB modules, or Komusa AData modules?

Thank you.
 
All the boards you have listed are Intel boards.... Not really gonna do you any good unles you're planning on also getting a new processor.
 
I think you would be happy with any of those boards. The Asus board nedds a V-Dimm mod to really push the mem. But they are great boards. What you need to do is look them all up and see which one has the features that fit your needs. I myself use a Epox
4PDA2+Ver.2 It had all the features I wanted. I run a 2.4C at an everyday clock of 3200mhz which is 266 frontside bus speed my mem at 429DDR on the 5:4 divider
timings at 2-2-2-5 so it kicks right along very fast and very smooth. Never a hiccup.
My board is $ 108 on newegg now. here is a review of it.
http://www.ocprices.com/index.php?rev_id=172&page=1&action=reviews
Give it a read. I am not telling you to buy it but, I think it deserves consideration. Again they are all good boards. you have to decide which is right for you.

WZ
 
PhoenixAshes said:
All the boards you have listed are Intel boards.... Not really gonna do you any good unles you're planning on also getting a new processor.
Click to expand...

Ya think? :p

Which one would be the best for a decent overclock--a 2.6, 2.8, or 3.0 northwood?
 
I'd go with a 2.8C... They have a fairly steady rep as being decent OCers. The one I have does 3.4 without breaking a sweat. I just don't have the RAM ro keep it there all the time.
 
Depends on a lot of things. I recently advised someone to get a 3.0C and he was able to get it to 3.6Ghz with stability, running his memory at 1:1. Not a huge OC, but not bad for air cooling. The 2.8C *might* get you there, or might not. Of course, every OC is different, so your mileage may vary.

BTW, this was on an IC7-MAX2 board. The IC7-MAX3 is nice as well, which is what I have.
 
Ill sell you my cpu/mobo combo

P4 3.2 ghz and an Asus P4C800-e Deluxe... best rig... ever... but I just ordered an fx-53 which made me super poor so I have to sell it... the mobo=brand new never installed, cpu=2 weeks old

pm me if interested
 
I think the Epox 4PDA2+Ver.2, the Asus P4P800-D and the Abit AI7 are a very close match. I had a P4P800 and didn't like the fact I needed to mod the board in ordert to get stable voltages from it (CPU AND Vdimm). The AI7 has rock stable voltages (up to 1.9v cpu and 3.2v vdimm) but the performance seems a couple % behind the Asus with regard to memory performance.

Like someone else said, look them over for the features you want and then check out reviews and personal opinions on your final choices. I have the AI7 w/2.8c. See sig for my daily o/c. been runnnin' at that speed since the week after I put it all together and never a hiccup caused by the components.
 
get an IC-7 Max3? :D
otherwise an ic-7 or ic7-g should do the trick, cant go wrong with those boards - best overclocking boards ever
and it doesnt really matter which of the northwood cpu's u get. should really only be able to overclock to 3.6ghz ish. so just spend according to ur budget....
 
I'll second the Epox 4PDA2+ (rev. 2).

It's one of the best OCing boards out there now, has an excellent layout/design, and is very reasonable at $108 given what you get in the box.

I installed mine this weekend, with a new 2.8C. Only adjusted the vcore up by .025, then easily was OCed to 3.5 GHz. When I get more time, I'll be testing it more, hoping to get 3.7 to 3.9.

Here's a good review of the 4PDA2+ rev.2, and they even push the board waaay up in OC:
http://www.ocprices.com/index.php?rev_id=172&page=1&action=reviews
 
Thanks for all of the replies, gents.

I'll definitely take it into consideration...Build's getting delayed a little bit ATM, car and housing are somewhat higher priorities for me for a while.

But I'll get there eventually.
 
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