875 advice!

[TheBaron]

building myself an 875 machine, i was wondering which mobo you would go with. i'd like the msi, but it has serious bios stability issues, the asus board has a retarded 3com ethernet controller, the gigabyte board has a ton of features but lags behind all the rest... i mean are there any good choices here? i need to have a new machine before july, and i like all the onboard stuff 875 has.

[Thrax]

Abit.

I need not say more.

[Enverex]

Excuse my absentmindedness but what the hell is an 875? :confused:

NS

[Omega65]

the Abit IC7-G i875 kicks butt (Check the mobo review thread)

i875P (Codenamed: Canterwood)

FSB800 Dual DDR Chipset - the fastest currently available Pentium 4 chipset

i865PE (Springdale) FSB800 (Canterwoods slower/cheaper baby brother)

[Enverex]

Ah Thanks, I faintly remembered P4's being associated.

NS

[TekGamer]

Well depends.. Do you plan to Overclock it... if so then go with the abit IC7 or IC7-g if not then go with the Intel board, the intel board is a kick but performer, no overclocking, stable as all get out.

Ic 7, good over clocker, good performer, good stability.

tek

[TheBaron]

i just saw that tom's said the abit didn't oc so well.

guess i probably should have learned by now not to listen to tom's...

heh oh well

[mmonnin]

Anandtech says the Abit IC7 kicks ass when overclocking.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1822&p=1

Msi Review
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1820&p=1

[Omega65]

Both links are in the mobo review thread!

[mmonnin]

Yes they are.:) I found them myself tho.;)

[TheBaron]

i had already seen them all, i was just wondering what you guys thought since all the reviewing sites seemed to have conflicting opinions

[Omega65]

When in doubt go with the Brand you know - ABIT

[Spinner]

Hmm, it's always tricky deciding what motherboard to get. MSI as previously mentioned have recently got a lot better in terms of the quality of their products, but they still have a long way to go in the area of supporting their products after purchase. I've personally had problems with MSI, I think with their boards it's a bit hit or miss. Saying that though the board you were thinking of getting does boast some very attractive features.

If you're not on a budget then get ABIT, they are a good all rounder. I mean I could go on in detail about each of the top mobo manufactuers strong and weak points, but it will all simply lead to the same recommendation.

If money is no object then go to the ABIT camp, if it is, then fair enough, MSI and ASUS should be more suited to your needs. Simple as that. In this case though I would say you were correct in checking out the MSI board, probably a solid second choice in my opinion.

Just remember, the motherboard is essentially your PC. It's what makes everything work together, if you compromise on that, then your system will always have a handicap. If a man has a super fit, fast and powerfull body, but he has a weak heart, none of it really matters, those fantastic attributes (components if you will) are useless with out a strong, sturdy and reliable core to his body.

Do you get me?;)

[TheBaron]

sweet dawg. im running an abit kg7 right now, amd chipsets all the way. speaking of, i'm surprised this thing still works :-D

[FAH_WW]

I've never had any problems with my MSI boards? Had to do a BIOS upgrade once for the 760MPX but that's about it ;)

That dual Opteron board from MSI (well there are two) should be quite good fun too :D

[muddocktor]

One thing to keep in mind about the 865/875 series of chipsets is that the only basic difference between them is that the 875 chipsets are binned parts, the cream of the crop so to speak. They both come off the same production line, according to this article (http://www.overclockers.com/tips00386/) at overclockers.com and the article also states that Asus for one has said(link in article now dead, wonder if someone lost their job over that leak;) ) that they could enable PAT on the 865 boards also. It will be interesting to say the least if Intel's yield will be very high to where they are releasing a bunch of Springdale chipsets that would fully qualify to run as Canterwood chipsets except that the sales for the Canterwood mobos isn't there due to their extremely high price point. It would be analagous to the JUIHB XP1700's that run as fast or faster than the higher speed procs that AMD has been releasing.

EDIT: Here's the excerpt from the interview with the Intel exec that states about 875 being a binned part:
Can you explain what PAT means to all of us non-technical people? “How does this help my computer go faster”? is the most common question.

Performance Acceleration Technology is one of the features of our 875P (Canterwood) chipset. We basically bin our Memory Controller Hub (MCH) chips like our CPUs, finding the fastest silicon. We can then use this fast silicon to shave off a couple of memory clock cycles, resulting in better performance.

Source (http://www.simhq.com/_technology/technology_001a.html)

[Thrax]

Aye, and as of late, Asus, Albatron and Abit have enabled PAT on the 865PE with quite a fair bit of success.

[TheLostSwede]

I´m trying to get my hands on a Asus 875 deluxe, it has everything i need. With a 2.4C, i should see an easy 3.4-3.7 gig on water with the memory i have.

[primesuspect]

This is very much OT, sorry for the spam and thread crapping, but I must say it is terribly refreshing to see a thriving discussion about Intel parts without the (usually) obligatory "AMD is teh pwn! Intel is teh suck!".... Thank you all! I'm done now.

[muddocktor]

Mackanz said
I´m trying to get my hands on a Asus 875 deluxe, it has everything i need. With a 2.4C, i should see an easy 3.4-3.7 gig on water with the memory i have.

The Asus P4P800 Springdale board also looks like a cheaper way to go with the same performance features as it's more expensive brother. Read the articles both at hardocp and at(shudder;) ) Tom's on this Springdale board and it looks like you can get the same performance as 875 chipset boards with the Springdale counterparts. Also, hardocp is supposed to be releasing a review on the Abit IS7-G this week too; it's mentioned in their P4P800 review and from the little blurb they put there, sounds like they were real pleased with it.

BTW, I've noticed a trend recently at both sites that their reviews seem to be much more professionally done and complete. Maybe all the bad press both sites have had in the fairly recent past has made them be more professional and accurate in their reviews.

[TekGamer]

Stay with the 875. PAT is worth it. Huge differences memory wise between 865 no pat and 875 running pat

and toms = suxor

he does have alot of good reviews but his OC and such like that are usually BS.

Tek

[TheBaron]

oh i know, i dont trust times for a bit, his benches are VERY slanted to intel.

but i was under the impression that abit had a PAT enabling bios in the works for the 865, or at least the same thing that the P4P800 has, hyperpath or whatever. i'll probably stick with the 875 just because IC7 r0x0r, but i was just thinking similar performance for cheaper is a good thing

[Omega65]

TekGamer said
Stay with the 875. PAT is worth it. Huge differences memory wise between 865 no pat and 875 running pat
Tek

Current benches of Abit and Asus show their i865PE (Springdale) mobos are neck and neck with their i875P brethren.

In light of current analysis I would go for the cheaper i865as the i875's PAT advantage is largely a myth. BOTH chipsets have it. Intel just disables it for the i865PE 800mhz setting (But Abit & Asus have reenabled it)

check ou the Asus & bit i865PE mobo links in the review thread (HardOCP has tested all 4 mobos)

[TheBaron]

i've read both the hardocp reviews, and i am really liking the abit better than the asus. but i thought that the abit board is currently not running with the pat equivalent option enabled, thus making it much slower. i was under the impression that the memory boost was to come in the next bios revision, which abit has not yet released. so the question is then, are you SURE they are going to release this bios revision, of which i would assume hardocp is using the earlier released beta version? i dont want to buy the board if it ends up being slower than another one

[Shorty]

FAH_WW said
That dual Opteron board from MSI (well there are two) should be quite good fun too :D

I saw it first :nudge: :p