845G motherboards

[TenEgg]

845G is faster than 845E right?

Which one would you get? Please give 1st and 2nd choice coz I think many will choose the asus board.

Gigabyte GA-8IGX
Epox EP-4G4A+
ABit BG7
MSI 6580 Max-L
Asus P4B533-V

Also, which one oc's better? Do all of these have 4:5 ratios?

 

[Kingofcomputer]

My choices:
1. Gigabyte 8IGX - dual bios, Intel lan, cheap
2. Asus P4B533-V - cmedia 8738 sound, but costs much more than Gigabyte 8IGX

Not being considered:
Epox - not Intel lan, price is similar to Gigabyte 8IGX
MSI - price is similar to Gigabyte 8IGX
Abit - price is similar to Gigabyte 8IGX, Abit is infamous for using inferior capacitors, pos.

 

[DubSlick]

I chose the Abit BG7 for 4:5 memory ratio, PCI/AGP lock, and stability while overclocked. I would also consider the epox 4g4a+

I tried the Gigabyte GA-8IGX but was disappointed with the lack of PCI/AGP lock, no 4:5 memory ratio when using a chip that originally had a 100 Mhz FSB (ie 1.6A, 1.8A), and instability while using 2 DIMMS and overclocking. Hope that helps.

 

[Pardus]

1st choice: AOPEN AX4GPRO 845G Motherboard, toms hardware just did a review on 845g boards, look here, aopen got very high scores, this board has tons of features for the price the others dont.

2nd choice: MSI 6580 Max-L - msi has a good track record, solid mb's, great video cards too

3rd choice: Asus P4B533-V - ok board, but asus always has some strange bugs, incompatibility issues in it

Gigabyte GA-8IGX - expensive board and buggy from all the reviews
Epox EP-4G4A+ - dont care for epox, thats just me
ABit BG7 - i wont buy abit again, they got inferior capacitors now

 

[ronein]

Id go for the Epox or the ASUS.
The gigabyte doesnt have a PCI Lock(not yet anyway) according to some reviews and posts.

 

[MadTom]

I got the 8IGX (in combination with a 1.6A) and firstly was very disappointed with the performance. After a long research and a lot of trying I found out that the board is having compatibility problems with the Kingmax memory (256MB DDR333) I bought.

After I changed the memory to a Samsung PC2700 512MB RAM all problems where gone. Going through different forums I've seen that other users with 845G based boards have also problems with Kingmax memory (4G4A+...).

Still, although I'm happy with my system now, I hate the fact that it's not possible to set memory timigs to 4:5 when using a 400 BUS processor (1.6A, 1.8A, 2.0A, 2.4A...) only 3:4 and 1:1; but if you are going to use a 533 BUS based processor (2.26B, 2.4B, 2.53B, 2.8B...) then the 4:5 memory option is avalaible.

My system settings are:

1.6A@2.14 (default voltage, 536MHz on the BUS (4x134))
AGP/PCI=66/33 MHz
DDR333@356MHz, 2-5-3-3 settings, +0.1V
GeForce 3 Ti200 @ 220/500 (maximum with coolbits in detonator 40.41 beta) - 8905 3DMarks (2001SE build300)
WinXP pro

If anyone is wondering why I'm not going higher - I'm using this PC as a TV, gaming rig, multimedia station, my wife is working with it, too... therefore I need to have a stable system - and all settings where tested as stable. Using this settings for a few weeks hasn't had any bad impact on the system.

Again, anyone wondering about the Ti200 setting - I bought the card back in April 2002 and was lucky getting it with 3.8ns memory which is used for the Ti500 from the same producer (it's a PINE, now XfXgraphics - http://www.xfxgrapics.com). I managed to get it stable at 225/525 MHz without any additional cooling.

Happy OC'ing.

 

[TenEgg]

wow...less votes for asus than I expected...

 

[newbiepcuser]

wow...less votes for asus than I expected...

Maybe if they lowered their price, Asus might get some votes.

 

[canadianpsycho]

If you plan on overclocking, PCI/AGP lock and 4:5 dividers are a must

 

[tyoung88]

This is the first I've heard of the Abit capacitor issue . . . I bought a BG-7 back in June when very few 845G mobo were avail. It's been running perfectly stable at 2.4ghz 375DDR since day one. THG gave good marks to the Soltek 845G board and it's only $79 on newegg, might be worth considering if price is a factor.

In conclusion . . . i love my BG-7 . . . good OC and rock solid stability. My only gripe is no onboard RAID. Checkout the BG-7 thread on this board a lot of people have had good success!