Originally posted by: KashGarinn
Originally posted by: neutralizer
1) At this point, there isn't much difference between the i865pe and i875 because the IC7 with bios 13 has PAT enabled so its basically running as if it were a i875 chipset.
- You mean the IS7, right?
Yeah, I meant the IS7, but after the whole PAT/GAT thing, IS7 and IC7 are pretty much the same thing, although I see IS7 doing better in the benchmarks even without PAT enabled.
2) i875 and i865pe have the same upgradability since the i865pe is only a crippled version of the i875. As for upgradability to Prescott, I doubt it because Prescott will have more pins and an entirely new socket. The only upgradability you can expect is for the socket 478 chips.
- You are sure about the prescott? (and to confirm we're talking about the same thing, the prescott is the next CPU which comes out this autumn right?)
Prescott will be Pentium5 that come out this autumn, yes. According to the THG, the first couple of chips wills till be Socket 478 so theoreticall the IS7 should support this after that, Prescott will be 700ish pins which would not fit in the Socket 478 that the IS7 has.
3) The IC7 has an AGP and memory real estate problem in that it will be hard to take out the RAM in DIMM 1 with the AGP card in.
- that's not too bad.
It isn't too bad, I had to deal with it with my 8KHA+, but on the IS7, even with the video card in, you can still pop out the DIMM by releasing just one side and slightly releasing the other.
4) DDR400, perhaps XMS3200C2 or HyperX.
- You would not recommend higher chips than 3200?
Well IS7 officially supports up to DDR400, you can get higher chips than 3200 if plan on OCing the FSB even higher or get better RAM timings. But most of the chips above 3200 are just overclocked versions of the PC3200 anyways. Since the IS7 supports DualDDR400, it would be helpful to buy two sticks of RAM so you can enable that feature providing extra bandwidth, which the P4 loves.
5) I have no clue... I guess as long as it fits in the hsf area for the CPU, which it usually can as long as you don't have one of those huge hsfs. Actually OCing with the retail HSF is fine. And your dragon case should fit fine as long as the connectors for a P4 mobo.
- Not sure about the connectors in my case.. how do I check this?
For the IS7, there should be a large connector from your PSU with 2x10ish plug (for AMD and Intel) and a smaller 2x2 plug (for Intel only). Check your PSU for those connectors. AMD/Intel certified PSU usually have them.
7) Change them in the BIOS by setting RAM timings to manual.
- No, I'm talking about what the numbers all mean, what it means to try to lower the number on each of the 2-2-3-5, and just general info on what the numbers do.
I think the manual for the IS7 explains, I know the first one is CAS latency, but I forgot the rest, generally the lower the ram timings, the better the ram will run. However, most DDR ram have trouble running at very low ram timings. IE my XMS3200C2 will only run 2-3-3-5. Look around there are some topics that talk about what those numbers mean.
8) OCing will not burn your P4 as they throttle down then they get too hot. There is a warning system for failing fans, high cpu temps and when the cpu gets too hot, it can shut off as well.
- what about possible effects on other items than the CPU?
The northbridge of the IS7 has this huge heatsink with 7k rpm fans, so I think that would keep the northbridge nice and cool. Actually I haven't seen my mobo temp rise above 28 C and I live in CA. OCing might potentially raise your PSU temp as well so you might want to watch that temp carefully as I don't think there is an alarm or shutdown for that.
- It did indeed, thanks alot
K.
Np, just giving back to the community of AT .