POLL --- 8IRXP, MSI 845 Ultra or Asus P4B266, help me decide Anandtech!

[gunf1ghter]

I need to order a new motherboard real soon... my little brother is going to inherit my 1.3 gig T-bird with an Asus A7V133 and I need to order a motherboard that I can easily overclock a 1.6a northwood on.

The Gigabyte board looks like the best all around contender, the one big hang up is that apparently if you need more than 1.65 volts to the CPU it still has problems with reboot. As far as stability goes all of the major sites (including this one and toms hardware) claim that the board is solid as a rock. I love the idea of having the extra IDE channels of the Promise controller, onboard Intel LAN and USB 2.0 (NEC Chip).... can increment voltages and frequencies in small increments... can lock ratios for AGP and PCI clocks.

The MSI board seems like a less expensive (and maybe slightly less overclockable) version of the Gigabyte board... doesn't lock the AGP or PCI ratios, no on board LAN.

The Asus seems to be everyone's favorite. I just think that the board is somewhat over-priced... no RAID, no ethernet... all for $10 more than the Gigabyte board. Additionally has problems with USB devices when the FSB is overclocked? Or is that with all the boards?

Help!!!!! Need to order soon!

 

[m1ke101]

i'm glad you posted this....i'm also trying to decide which mobo would go well with a 1.6a...i was thinking about the asus since most people seem to like it.

 

[RickH]

I agree, the Asus is a nice board but it has few features. It is a great $100 board but they charge $160. I have one. The thing works great with the jumpers--overclock with the BIOS and try using the onboard sound and it freaks. I allready had a NIC, sound and RAID cards so it didn't cost me extra. If you need to buy all these cards--the cost increases rapidly. R

 

[gunf1ghter]

Yaaa...... I have a hard time paying $150 bucks though for an Asus with no raid controller.... no ethernet either. Just seems somewhat over-priced for what you get. I currently run my HDU, CD-RW and DVD each on it's own IDE port... this really speeds things up and makes CD copying a breeze. If I have to run my hard drive in tandem with an optical device it will slow the hard drive down (WD 800BB 7200 RPM ATA133).

I considered the P4B266-C... however, Asus does not seem interested in doing any updates to the BIOS of this board... I checked their website and they have done ZERO updates since 1001. I have seen them do similar things with other "stripped version motherboards".

 

[gunf1ghter]

bump

 

[Mugsy]

I'd look very closely at the Epox 4BDA2+...has RAID (ATA 133) and excellent OC features...Check out the review here. All those features for $132 at New Egg.

 

[CoDerEd]

I just ordered MSI 845 ARU + 1.8a yesterday, hope it's the right choice.
check this: Intel 845 DDR Motherboard Roundup

 

[gunf1ghter]

The prob that I had with the Epox board was that it had the high point controller, I like the promise better... but I will add it to the poll anyway.

Also, I don't like the lack of USB 2.0 on the Epox board. USB 2.0 card would be another $20 purchase.

 

[gunf1ghter]

^

Vote!

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Read this Review at Extremetech..Might help you out some.

 

[gunf1ghter]

Ya, I have read quite a number of reviews... and many (like Tom's and Anand) rated the Gigabyte board #1.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

I know that it is just a foo-foo item, but I like the blue PCB of the Gigabyte.

 

[Mark0999]

I have a MSI 845 Ultra-AR and I love it. I had to use the wire trick, but my 1.8A runs stable at 2.4Ghz with 1.7V.

http://www.hexus.net/review.php?review=278

Given the choice, though, the Epox board looks mighty sweet to me.

 

[Jwyatt]

Man, my MSI 845 ultra aru board is flaky as hell. Im going to send it back and try a soyo maybe. Not sure though.

 

[Mark0999]

<< Man, my MSI 845 ultra aru board is flaky as hell. Im going to send it back and try a soyo maybe. Not sure though. >>



Make sure you have the latest BIOS and drivers, but stay away from the Soyo boards. I had a P4S Dragon Ultra and it sucked eggs. Performance or stability are NOT any of Soyo's strong points.

 

[Underclocked]

Looks like this poll is giving you about the same results as most of the review sites. Only the Epox seems a bit less favored but that is likely because there are fewer owners. I was so confused by the same choices (in the SIS boards) that I ordered an Asus P4S333 then cancelled it and ordered a Gigabyte 8SRX. Doesn't have all the bells and whistles but is a seriously good board by most accounts.

 

[hnic2k]

look at the 1200Mhz overclock on my 8irxp...nuff said..all on a $20 HSF

 

[308nato]

I have the 845 ARU as well. 1.6a and 1 512 stick Corsair XMS2400. Best clock is 140fsb steady as a rock. I could go higher with the wire trick but I'm not interested. I'm happy with this setup. Memory is at 2-2-2-5.

The pci/agp divider on the 845 is not manually adjustable with the current bios. It resets itself at 133fsb and 166fsb. So, if you get this board, go right for 133, your fsb will be overclocked obviously, but, the pci/agp divider will be at "factory" spec. Memory speed follows the fsb speed all the way. Bios allows you to choose 200 (1.00) or 266 (1.33). With good memory you can hang with 266 at the higher fsb to keep the bandwidth.

All in all I am very happy with this board. very user friendly, reliable and compatible. MSI can now pay me for the advertisement.

 

[CoDerEd]

hnic2k

what vga card u use,
it's killing your machine performance man
at 2.8 you supposed to get 10000 easily
with GF3Ti200.

I vote for MSI, right price for me and tons of feature.

peace

 

[gunf1ghter]

Well, it's decided (at least for me)... I have gone ahead and ordered the Gigabyte 8IRXP board from Mwave computer for the great price of $139.

I'm sure that they will fix the BIOS in a later version, if not I can always do the wire wrapping trick on the CPU to let this baby hit 2.4 gig with a 1.6a Northwood chip!

 

[jiffylube1024]

<< I agree, the Asus is a nice board but it has few features. It is a great $100 board but they charge $160. I have one. The thing works great with the jumpers--overclock with the BIOS and try using the onboard sound and it freaks. I allready had a NIC, sound and RAID cards so it didn't cost me extra. If you need to buy all these cards--the cost increases rapidly. R >>



I don't know what you're talking about with this onboard sound problem on the P4B266. I'm running a 1.8A @ 2.25 GHz with zero problems with the onboard sound. Ever. Same @ 2.4 Ghz (133 FSB). All my overclocks are done in BIOS.

All P4B266's have the USB problem at some FSB I believe; the computer flakes out when using the onboard USB 1.1 ports. Use the USB 2.0 ports and you will not have any problems whatsoever.

This board IS overpriced however it is a very stable board if you set it up properly.

 

[gunf1ghter]

Well, the onboard sound is the one thing I am not at all interested in using... I will more than likely use my Santa Cruz sound card as it should be superior to the onboard setup.. unless someone disagrees?