Abit IS7 vs Abit IC7

[SpeedFreak03]

How much better is the IC7 over the IS7? Is it worth loosing onboard LAN and paying the extra $20 for the Intel 875 chipset? I plan to run a P4 2.6c o/c'ed to 3.25GHz, and 512MB Buffalo PC3700 DDR RAM. Thanks for any input I get.

-Josh

 

[Sunny129]

put it this way. do you have an NIC laying around, or have you been using onboard LAN for so long now that you've gotten rid of any NIC's you may have had? if that's the case, you are going to have to spend another $15-$20 for a cheap NIC. if you are set on using the 875P chipset, i'd get at least the IC7-G. otherwise the IS7 is fine, and gives you onboard LAN. the only other major difference between the two boards i think is that the IC7 has intel PAT technology, whereas the IS7 only has Abit's GAT, which is an emulated version of PAT, and it only works w/ certain memory dividers and fsb's, i so i don't even mess with it.

EDIT: i hear some people say that the 875P chipset is more likely to hit higher fsb speeds, i think due to the binning of the chips intel uses to make the 875 and 865 chipsets, but don't quote me on that...

 

[SpeedFreak03]

Yeah I have tons of NICs, actually I have no mobos with onboard LAN lol (I still use a Pentium 3...), but my real question was that is the 875 a lot better than the 865, and it seems to be (from ur answer and other things Ive read). So I think I will spend the extra $$$ for the IC7.

 

[RaymondY]

I currently own and Abit IS7 (865 based) mobo and am really happy with it. With some memory tweaks, Aida32 shows that my memory benchmarks are slightly higher on average than the 875 based mobo.

If $$$ is not an issue with u, I would recommend get the Abit IC7 or IC7-G over the IS7.

 

[SpeedFreak03]

Well I have done a little more "research", and I found a site that compares the 865PE and 875P chipsets, along with a lot of mobos and chipsets. It turns out that while the difference is slightly noticable in benchmarks, it isn't all that noticable in real world performance, which counts more to me then benchies. Money is an issue with me though, and I didn't really want to put out the extra $20 for the IC7. And on NewEgg, I can get the IS7-G refurbed for $71! So the IS7 looks like it will be in my system...But keep the opinions coming!

 

[SpeedFreak03]

Check out this thread that I googled: IC7 vs. IS7 (at Dev Hardware forums).

 

[Sunny129]

despite the fact that my initial response indicated that the 875 is better than the 865, i can't honestly say the difference is significant enough to warrant the extra $. like you said, when it comes down to real world performance differences, its hardly noticeable. i am also an extremely satisfied IS7 user, and i would recommend it to anyone who is iffy about spending the extra $ for an 875 board b/c i don't think the performance difference is worth it.

 

[SpeedFreak03]

yeah I was thinking the same thing Sunny. Anyway, I was thinking, im coming from a P3 500MHz and 256MB PC100 SDRAM! So I REALLY wouldn't notice the difference. Sure I want my computer to be super fast (which to me it will be lol), but I especially won't notice a hundred points in a Sandra benchmark. Plus the IS7-G refurb at NewEgg REALLY has me leaning towards the IS7 series...

 

[jiffylube1024]

Personally I would go for the IC7 non-G and use your network card. I don't think you need the 4 Serial ATA connectors (2 is fine) and the Nic you already have covered.

 

[Sunny129]

Originally posted by: SpeedFreak03
yeah I was thinking the same thing Sunny. Anyway, I was thinking, im coming from a P3 500MHz and 256MB PC100 SDRAM! So I REALLY wouldn't notice the difference. Sure I want my computer to be super fast (which to me it will be lol), but I especially won't notice a hundred points in a Sandra benchmark. Plus the IS7-G refurb at NewEgg REALLY has me leaning towards the IS7 series...

lol...i got news...you couldn't tell the difference between a 2.4C and a 3.0C coming from a PIII 500...ok maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but you are right. the difference betwen the 865 and 875 for you will be negligible. and it probably will be for me too, since i'm coming from a P4 1.6A...

 

[SpeedFreak03]

lol now im coming from a Athlon 850MHz (I know its not much difference lol, but someone gave me this HP Athlon 850MHz, so im using that as my main box now)! But I'm prolly going with the IS7-G refurb at NewEgg. So thanks for all the input!