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Asus p4b266-c VS. MSI 845 Ultra-ARU p4 DDR MOBOS

F

fumbduck

Diamond Member
I am upgrading to a p4 northwood system, and i have narrowed it down to these 2 motherboards. I have read many reviews on the MSI mobo, and all of them gave it an awesome rating.

On the other hand, i have some friends that got the asus p4b266-c motherboard, and overclocked there p4 1.6a's to 2.4 no problem, and the highest overclock i read about in a review for the MSI was 2.2.

The MSI has way more features and overclocking features, but i think the Asus has lass overclocking features, but the features that it does have, it has more of.. get what im saying?

some input would really help as to pull my decision, if anyone knows anything critical, please tell me.

What would really help is someone who took the MSI and a p4 1.6a to 2.4ghz, or has proof that someone else did.. Thanks
 
When you hear that someone took their 1.6A to 2.2 max, it's most likely the limit of the CPU itself, because I don't believe MSI is the one holding the CPU back. And yes, you were right about MSI having more features than the Asus. I dont think it has as much OCing features, but it has USB2 and RAID, and onboard sound. But the 845Ultra-ARU should have no problems taking the 1.6A to 2.4 and beyond. Overall, I like the MSI more 'cause you get a lot more for the money, and it's red!
 
fumbduck, thanks <vbg> for mucking up my decision on a board, w/ your question of MSI vs. Asus! Kidding aside, I hadn't considered the MSI 845D offering. That looks like a fine board, and the reviews are overall very positive.

I have two questions re the MSI board in particular, and 1.5v vs. 3.3v video boards. First, do you (or anyone else) know if the Promise offering on this board is of the Lite variety, in that it won't function simply as another IDE two channel controller? Or is it a full Promise solution, offering the additional IDE channels? Second, how does one tell if a video card is 1.5v or 3.3v? I'm considering the Leadtek GeForce3 Ti200 TDH card, and I can't find the voltage designation on their website. Is it safe to assume that the current generation nVidia products (GeForce3, GeForce4) are 1.5v?

Man, I thought I had this new machine all figured out! Your post is causing me to reconsider. Let us know what you end up doing, board-wise.
 
The MSI does look really tempting, about the raid, all i remember is that it offers 5 types of raid, i dont know if i will even use it, but it uses ata133 too so thats good. I'm really starting toe dge toward the MSi because my friends p4b266-c crashed on him 3 times the other night.
 
Since I didn't need USB 2.0 or Raid, I went with (2) P4B266-C @ 108.00ea. They have a lot of memory tweaks, and I like all of the bios options. It's nice to see a stripped board perform so well. I had problems with ASUS in the past (socket A), and vowed to never give them another shot. However, since a lot of users reported great o/c'ing success with the P4B266-C, I decided to risk my luck again. Both of my 1.6a's dance @ 150 cas 2-2-2-6 3:4 100% stable and ~48C under full load. I might push them a bit further, but who knows. My SETI WU times are around ~3hrs.
 
well, i planned on using raid via a raid card, but its already onboard with this mobo, and you are allowed to change agp and ram voltage right there in the bios.. both are neck and neck with me.. pelase someone come with a deciding factor.
 
<<First, do you (or anyone else) know if the Promise offering on this board is of the Lite variety, in that it won't function simply as another IDE two channel controller? Or is it a full Promise solution, offering the additional IDE channels?>>

It is the Lite variety, but Lite doesn't mean it'll only function as ordinary IDE controllers, you can still do RAID0 and RAID1. But the thing is, no motherboard manufacturer who implements the Promise RAID has it as a full blown solution. MSI isn't the only one, others like Asus and Gigabyte are the same way, all Lite solutions. But you can always hack the RAID BIOS to make it a fully functional RAID.
 
LXi, thanks for the reply. If I might, let me ask my question another way. Since the RAID solution on the MSI board (and many others) is the Lite version, can the Promise controller simply act as an additional EIDE controller? I'm asking this question as I'd like the board, via the Promise onboard controller, to provide EIDE channels over and above the i845D drive controllers. That way I can put my boot hard drive on the primary Promise channel, my DVD on the primary i845D channel, and my CD-RW on the secondary i845D channel. Then no drive will have to share a channel w/ another.

So, my question then becomes, can the onboard Promise controller function this way? I'm asking this as I seem to remember reading reviews of other boards w/ this Promise chipset that could only provide RAID 0 or 1, and not provide simple additional drive controller channels for single drives. Maybe I got that all wrong initially <g>.
 
in one of the reviews that i read, the DFI was neck and neck with the MSI, but the reference intil 845 board they used was ahead of both.. odd?
 
anyone have anything critical that would turn my side?

i am probably going for the asus, simply because i only have 1 60gb harddrive, and only 2 dimms of crucial pc2100 drr, so the raid and extra dimm slot on the MSI are useless.
 
Jeff H,

Im fairly certain that they can function as regular IDE channels, on past MSI boards w/ Promise RAID, they either provide you a jumper to select RAID mode or ATA mode, or they provide you the option in the BIOS.


<i am probably going for the asus, simply because i only have 1 60gb harddrive, and only 2 dimms of crucial pc2100 drr, so the raid and extra dimm slot on the MSI are useless.>>

The fact that the MSI 845 Ultra is also available without the extra options should warrant a reconsideration. The plain 845 Ultra without RAID/USB2/Audio is also cheaper than the P4B266-C, and you're not getting the board without a package like Asus.
 
I went ahead and ordered the asus. I suppose if its a total failure, i wil try and tell it on here, and swithc to rambus and go with the abit th7-ii.

I will let you know how it works
 
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