BH-7 or P4PE?

[4x4expy]

I asked for advice in an earlier thread on choosing a MB for a first time overclocker. To be used with a P4 2.4/400mhz fsb CPU. With the advice given, I am about to buy one of these two MB's.

It seems that the BH-7 is very popular/powerful, and great bargain at $100, but as far as I can tell with the info available at websites there is no PCI/AGP locking capability. Am I wrong, or should this be a major concern. The P4PE does have a pci/agp lock. It costs a little more. but it seems that the Asus would be a better(safer) bet for a newbie.

My goal is to bump the CPU to around 3ghz, and switch to a faster dram, air cooled for a cheap and quick daily driver.

Mickey

P4 2.4/400
512 mb PC2100 Noname
GF4 Ti4400 128mb(320/640 without a prob)
SB Live 5.1
Maxtor 80gb 7200rpm
WD 60gb 7200rpm
52x24x52x CDRW
16x DVDrom

 

[Tates]

The BH7 has the AGP/PCI lock.

DRAM Ratio: 1:1, 3:4, 4:5
FSB up to 250 MHz by 1MHz increment
Up to +30% of Standard VCore at +5% increment
DRAM Voltage up to 3.05V
AGP Voltage up to 1.6V

Read about it here

4 Phase Power
Only ABIT has a fully integrated 4-phase power solution. ABIT Engineers believe that only a fully-integrated 4-phase power solution will be adequate to overclock the next generation of CPUs.
Supports Next Generation CPUs
Because of ABIT's 4-phase power solution, the BH7 supports the next generation of CPUs with an 800 MHz FSB.
The Right Features
The BH7 comes with standard 6-channel audio, LAN and 3+1 ABIT Serillel ATA.
Overclocking BIOS
ABIT Softmenu is the original and still the best overclocking BIOS in the industry. Key system parameters that are adjustable within Softmenu include CPU FSB range, DDR VCC adjustment range, FSB/AGP/PCI ratio, multiplier
factor and CPU Core Voltage.
Overclocking Capacitors
ABIT uses all Rubycon capacitors on the BH7. From Japan, Rubycom capacitors are considered the best in the industry, and are especially suited to the demands of overclocking.

 

[SinfulWeeper]

BH7 does have the locks... but why would you want to use them? Your AGP/PCI bus speeds will not go that far out of spec. And from the system in you list, all of it should handle the extra speed and still ask for more.

BH7 all the way

Your CPU might be a little hard to OC though

 

[lupohki]

Wait a sec .. I always do the AGP/PCI lock at 33/66 (or was it 66/33?). Wouldn't you be holding back your overclock potential if you didn't?

 

[SinfulWeeper]

Not on my BE7.

 

[LastRide]

Depends how high you can overclock your CPU.If you hit 180-190FSB you better hope you have AGP/PCI locks.Not only is it hazardous to your components you will also be running way out of spec.Sure,if you get a little overclock then no big deal.I am at 183FSB on my 2.4B right now at default voltage.I can run 190FSB if I want but I run 4:5 ratio for 458DDR as it is now.

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

pci is usually good up til 35mhz...even 37ish its ok
problems start after 38ish (hd failure, corruption, etc)

you can always lock the agp/pci at higher values if you want (this helped eliminate the sound crapping out on my friends p4pe board )

i say go for bh7 from what ive seen

 

[wicktron]

Price = BH7
Performance = Tie
Overclocking = BH7
Features = P4PE

 

[4x4expy]

Thanks to everyone who replied. I ordered a BH7 and a few small goodies today, so I'm sure I'll come up with some good rookie questions soon.

Mickey

 

[t4t3r]

is the p4 2.4ghz 400mhz processor better than the 533 mhz version? what advantages does one have over the other? sorry if these are newbie questions, i have read much about intel processors lately.


t4t3r

 

[SinfulWeeper]

Originally posted by: t4t3r
is the p4 2.4ghz 400mhz processor better than the 533 mhz version? what advantages does one have over the other? sorry if these are newbie questions, i have read much about intel processors lately.


t4t3r

The 400MHz version runs slower, and would be harder to get a half way decent OC out of it.
4x4expy would be extremely lucky if he can hit 133 bus with his.