Do any overclockable micro atx mobos exist?

[Silversierra]

As the title says, I'm looking for a replacement mobo for socket 478. It needs to be micro atx, and I want bios overclocking features. Also, how can you tell if a mobo has a pci/agp lock, or do all current mobos have this feature?
So far I've found three possibilities.

-Biostar Via pm800 matx 478 $47
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=13-138-020&DEPA=0
It's cheap, and I think it has overclocking ability. Are biostar and via any good?

-Foxconn 865g 478 $74
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-186-005&depa=0
It's a little more expensive, and I think it's overclockable. Is foxconn any good?

-Gigabyte 865g 478 $84
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-128-222&depa=0
It's a little more expensive, but 4 dimm slots. Unsure about overclockabiltiy. Comes with easy tune 4, does that mean it's overclockable(in bios)?

Cheaper is better to me, but I want overclock options. The cpu I have is a 1.8a ghz northwood, and I'd like to be able to oc the fsb from 100 to 133 to have it at 2.4ghz. I'm worried about the pci/agp speeds though, how would you lock them, or can these boards lock them? Input is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[rise]

i'd say the gigabyte out of those, seeeing the reviewers say the other 2 don't oc at or or well. plus with the easy tunes it sounds like you'd have some options.

i have an asus p4p-800-vm with the 865g and it has little to no options, but using clockgen would get me 2850 on a P4 2.4c. not great but all i did was move a slider and set the timings and dram.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Well, overclocking won't make THAT much of a difference in performance, just to let you know. I mean squeezing 200-300 mhz out of your system is really nothing.

But, that's your choice.

To answer your question,
I'd recomend the gigabyte, as "BIOSTAR" doesn't sound very... erm... reliable. I'm not too sure about foxconn, but (from what you said) it seems as if it only has 2 dimm slots.

Go for the gigabyte, even though it'll cost you some.

-The Pentium Guy

 

[Silversierra]

It seems the biostar isn't very oc'able(but includes software warpspeeder), but I found a review of the foxconn.
http://www.ocia.net/reviews/foxconnmobo/page3.shtml
They are oc'ing a 800mhz fsb though, so it may be different(they hit a limit at 233, 932fsb, but a cpu like mine with a 400mhz bus wouldn't hit the limit, it runs at 100 stock, but I was hoping to hit 133, much below 233. If I could hit the limit of 233 it'd be a 4194, but that's very improbable).

I couldn't find much about the gigabyte. I thougt I'd find more. I like the 4 dimm slots and gigabyte is a better brand. Is software oc'ing the same as bios oc'ing? Does anyone know about the pci lock thing? I'm trying to figure out if these boards have it, don't want to fry my pci cards or corrupt my hd.

Going from 1.8 to 2.4 isn't a 200-300mhz oc, it's 600mhz, and I think it'd make a difference (less bottleneck) It seems some 1.8a's can get to 3ghz on a good board, so a 2.4 is likely, hopefully. X-bit got their 1.8a to 3.24ghz apparantly as seen here.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/value-cpus_14.html

 

[rise]

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy
Well, overclocking won't make THAT much of a difference in performance, just to let you know. I mean squeezing 200-300 mhz out of your system is really nothing.

But, that's your choice.

To answer your question,
I'd recomend the gigabyte, as "BIOSTAR" doesn't sound very... erm... reliable. I'm not too sure about foxconn, but (from what you said) it seems as if it only has 2 dimm slots.

Go for the gigabyte, even though it'll cost you some.

-The Pentium Guy

uhh, yeah.. kinda what i said..

anyway, clockgen, if it works on your board, locks the pci/agp. all i could do though was increase the fsb. to get anything more i needed some voltage options or dividers or anything in bios which i had none, other than 2.55/2.65v dram.

can you go to gigabytes site and look at their manual and see if they list the bios options?

 

[Silversierra]

It's 7mb. That's a pretty big file for dial up..., and it's a pdf. I hate pdf's. Half the time adobe reader crashes firefox, and it takes forever to load.

 

[Silversierra]

Ok, I downloaded it. I has frequency/voltage control in the bios. It has cpu multipier selection(if available on cpu), fsb speed (100-355mhz, holy cow, 355 quad pumped is like 1420 fsb!), and agp/pci/src fixed option, says "adjust pci/agp/src asynchronous to cpu".(is this the pci/agp lock?), and memory speed selector for 400mhz fsb, 2 x fsb, and 2.66 x fsb, for 533, 2 x fsb and 2.5 x fsb. So if I have a 400mhz fsb (100 actual) cpu, I can use ddr 200, or ddr 266. If I have a 533 (133fsb), I can use ddr 266, or ddr 333. Pc 3200 can downclock to ddr 266, right? Too bad there isn't a 3x memory speed selector, then if I'd run it at 133, I'd be running at ddr 400. Am I understanding the memory right in what I said above? Is the pci/agp/src fixed the pci lock? It would seem to be. So from what I understand, it has a pci lock, and oc'ing options, but I don't see any cpu voltage options. If there aren't any cpu voltage options, can I oc much at stock?

 

[The Pentium Guy]

It's 7mb. That's a pretty big file for dial up..., and it's a pdf. I hate pdf's. Half the time adobe reader crashes firefox, and it takes forever to load.

04/18/2005 11:08 AM

Ok, I downloaded it.
04/18/2005 12:08 PM

Not to hijack your thread or anything, but...
It took you one hour? I feel bad for you with dialup . I remember having dialup 3-4 years ago... I don't know how I survived that .

-The Pentium Guy

 

[Silversierra]

Well, I'm grateful that I have internet. Firefox helps though, now I can open links for the next page in tabs before I finish reading a page, and by the time I'm done reading the page, the next page is loaded. No broadband available in my area, unless you count satelite(expensive, slower than dsl, high ping).
It took 23 minutes to dl 7mb, how long would that take on dsl, 23 seconds lol? Well anyway, thanks for the bump.

Now, is there any chance my cpu would overclock to 133mhz fsb at stock voltage(1.5v)?
"The choice can also come down to the CPU itself, and since the 1.6A is a virtual lock for the 100 to 133Mhz FSB jump, doing so right off the bat may be the quickest and easiest method of overclocking. Many Pentium 4-1.6A processors can even hit the 2.13 GHz overclock without increasing the core voltage. Those with higher-speed Pentium 4 processors may feel safer moving a bit slower with the FSB, especially at 2.0 GHz and above. It's highly unlikely that a Pentium 4-2.2 GHz or higher is going to hit the 133 MHz FSB, so increasing these speeds slowly is really the only viable option."
http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/hwGuides/article.php/10709_1380951__6

I don't think any of the m/atx boards they sell have good overclocking. The gigabyte has all options except voltage(but voltage is important). The biostar manual doesn't say anything about bios options, but does have warpspeeder utility. The foxconn (according to the ocia article listed above) didn't oc to well with a 800mhz fsb cpu, but it may work better with a 400mhz fsb. It says in the article foxconn is releasing/has released a bios that allows voltage options, so if they did it then it might be best.

Btw: The gigabyte doesn't seem to have voltage options, but can the included easy tune software increase the voltage, or is there any other utility that can do this?

 

[Silversierra]

"The gigabyte doesn't seem to have voltage options, but can the included easy tune software increase the voltage, or is there any other utility that can do this? "

Does anyone know?

 

[The Pentium Guy]

The voltage options are "hidden" in gigabyte boards. On most of them you push F1 in the BIOS to unlock this menu. Not too sure if *this* board has that, but generally speaking Gigabyte boards have those.

But dude... I would *really* stay away from the Biostar.... it gives me the creeps , sounds generic (sort of).

-The Pentium Guy

 

[Silversierra]

Hmm. That's interesting. Didn't know gigabytes have hidden voltage options, it kind of makes sense for gigabyte though. It'll keep the average joe from toasting his cpu with too much voltage by accident, but power users can up it if they want. I wonder if this board has that. It has a good many overclocking options, which are kind of pointless without voltage adjustment. The part of the bios the oc settings on this mobo is called "frequency/VOLTAGE control" (emphasis added), why would it say voltage if it didn't have it.

I think I've ruled out biostar, especially after reading the manual, it wasn't very detailed.

Anyway, thanks for the input. Is there any way, besides actually buying the board, to know if it has voltage control?

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Yeah - search around for people that have this board.
It's an intel board right? Eek - I doubt lots of people have it (I have a Socket 478 ASUS P4P800-e deluxe - great board, but you said you wanted mATX).

But just search around, I'm sure SOMEONE has it . Hint: I doubt anyone at XtremeSystems would have this board -> they're religiously overclockers .

-The Pentium Guy