Do I need ICS for P3V4X?

[ThurzNite]

I'm about to purchase a P3V4X. Price is the same for ICS and non ICS. Which should I get? I have a p3 600e and I'd like it to do 900 (yeah, I'm getting ram that can go that fast but we'll see about the other components). So is ICS essential? I wanna max out the chip, even if it doesn't hit 900, but I wanna get as close as I can.

 

[Mikewarrior2]

ICS version has a hotter ICS chip, but also has more FSB's available. The Other(newer) revision has a Winbond Clockgen Chip, and has fewer fsbs.


Mike

 

[ThurzNite]

So do I want the ICS? Not completely sure here. Will heat be a problem?

 

[Mikewarrior2]

Ummm, I forget which bus pseeds the Winbond one has. I would go wtih the iCS version, and slap a heatsink on the ICS chip. http://www.viahardware.com has a nice guide on where the chip is, etc.


Mike

 

[alpha7x]

Get the ICS (rev 1.02) board. I have not had any overheating problems with the ICS chip running at 133 Mhz on three P3V4X boards. I think you have to get the FSB up to 150 or higher to see heat problems.

 

[ThurzNite]

I got the ics board. I'll check out that link on where the chip is and how to cool it. Board seems fine.
The chip looks ok, but haven't tested it yet. I got a asus s370 slotket, which was a mistake that wasn't my fault. The seller claimed it was a s370-133, but it wasn't. Darn. Ordering a msi 6905 master and that should be in on wed. Hopefully this all works. I also hope I didn't screw up the chip using the s370...voltage was 1.85.
Also waiting on the case, which should be here by thurz. In the mean time, I'll just use my old power supply and get things going.
Jay

 

[subhuman]

dont think it makes any difference. a 20-30mhz increase (max) isn't going to get you that much farther. this is a great board for most people, good for the price and if you want to run 133cpu/100ram. but, if you have the cash, the cusl2 is a better performing board.

if you have a bx board and can run at 133mhz (your agp can handle it) then keep it. no reason to change at this point in time...

 

[subhuman]

oops double post.

 

[ThurzNite]

Well, I got in on the group buy of mushkin pc133 cas 2-2-2. That should get me close to 150. I thought about the cusl2, but it seems too new. I went with something tried/true so that it would minimize the amount of frustration. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna keep this mobo...just gotta figure out how to cool the ics chip.
jay

 

[DarkRipper]

I have the ICS clock gen on my P3V4X board, with a nice heatsink stuck to it. I haven't OCed it yet, but it's nice knowing I could if I wanted to.


DR