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IC7-G vs 8KNXP (non-Ultra) Hard decision, input requested from current owners and people who are well informed.

W

Wurrmm

Senior member
I have been wrestling with this decision for some time now, and I am sure there are others out there in the same boat. I already know the specs of both and have heard some pros and cons but I am mainly looking for input from the community especially those who already own these mobos.

My criteria are:
- I am not a big overclocker, but if I ever get into it, I want the option.

- I also want rock stability and rock memory compatability with either Corsair TwinX1024 PC3200LLPT, 2x512 HyperX KHX3200, or 2x512 Mushkin PC3200 Black (which ever works best, and opinions on memory would be nice also, though I am leaning towards corsair).

- IT has to last a long time. I usually only upgrade ever 1 to 2 years and I want something reliable. Since this is my first Intel system since 286 days, I am not too sure on how frequent companies like to spit out new revisions. I was pretty upset when newer revisions of my A7N8X deluxe came out shortly after I got one. If new revisions are in store then I will probably just wait awhile longer to upgrade.

I am going to put a 2.8 GHz CPU in this thing with a TT Spark 7, and a WD1800JB. I already have all the other parts, including GPU. This is going to be pretty much a gaming/video editing/workstation for Autocad rig.

Thanks, and I look forward to the comments.
 
Originally posted by: Wurrmm
I have been wrestling with this decision for some time now, and I am sure there are others out there in the same boat.
Click to expand...

I'm one of the others in the same boat. I purchased a P4 2.8C last night along with 2X256mb OCZ PC3500 EL. Just trying to decide now between one of these two boards.

I've been wondering why there is so LITTLE mention of the GA-8KNXP non-ultra. What I have read says this is a solid board but not the overclocker that the IC7 or -G is. But I don't want a wild OC anyway. Just enough to get my 2.8C up to around 3.2GHz on air so I can have the $750 CPU performance for half price!

As for revisions there's not much we can do about it other than wait, and I'm not waiting. I've waited long enough. I'll be purchasing one of these boards today or tomorrow and I'm leaning toward the GA-8KNXP non-ultra, no the IC7-G, no the GA-8KNXP non-ultra, the IC7-G. The Gigabyte! The Abit! My sister! My daughter! She's my sister and my daughter! 😕 (Sorry. That's "Chinatown." This is making me nuts!) 🙂

Any current owners who would like to share their experience with these boards will certainly be welcomed.

Thanks
 
I will jump in here myself. I'm waiting for the price of the 8knxp to come down. I'm planning to put in a 2.8 processor with a 533 FSB. I got a few other goodies.

I haven't played much with memory, but it is one area that I'm really willing to spend the money. Good memory will always make for a stable machine. My prefrence in memory is to go with Crucial. I have put that in the current machine I'm running and never had memory issues.

Now for which board, I don't know. I'm planning to stay with the Gigabyte mainly because I have two hard drives that I want to set up with RAID 0.

I want to be able to overclock to stretch my board out as long as I can. I upgrade even longer, I'm in the 4 year range.

Talk to you later
 
For memory, I would just go with a pair of Corsair XMS-3500C2PT modules - fewer timing issues than the 3200LL's and you will save a few bucks. I have had mine running 2-5-2-2 over 212MHz.
 
I personally would snag an Intel D875PBZ board instead.. It's not an overclocker yes, but it sure will be damned stable.
 
It's down to these two for me, too, and likewise I like the Corsair memory. As of today, I'm leaning toward the IC7G based solely on price, sinc eotherwise they seem evenly matched.
 
I think I have come to a decision, and that is the IC7-G.

Reasons:
- Stellar recomendations from community and websites.
- Excellent overclocking potential (even though I am not into that)
- Included package has helped to reduce new system costs by $60. Basically, I don't have to buy round cables now, and the 8KNXP is $20 more than the IC7-G.
- Never owned and Abit before!!

Things that I will miss from the 8KNXP:
- Nicer Layout
- 6-phase power
- Dual Bios
- IDE RAID (doesn't matter much since I plan on using the serillel adaptor.

Basically, saving money and all the recomendations pushed me to my decision. I am pretty sure I would have been happy with Gigabyte, but this is a major purchase for me and I wanted something killer. I would still like people to post for everyone else who has not come to a decision yet.
 
Originally posted by: Wurrmm
I think I have come to a decision, and that is the IC7-G.

Reasons:
- Stellar recomendations from community and websites.
- Excellent overclocking potential (even though I am not into that)
- Included package has helped to reduce new system costs by $60. Basically, I don't have to buy round cables now, and the 8KNXP is $20 more than the IC7-G.
- Never owned and Abit before!!

Things that I will miss from the 8KNXP:
- Nicer Layout
- 6-phase power
- Dual Bios
- IDE RAID (doesn't matter much since I plan on using the serillel adaptor.

Basically, saving money and all the recomendations pushed me to my decision. I am pretty sure I would have been happy with Gigabyte, but this is a major purchase for me and I wanted something killer. I would still like people to post for everyone else who has not come to a decision yet.
Click to expand...

Dual BIOS is kind of a scam, what they don't make clear is that the first one must still be functional enough to load so you can load BIOS #2, unless you've already configured it. And 6 phase power is also overkill, nobody does voltage regulation better than Intel and they still use 2-phase designs.
 
Originally posted by: jaeger66
Dual BIOS is kind of a scam, what they don't make clear is that the first one must still be functional enough to load so you can load BIOS #2, unless you've already configured it. And 6 phase power is also overkill, nobody does voltage regulation better than Intel and they still use 2-phase designs.
Click to expand...

That is what I was kinda thinking. The more I think about it, the more I realize I made the best choice.
 
I haven't heard about stability of the IC7-G board... anyone info on that??? If I didnt want to OC, then the Intel board is definitely looking good.
 
i'm choosing the ic7 g too becuz of the overclocking ability proven already....i didn't know about the raid only thru sata, Thanks for pointing that out....i'm gonna buy two sata drives
 
I'm going the Gigabyte board myself. The main reasons for me are that it's the only board out there that meets my requirements and Gigabyte has a good reputation. I tend to use my systems for 3-4 years without much change, and stability is at least as important as speed to me. I don't plan on overclocking other than my memory if I can get it to DDR 400 speeds.

The DPS I too believe is a scam and not needed (and until I pump a Prescott chip into this next year that has higher power requirements, I'm not installing the DPS).

I need IEEE1394 and 4 IDE ports. While I have 2 Promise IDE PCI controller cards, I'd prefer to keep it off the PCI bus and on the motherboard. I have 2 WD2000JB drives I'm putting in RAID 0 for video editing and capture from an AIW card in DVD format so can be played on standalone consumer players (400 GB to take advantage of...won't have to burn right away if I can't get to it but need to record other things). I have 2 WD1200JB drives, one for the operating system and all programs, and the other to use to serve UNCOMPRESSED music (I CAN hear the difference on good speakers of any high bit-rate mp3 files). I'm also adding a DVD drive and a DVD-writer (that's 6 items for those keeping track).

I'm using Samsung original PC 2700 (2 512 MB sticks) so compatibility really won't be an issue for me. One of the benefits of buying something standardized. 😀

Anyway, for me, the Gigabyte looks ideal, not to menition it's a 6-layer rather than 4-layer design (better for signal seperation). Only thing I wish is that they had made it 4 memory slots rather than 6 because I think there could be some downside to that design (again, pure marketing to most).
 
I am only putting 3 IDE devices in this new rig I am building. I guess if I hade more the 8KNXP would be nice. However, I could also just get more serilell things. My main rig is gona have a CDROM, DVD, and 180GB HD. I am gona put my burner in my secondary comp so I can burn and play at the same time.
 
Originally posted by: Wurrmm
I am only putting 3 IDE devices in this new rig I am building. I guess if I hade more the 8KNXP would be nice. However, I could also just get more serilell things. My main rig is gona have a CDROM, DVD, and 180GB HD. I am gona put my burner in my secondary comp so I can burn and play at the same time.
Click to expand...

I'm installing 5 IDE devices.
2 X WD800JB HDDs (PATA/SATA RAID0)
Pioneer 117MG CD-ROM
TDK 48X CD-RW
Sony DR500A DVD +/- RW

I ordered a P4 2.8C from Mark One that shipped today - arriving Wednesday.

2 X OCZ433256EL memory from Googlegear arriving Monday.

IC7-G from Googlegear arriving Wednesday.

Also have a second Serrillel 2 converter coming.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!😀

All my other parts are waiting patiently on my worktable!😀

I decided on the IC7-G based on reviews Part 1 and Part 2 at Asusboards (now ABXZone.com) and the features vs. the GA-8KNXP.

I like the four phase power over GB's DPS which has never been shown to make a difference in stability as GB claims.
4 DIMMS vs. 6 DIMMS (4 single sided) on the GB board.
I read the reported "hole" between 166MHz and 200MHz on the GB board wasn't fixed with a BIOS patch but only moved to 174MHz to 200MHz.
And the MAD OC'ing the IC7-G is capable of.
The layout of the Abit board is near perfect according to every review I've read as well.
Abit really has kicked it up a notch as far as responsive customer service as well releasing BIOS fixes immediately in response to the reports of "memory shifting".
I like Abit USA Forums too. GB doesn't have forums set up at their site. Makes a difference to me.

Finally I was looking for one more reason to go with the IC7-G over the GA-8KNXP. I found it. Three year warranty on the Abit board vs. two years on the GigaByte. Done.

I'll be up and running by the end of next week if all goes as planned. I'll keep you posted on benchmarks and any pros and cons. I can't wait!:clock:
 
The CPU price on the 2.8C is still a little high for my taste.....I will wait a few days for newegg to get them in stock.
 
I like my IC7 so far. Works well with Corsair XMS 3200C2. You can save some $$ by going with the non -G model. Who uses GigE on the desktop anyway?
 
Hi Sumrtym,

I'm also looking for a DV video editing board.

This one has all the features I need..........Up to 12 HDD's , Firewire and S/PDIF inputs.

But it seems to be unstable.

How is your board behaving and what memory timings and voltage are you using?

Is this board reliable?

Does the RAID work?

Originally posted by: sumrtym
I'm going the Gigabyte board myself. The main reasons for me are that it's the only board out there that meets my requirements and Gigabyte has a good reputation. I tend to use my systems for 3-4 years without much change, and stability is at least as important as speed to me. I don't plan on overclocking other than my memory if I can get it to DDR 400 speeds.

The DPS I too believe is a scam and not needed (and until I pump a Prescott chip into this next year that has higher power requirements, I'm not installing the DPS).

I need IEEE1394 and 4 IDE ports. While I have 2 Promise IDE PCI controller cards, I'd prefer to keep it off the PCI bus and on the motherboard. I have 2 WD2000JB drives I'm putting in RAID 0 for video editing and capture from an AIW card in DVD format so can be played on standalone consumer players (400 GB to take advantage of...won't have to burn right away if I can't get to it but need to record other things). I have 2 WD1200JB drives, one for the operating system and all programs, and the other to use to serve UNCOMPRESSED music (I CAN hear the difference on good speakers of any high bit-rate mp3 files). I'm also adding a DVD drive and a DVD-writer (that's 6 items for those keeping track).

I'm using Samsung original PC 2700 (2 512 MB sticks) so compatibility really won't be an issue for me. One of the benefits of buying something standardized. 😀

Anyway, for me, the Gigabyte looks ideal, not to menition it's a 6-layer rather than 4-layer design (better for signal seperation). Only thing I wish is that they had made it 4 memory slots rather than 6 because I think there could be some downside to that design (again, pure marketing to most).
Click to expand...

😕
 
Hey Blackbox,

Really wish I could answer that. I'm waiting on my AIW 9800 Pro to ship from the pre-order at ATI. I'm hoping it arrives this coming week so I can assemble next weekend. I still have to purchase a 2.4c CPU, floppy, floppy cable (shielded), DVD-Rom, and of course, the 8knxp. I'm ordering all from Newegg, but want to wait to get a ship confirmation from ATI to take advantage of any small price drops. I have everything else already to go.

Soon as I get it up and running, I'll let you know.
 
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