• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

MSI 845 Ultra-ARU versus EPOX EP-4BDA2+, which one would you get?

Using 845 Ultra w/1.6A and 1.8A.
If you gonna get 1.8A, don't get it if overclock is the first thing you're looking for. You might not get to 133fsb.
For 1.6A, very easy to go up 140fsb, or little more.
You can't adjust the cpu:ram ratio, and the agp and pci clock don't get locked after 133fsb.
Has a crappy AMI bios. It took a while to find out how to change the settings.😛
Otherwise, very solid board with tons of features. Yeah, you can disable the ata133 raid controller, it's gonna cut the boot time by 2/3.
 
GA-8IRX, it's blue. edit you can't overclock with Vcore....

i do not recommend this board for overclocking.
 
Definitely the EPoX. It has so much better OCin' features. MSI boards are not known or designed for OCin'.
 
<<Definitely the EPoX. It has so much better OCin' features. MSI boards are not known or designed for OCin'.>>

I wholeheartedly disagree. They may not be the best OCers, but they do OC, and they can certainly hold their own when it comes to OC.
 


<< GA-8IRX, it's blue. >>



yup see above post.





<< Definitely the EPoX. It has so much better OCin' features. MSI boards are not known or designed for OCin'. >>




I don't agree either. In fact I would say that it is 180 degrees the other way.
 
Epox hands down, I just got my Epox 4BDA in the mail yesterday with 1.6a Costa Rica, and 2700samsung 512 chip. It's got probably the best MB manual I have seen, everything seems to be high quality, and I'm running 2211 right now rock hard stable and going to bump it up a bit later. I can't recommend this board or the features enough, this is the best motherboard I have ever owned, you will not be dissapointed, this is definately a diamond in the rough. Very very OC friendly
 
I can't say anything about the Epox board as I have never used it. As for the MSI board, which I am using, I would give a solid recommendation. As for it not overclocking, that is bullsh#t. Anyone who posts that as being the case should also indicate what problems they had with the board when attempting to overclock. I have a 1.6a running at 140fsb w/memory at 2-3-3-5.

I have not tried to get it stable any higher yet 'cause I am happy with this setup. A solid thumbs up for stability, compatibility and bang for the buck.
 


<< Definitely the EPoX. It has so much better OCin' features. MSI boards are not known or designed for OCin'. >>



Umm, MSI boards have always been overclocking friendly (at least on the Intel side, don't know about MSI AMD boards) going back to their great 440BX boards, which OC'ed those Celeron 300As so well. Don't know where you get your info...
 
I have the MSI Ultra-ARU, and I like it a lot. Very stable. I run it 24/7 and it hasn't hung since I installed it.

Probably the biggest benefits of the MSI Ultra-ARU over the Epox board you mentioned are that the MSI board:
  • supports ECC memory (the Epox doesn't, I believe)
  • the MSI board has three DIMM slots (rather than 2 on the Epox)
  • the MSI board has USB 2.0 ports - these may be useful in the future. USB 2.0 has a large improvement in bandwidth over USB 1.1.
  • the MSI board has a Promise IDE RAID controller built in (the EPOX doesn't have RAID built-in) in addition to the usual 2 IDE ports
With the prices being about the same, the MSI seems like a clear winner to me.
 
Have 845Ultra-Aru for a month: running without any problems 1.6A at 133FSB
This board packed with features at relatively low cost.
Just keep in mind, this board is not the best for "extreme" overclocking, but with "normal" use it is excellent.
 
Got the MSI. Lots of features. Slight problem with locking up during restart using xp and oc @ 112. otherwise love the board.
 
Running an Ultra-ARU with a 1.6a at 140FSB at default voltage through 3DMark 2001 Demo loops as I type this. Pretty amazing to get a 600+ MHZ OC by only changing the FSB. I don't know anything about the Epox so I can't say that this is a better board. It does have more features though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top