MSI Neo 2 or Abit IS7??

[HardWired]

The question may have been asked here before, but here's my thoughts going in to the decision on which board to purchase. A good stable overclock is my main goal, so tell me what you think, or actually which do you think I should buy?

I have a retail 2.6C on the way and I'll be powering the combo with a Antec TrueControl 550W. For ram I purchased a (512MB) set of OCZ PC4000 EL Gold. So that's what I'm starting with for the supporting hardware, and here's my thinking on the issue between the two. Let me know what you think.

Tom's rates the MSI Neo2 w/ the 865PE chipset as one of the best out there. Is it really a great o'cer board or just a good board in general? I've decided I don't want to go the $170+ for the high end Abit or Asus, but I do want a good board with stable o'cs.

They both seem to be quality boards and are more within my price range after blowing the big bucks on my ram and PS. And more importantly, they both have the components I'm looking for in a mobo, while staying in the sub-$150 price range...with the IS7 being the least expensive of the two.

I really don't need all the bells and whistles that come with the AsusP4C800 boards or the Abit IC7-G boards. The IS7 seems to offer enough of what I'm looking for in a board for my needs, while the MSI Neo2 takes a majority of the benchies in Tom's 24 board showdown found here. LINK

So which one do I choose? Do I throw a dart? Flip a coin? UGH!!

 

[meeshu]

I have both motherboards.

For overclocking options, I would tend to go with MSI, as it has a greater selection of DRAM voltages. Plus it appears to work a bit better (stable) with a range of DRAM modules.

 

[1966]

Originally posted by: meeshu
I have both motherboards.

For overclocking options, I would tend to go with MSI, as it has a greater selection of DRAM voltages. Plus it appears to work a bit better (stable) with a range of DRAM modules.

You got to be kidding me right?

The Abit is FAR FAR FAR better motherboard than that crappy MSI board.

HardWired,save yourself a lot of troubles & get the ABIT right way,if you get the msi in 1 week you're going to be returning it .

 

[meeshu]

Originally posted by: 1966

You got to be kidding me right?

My response was for Hardwired.

Originally posted by: 1966

The Abit is FAR FAR FAR better motherboard than that crappy MSI board.

Depends on model and use. From my personal experience using the motherboard models in question, the MSI has overall better overclocking options than the ABit.

 

[oldfart]

Abit over MSI any day. Every MSI board I have ever had was terrible. Poor overclockers, unstable, buggy BIOS. I rate MSI with the likes of PCChips as low quality bargain basement boards. Do yourself a favor and get the IS7.

 

[HardWired]

Thanks for your input guys. I had to make a decision somewhat quickly....so I just finished hitting the "submit" button at newegg for my IS7. It should be here Friday. I've never owned an MSI branded anything, but I thought if I got enough opinions in that direction I'd give them a try. I was actually leaning towards the Abit from the beginning. I've been running a couple of different Asus boards over the last couple of years... but it'll be nice to get back to an Abit as well.

I'll drop a post in the O'C forum this weekend and let ya'll know how it's coming together.

 

[1966]

Originally posted by: meeshu
Originally posted by: 1966

You got to be kidding me right?

My response was for Hardwired.

Originally posted by: 1966

The Abit is FAR FAR FAR better motherboard than that crappy MSI board.

Depends on model and use. From my personal experience using the motherboard models in question, the MSI has overall better overclocking options than the ABit.

Well I WAS using that pos MSI 865PE Neo2 for 1 month & it was hell. I couldnt overclock worth a dime and the mem deviders were selectable but the board did what it wanted anyways & the cas setting defaulted to spd no matter what you set it to manualy.

The temperature reading were way off too,the oc utility was buggy at best... and I could go on .....

So after 1 month of pure hell & 3 new bioses that did nothing to improve the situation I sold it at a loss & bought a Asus P4P800 & couldnt be happier.

 

[HardWired]

Woh...I just noticed the IS7 only has one IDE channel. Wierd! Tell me they make a device/adapter that allows you to run IDE devices off the SATA. If not I'll now have to buy a seperate IDE controller card since I have two HD's and two optical drives...all IDE.

 

[Stevem627]

The IS7 has two IDE channels.

 

[HardWired]

Where is the second one then?

In this picture:

LINK,

I only see one. It's there on the front edge of the board, it's black in color, it's between where the main power plugs in and the system battery...and that's the only one I see on the board.

 

[HardWired]

Ooops! Silly me. The black one is the floppy drive, right? DOH !

The two IDE's are the blue ones on the front left edge. I guess I just wasn't looking at it right. Damn ...you'd think I'd never built a system before.

My bad...