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need advice on mobo for a 1.6a

1

1337

Junior Member
hey guys im gonna be getting a 1.6a northwood pretty soon and im almost set on getting a mobo with a sis645 chipset

here are the mobos im considering

msi 645 ultra

EPOX EP-4BDA2+ or just the EPOX EP-4BDA2 version

asus P4S333

right now im leaning toward the msi 645 ultra...i do realize that it does allow you to adjust the voltage to the ram

but i do not think this is gonna be an issue because i have 2 X 256 meg dimms of OCZ pc-2400 cas2 ram

that means i can run 150 mhz fsb without needing extra voltage...ofcourse 150 fsb would get me up to speeds like 2.4 ghz

im also looking into what cooling to get since i want to take my 1.6a as high as possible...ill be ordering from newegg...so right now im leaning toward a Thermaltake DRAGON 478...do you guys think this would be a good chioce???

anyway...im just looking for advice...this will be my first intel system since a celly 500 mhz like 4 years ago...

do you think the msi mobo will allow me to reach fsb speeds of 150?

1337


 
Get the P4s333 great motherboard... very good bios options for o/cing and flexable mem settings.
Built in c-media sound is great as well.

 
here's the my delema...

im going to be buying from newegg

first of all the MSI 645 Ultra is on $73

the Asus board is $104

i already have high clocked ram...so i dont really need to adjust mem voltage...

for my needs the ac97 audio will do just as good as the c-media audio...

so i really cant justify and extra 31 dollars on the asus board...

but i do want to take a 1.6a as high as possible...

do you think the MSI board will do the trick (remember i already have pc-2400 ram at cas 2)???

1337

 
you guys must not be MSI fans...

do you guys think the Thermaltake DRAGON 478 will do the trick for take a 1.6a to 2.4 and beyond???

1337
 
I'm sorry but the biggest reason to get an Intel based system is to get "Intel Stability". In order to do that you need an Intel chipset on your motherboard. Anything else and you might as well save your money and get an AMD system.
 
The epox ep-4sda uses the sis 645 chipset. Comes with multiple jumper configurations, 6 pci slots, voltage adjustments for ddram and agp. The + version has raid and ata 133 for about $13 extra. The regular version is only $86 (newegg).
 
I agree with the others I think an INtel Chipset would be better, I would reccemeon that you consider at least looking at the 845d chipset, it supports DDR and there are many people with overclokcing sucess
 
I own a MSI 645 ultra and I am able to overclock my 1.6a to 2.4 by doing the wire trick, the system will post, but would not boot to windows with the max 1.6v offered on the board, so I have to do the wire trick.

I am using Crucial DDR PC2100 and I am already at 150FSB, so I don't think vmem adjustment is necessary if you have good mem (at least up to 150FSB).

So, overall, the MSI board is pretty stable with prime95, seti@home, 3dmark2001 running, at least at 2.4ghz.

However, I am going to return the MSI board because there are just too many small problems that ppl are starting to find about this board:

First of all, the cpu temp monitoring DOES NOT work, so you will have no idea how hot your CPU is (which is important for OCing) it's confirmed that it's a design defect, and so far MSI still couldn't fix it.

Second, Few ppl are having reboot/restart problems with this and some MSI boards. From my personal experience, this did happen to me once in a while. I usually have prime95 or 3dmark2001 running during the night when I sleep, and my computer sometimes restarts itself (you can look at my post in the OCing forum <a href="http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=28&threadid=728022">here</a>). It doesn't happen that often but it bothers me as I certainly don't want it to happen too often in the future.

Third, I think I am going to switch to a P4S333 because at least there doesn't seem to be defects like the 645 ultra board and I believe ASUS is a better MB manufacturer, and seems to fix their bugs and updates their bios more frequently.

Fourth, it will be easier to use the p4s333 to overclock, if you don't feel too comfortable doing the wire trick, and I am sure the vmem mod might be hopeful in case you want to OC even higher.

So, all in all, I think it will be worth the extra $30 or so to go for a P4S333.

 
Abit TH7II with Samsung/Corsair RDRAM. That combo will run at 533fsb easily, maybe higher, and even at "only" 533fsb, that will beat any DDR setup even if that DDR setup is clocked say 300MHz higher than the RDRAM setup
 
I just ordered an Asus P4S333 w/1.8A and the ThermalTake Dragon 478 from Newegg last week. I'm waiting on the Samsung PC2700 to come in now. Unless you want a loud fan stay away from the Dragon cooler. It is just way too loud for me. I put back on the retail fan from Intel.
 
Go with the MSI ultra 845 aru and you will have a stable machine with good oc options.

The 645 MSI has more problems than a hundred year old in a nursing home!

Check out the MSI forum for a couple back and look at the whinning about the 645 board, might even find someone has it for sell cheap.


Just my 2cents and I'm sticking to it....

Lucky
 
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