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Need Help choosing P4 mobo..Asus P4b266 or Abit BD7II/IT7 Max

N

nealh

Diamond Member
I am trying to find a stable mobo that will allow a hopeful overclock on P4 1.6A to 150 fsb... Ido not want on board graphics...I have crucial pc2100 which has run fine at 150fsb on Athlon XP .....

I am so confused on the choices...I do need RAID/ATA100/133 controller..not for RAID but the IDE

Opinions please

Thanks
 
Stay away from the P4B266
No 3:4 mem ratio above 132 FSB 1:1 only
Cas timings go to slowest settings above 132 FSB
USB ports dont work when overclocked
low vcore range

BD7II is a much better choice. The IT7 has no legacy ports. More good ones in 845D/E boards are Epox 4BDA2+ (845D) and 4BEAR (845E). Both have RAID.
 
Get the BD-2.
The P4B266 will be ok only if you are not going to upgrade your ram in the future. It can do 150fsb at 1:1 ratio with your ram but you will get better performance with PC3200 and a mobo which supports 3:4 or 4:5 ratio.


Also is the USB thing still a problem with P4B266? I thought it was fixed through a bios update..
 
The P4B266 will be ok only if you are not going to upgrade your ram in the future. It can do 150fsb at 1:1 ratio with your ram but you will get better performance with PC3200 and a mobo which supports 3:4 or 4:5 ratio.
Click to expand...
Even @ 1:1 it goes to cas 2.5,3,3,7 ram timings once you hit 133 and above FSB. This causes a good size performance hit.

The USB is still a problem. The P4B266 does not have a true PCI/AGP lock. It has "turbo" dividers which seem to be the cause of the USB issues. You are better off with a true PCI/AGP lock. The low 1.6 Vcore can also be a big problem if you are trying to get to 150 FSB, With all the known issues on this board, and better boards readily available, I cant see why anyone would want this board.
 
Originally posted by: zer0burn
the it7 is great just u cant use win98 with it
Click to expand...

Really? Just to make sure than all the nifty new components in my new PC worked, I installed Windows 98 First Edition and had no problems. I also have installed (to a successful conclusion) 2000 Server and XP Professional (XPpro remains).

 
thanks for all the great info....

it appears to me that the abit IT7 has firewire which the BD7II does not ..is this the only difference

Oldfart which would be your choice...

Also looking to boost my pS..looking at getting the Antec True Power 430 or 480W...do you think the extra 50w is going to help much...
 
IT7 has no legacy ports. No serial, parallel, no PS2 mouse, keyboard ports. Just lots of USB. Make sure that is ok for your config. I run an Antec True330 on a 1.6A @ 2.4 GHz and it works fine. I'm not sure on the RAID setup on the IT7/BD7II. Some RAID ports can be used as regular IDE ports, some cant. I'd look into that a bit more. If I were to buy a new board right now, it would be a 4G4A+.
 
On the IT7 you can run the RAID ports as regular IDE ports...they are all seperate IDe channels. So you can either have up to 8 devices in RAID and 4 devices in regular IDE mode or flat out 12 IDE devices. One note though, the main 4 IDE channels are ATA 100, the Raid/IDE channels are ATA 133. I'm not running Raid right now as I have different sized drives, but I'm running my HDs(one of which is ATA 133) out of the Raid ports then have my DVD-rom drive on one of the main IDE channels and my CD-burner on the other.

And yes, the IT7 has "no legacy ports" you get 8 USB 2.0 ports with room for 2 more, 2 firewire with room for 1 more, Audio connects, Lan connect and thats it. If you don't ahve any legacy devices, this is the top choice mobo for you. I'm running a 1.6a at 2.4ghz with complete stability on this board.

Also, there is a new Media XP drive bay option as well you can buy for $80 more that adds Memory Stick, Smart Media, and Compact Flash readers as well as more USB 2.0 ports, a firewire port, and an additional optical out.

The only place legacy free snagged me was for my VFD display(no serial port) but thats what Serial to USB converters are for 🙂

Once note though, the IT7 only has 4 PCI slots and an AGP slot...a bit less than usual but I only have 2 PCI devices max ever plugged in the board so no biggy here.

BD7II is also a great board, figure its the same deal with a few less features and legacy ports. Go BD7II if you want/need legacy, go IT7 if you don't need em.
 
Niether. They all use underperforming 845D/E chipsets that dont support DDR333. Get an EPoX 4G4A(+) and you'll be definately satisfied.
 
Eh....the 845D/E's aren't that bad. They do have 3:4 ratio (some do anyway). 133 FSB 3:4 = DDR355. Close enough to DDR333. I run DDR400 on my 845D setup.

It ain't slow!
 
Yes, the 4G4A is a great board, as are most 845G's. So are 845D/E boards. I know someone here that just went from a 4BDA2+ to a 4G4A. Same CPU, same mem, same overclock. He says he cant tell the difference. They perform the same.

Also wanted to clarify about "supported" DDR333.

NO 845D/E/G board officially supports DDR333 as Intel does not. Some 845D/E boards do have 3:4 ratios that get you up there anyway (DDR355 @ 133 FSB). 845G has 4:5 and 3:4 (some of them), that get you DDR333 @ 133 FSB, and DDR355 @ 133 FSB.
 
I like the sound of the Epox 4G4A + but I have heard does not overclock well since it is missing the P4 connector..I do need the RAID/ATA feature for my 3HDD....I do not RAID just need the extra IDE..I prefer not ot use a pci slot as I have a soundcard,NIC, firewire and scsi card

Thanks for all the great info
 
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