Mobo Upgrade

Mitch007 · Mar 31, 2004

With the system detailed below, I'd like to upgrade initially my Motherboard, with a view to continuing using my GeForce-3, but future proof for prescott and Gforce Fx 5700 Ultra or better within the next 6-9-months.

I want to upgrade my Mobo so I can overclock processor.
My DDR is screened PC2300, so it's not got much mor MHz overclock left in it. My 645 (not 745 as below) Ultra don't want to overclock, and from MSI posts this is a common problem.

What are my options

I was looking at MSI Neo... is this the right ball park?

MIS745Ultra/2.4gig Pentium/2*TwinMos 256 MBit DDR333/450W Enermax PSU/1*40Gig 7200rpm Western Digital Disk/1*20Gig 720 Hitachi Disk/GeForce3 Ti200 LeadTek G-Card running 520/230 Ram/Core MHz

ChipDeath · Mar 31, 2004

About the best motherboard for socket 478 P4 chips at the moment is the Abit IS7.

Problem is, you state you want future Prescott support, and Intel is soon(ish) switching to a new socket, so you won't be able to support the scotty chips beyond about 3.4Ghz (IIRC - please someone correct me if I'm wrong!)

I assume you actually mean PC2700 when referring to your RAM, as that is DDR 333. The great thing here is that you Won't actually have to overclock the RAM to overclock the P4. In fact if you keep the RAM in synch with the P4 then you'll likely not be held back by your RAM at all. You'll need DDR400 if you were to then upgrade to a P4C or Prescott later though.

So two points:
a) A New P4 board bought right now is not quite as future-proof as you may like;
b) you won't need to change your RAM, EVEN if overclocking your CPU, until you get a new CPU.

---
Epox 8RDA+ rev1.1 w/ Custom NB HS
XP1700+ @205x11 (~2.26Ghz), 1.575Vcore
2x256Mb Corsair PC3200LL 2-2-2-4
Sapphire 9800Pro 420/744

Mitch007 · Mar 31, 2004

Thanks for the info, what's the biggest baddest 478 i'll future proof for with motherboard upgrade i want.

MIS645Ultra/2.4gig Pentium/2*TwinMos 256 MBit DDR333/450W Enermax PSU/1*40Gig 7200rpm Western Digital Disk/1*20Gig 720 Hitachi Disk/GeForce3 Ti200 LeadTek G-Card running 520/230 Ram/Core MHz

ChipDeath · Mar 31, 2004

you mean what'll be the fastest CPU you can put in a S478 board? in which case it's likely to be a 3.4Ghz EE (but that's stupidly expensive) or more sensibly a P4C 3.4Ghz chip.

Depending on the market it's possible you'd see a 3.6Ghz chip, and 3.6Ghz is reachable with overclocking.

if you mean what's the best board you can stick your current P4 in, you can't really beat the Abit IS7.

Have you considered maybe just waiting a while and building a whole new rig in a few months? That way you'd get the option of building an Athlon 64 rig, whereas upgrading one bit at a time effectively rules out that option at the moment.

---
Epox 8RDA+ rev1.1 w/ Custom NB HS
XP1700+ @205x11 (~2.26Ghz), 1.575Vcore
2x256Mb Corsair PC3200LL 2-2-2-4
Sapphire 9800Pro 420/744

Mitch007 · Mar 31, 2004

The IS7 seems to fair pretty poorly here;-http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews/review.php?dXJsX3Jldmlld19JRD01NzImdXJsX3BhZ2U9MQ==

Any further comments!!

MIS645Ultra/2.4gig Pentium/2*TwinMos 256 MBit DDR333/450W Enermax PSU/1*40Gig 7200rpm Western Digital Disk/1*20Gig 720 Hitachi Disk/GeForce3 Ti200 LeadTek G-Card running 520/230 Ram/Core MHz

Mitch007 · Mar 31, 2004

IC here not Is SORRY!!

But further comments welcome

MIS645Ultra/2.4gig Pentium/2*TwinMos 256 MBit DDR333/450W Enermax PSU/1*40Gig 7200rpm Western Digital Disk/1*20Gig 720 Hitachi Disk/GeForce3 Ti200 LeadTek G-Card running 520/230 Ram/Core MHz

ChipDeath · Mar 31, 2004

That review is actually quite old, newer board revisions are generally improvements.

You said you wanted to overclock your existing processor, the Abit IS7 is pretty much the best board currently available for that purpose. Theoretically an Abit IC7 might do better, but the extremely small difference is definitely not worth the price premium.

If you look through the forums, It'll be very hard to find anyone recommending a P4 system based around anything other than an Abit IS7 board. That many people can't be wrong.

Asus P4 motherboards are BAD for overclocking. they cannot hold stable enough voltages.

What's "IC Here is not SORRY!!" mean, exactly?

---
Epox 8RDA+ rev1.1 w/ Custom NB HS
XP1700+ @205x11 (~2.26Ghz), 1.575Vcore
2x256Mb Corsair PC3200LL 2-2-2-4
Sapphire 9800Pro 420/744

Crashman · Apr 1, 2004

My friend has an Asus P4S533, it overclocks fairly well, I think MSI's overclocking problem is probably due to board design. The only company I know of even attempting to make solid board (rather than cheap boards) on SiS chipsets is Gigabyte. SiS as a company suffers from that fact that their low prices garuntee they won't get the respect of boardmakers.

Anyway, I'd go with the Abit IS7. If you want to see a good review, Anandtech did a 26 board comparison last summer.

Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!
Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!

Mitch007 · Apr 1, 2004

Again thanks for the advice guys, a great help and pretty close to laying out some cash, just one more question,

will i need to re-install the OS and etc, the system is 2-year old (2.4 is a 1 year ago addition) but has a lot of stuff on it i'd like not to disturbe if necessary.
What can I do to minimise pain of MoBo change over.

MIS645Ultra/2.4gig Pentium/2*TwinMos 256 MBit DDR333/450W Enermax PSU/1*40Gig 7200rpm Western Digital Disk/1*20Gig 720 Hitachi Disk/GeForce3 Ti200 LeadTek G-Card running 520/230 Ram/Core MHz

Crashman · Apr 1, 2004

You'll probably be able to get away with a "refresh install", but you'd be better off with a clean install.

Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!
Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!

Mitch007 · Apr 1, 2004

Whats a re-fresh, is this put the windows CD in and have it look for missing components/drivers and repair?

MIS645Ultra/2.4gig Pentium/2*TwinMos 256 MBit DDR333/450W Enermax PSU/1*40Gig 7200rpm Western Digital Disk/1*20Gig 720 Hitachi Disk/GeForce3 Ti200 LeadTek G-Card running 520/230 Ram/Core MHz

Mitch007 · Apr 1, 2004

oh and one mor point, may be a mute one I'm on Windows ME

can I drop XP on to or is this a complete re-install with a new mobo, or could I combine the two for a much less painfull recovery position. without need to re-install all games/settings kids stuff etc....

MIS645Ultra/2.4gig Pentium/2*TwinMos 256 MBit DDR333/450W Enermax PSU/1*40Gig 7200rpm Western Digital Disk/1*20Gig 720 Hitachi Disk/GeForce3 Ti200 LeadTek G-Card running 520/230 Ram/Core MHz

Crashman · Apr 2, 2004

A refresh, you boot from CD and install ME again without formating your drive. It will run through configuration, etc, and make all your parts work. With 9x (including ME) it's best to remove all you devices from Device Manager in safe mode before doing that. Also uninstall any drivers you've previously loaded and won't be using, for example when you change chipsets uninstall the old chipset driver. You can do all that from safe mode, boot to CD, and reinstall ME over the old installation.

You might have to change the windows installation directory back to C:\Windows if it defaults to something different like C:\Windows.000.

Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!
Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!

Mitch007 · Apr 2, 2004

Thanks,

Sounds OK
Is the following board OK, there are several IS7 options!http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/products.php?categories=1&model=80

MIS645Ultra/2.4gig Pentium/2*TwinMos 256 MBit DDR333/450W Enermax PSU/1*40Gig 7200rpm Western Digital Disk/1*20Gig 720 Hitachi Disk/GeForce3 Ti200 LeadTek G-Card running 520/230 Ram/Core MHz

Crashman · Apr 3, 2004

Actually there isn't. There's 1 IS7 and two economy versions, the IS7E and IS7E2 with reduced features. The IS7 is full featured.

Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!
Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!

Crashman · Apr 3, 2004

Almost forgot the IS7-G, which substitutes gigabit lan rather than the IS7's 10/100 controller. I don't think it's worth the extra money over the IS7.

Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!
Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!

Mitch007 · Apr 5, 2004

Great, thanks for the detail.

Can I drop in XP in over the top as part of the recover install, or will this only add to the confusion forcing a disk re-format, just thought it might be more robust and save wiping my data and links etc

MIS645Ultra/2.4gig Pentium/2*TwinMos 256 MBit DDR333/450W Enermax PSU/1*40Gig 7200rpm Western Digital Disk/1*20Gig 720 Hitachi Disk/GeForce3 Ti200 LeadTek G-Card running 520/230 Ram/Core MHz

Crashman · Apr 5, 2004

If you try to install XP on a disk with 9x, your only option to keep the 9x install gives you a dual-boot system. You can't replace 9x with XP directly.

Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!
Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!

Mobo Upgrade

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