Higher end Socket 478 with P4 3.0C

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WGSquallx2002

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 7, 2004
Messages
478
I've been looking at the Asus P4P800-E but I've read many bad things about that may concern me. I personally use the network and some of the other onboard devices on my motherboard and to read of a failing onboard network or usb ports deters me from considering the Asus motherboard.

The next motherboard that I've been looking at is the Abit IC7-G Max II (is the Max III better since it was discontinued?). The only big gripe I've read online so far is that that chipset heatsink-fan craps up after awhile of use and to replace it to going to cost around 30-40 dollars.

Recently my SB75S's motherboard shorted (which is an i875P) and now I have a non-operational Shuttle computer. Everything else is still intact as well as the power supply and having called Shuttle Tech. Support, it was determined that the motherboard had a short. It doesn't even turn on anymore with or without power. I plan to sell the unit whether in separate parts or the whole thing. Look for my sale in the sale section of HardForum in the near future or PM me with any offers.

What I hope to achieve is to get a new motherboard and to transplant everything over from the dead Shuttle as replacing just the Shuttle mobo is priced at $186 (totally not worth it). I'm hoping to push my 3.0 to around 3.5-4.0Ghz with a Zalman 7700 HSF.

Hope you guys can tell me some of your motherboard experiences and put out your recommendations, thanks.
 
I would reccomend the Asus P4C800-E Deluxe over the P4PXX which seems to be suffering from some bad southbridge chips affecting the front usb ports.....the P4C800-E deluxe does not have this issue and is an excellent mobo in combo with your cpu, also and excellent OC'er
 
I just sold my IC-7. It was a great motherboard. The ONLY reason I sold it is b/c I couldn't get a 7800GT in AGP. :(

So I got a new motherboard just for PCIe.

The northbridge cooler starting making noise twice, so I oiled it up each time. After the 2nd time it was still kinda noisy so I bought an aftermarket cooler and it was only like $8 I think http://www.thermaltake.com/coolers/chipset/a1163.htm (it says 845 chipset, but it fits perfectly on the IC-7, 4 mounts, etc.)

It comes with some crappy like double stick tape on it, and it also needs to be lapped a little bit as the base isn't very smooth.

But after I removed tape & lapped it a little, it did wonders. Not that my NB ever ran hot before even at 300FSB it was only warm. But that NB cooler kept it cool, not even warm to the touch.

SO my recommendation goes for the Abit IC-7 (any version).
 
I was afraid of the the many issues that plagued the P4P800-E and sadly I didn't reach too much good stuff about the P4C800-E. I did although caught my eye on the Epox 4PDA2+ (hopefully ver. 2 would come from Epox themselves) which promises all the basics like SATA, RAID, and working onboard gigabit ethernet, sound, and so on...but most of all I was attracted to its overclocking capabilities. I was only able to push my 3.0C to a mere 3.4 stable on the Shuttle while maintaining near safe temperatures of 59C-63C.

Hopefully my Mushkin DDR500 ram will be able to OC well with the board. Because it's a DDR500 it's very flexible and it doesn't lag behind in speed either.

Oh and aside from the Epox motherboard, I've ordered a Ultra X-Connect 500watts PSU from Outpost which again has the PSU on sale for 14.99 before tax/shipping after rebate. I'm glad to see it on sale again so I ordered one right away.
 
I have the MAX3, and I have to say it's the pinnacle of intel technology in my book.

The board is rock solid stable, the BIOS is easy and intuitive, the features are robust and it looks good to boot.

Currently, I have it with a 2.4C that has gone as high as 3.7, but runs at 3.0 250FSB 1:1.

I have 5 SATA drives attached as well.

That would be my recommendation. Or you could go with a DFI. Whatever you do.....dont get the springdale (865) chipset. too much tweaking with game accelerator to match the performance of 875. And at this point, it would only save you like $5.

M
 
... I'm hoping to push my 3.0 to around 3.5-4.0Ghz with a Zalman 7700 HSF.... .[/QUOTE said:
As for the mobo, I agree that the Abit IC7 is a great mobo.

As for your 3.0c, I think that's a pretty optimistic overclock. I have a 3.0c on an IC7, but it will only do 3.4 GHz. I also had a 2.4c that did 3.4Ghz on water. From my experience (and what I've read of others') , the 3.0c tops out at 3.6. I know others may have gotten it higher, but they are the extreme end of things. 4.0GHz is better left to the E versions with longer pipelines (or phase change cooling!)

Hope this helps... :D
Click to expand...
 
it does =]. Well part of my decision of not getting the Abit IC-7 is because of its price tag and northbridge cooling. I mean its fine to change the heatsink and so on but I just don't want to bother with one.

I'm looking at a Praetorian case TC-01 (know where I can get it for a good deal or cheapest price? I've checked out Directron with a 10 dollar off coupon gives everywhere else a run for its money) and planning to sell my Shuttle SB75S (That's the white special edition) either as a whole or split up all the parts.
 
I've been really happy overall with my P4P800 Deluxe. Certainly haven't had any of the southbridge problems mentioned, everything works like a charm and its rock solid. It doesn't overclock worth a damn, although I think I've narrowed the culprits down to some bunk memory that I'm too cheap to replace. But, again, no real reason not to go with Canterwood at this point. This was a new platform when I got it and the 875 boards were $50+ more
 
Get the Abit IC7-G. Asus cant make a board with decent voltage regulation to save themselves, i know, i'm using one. I had to volt-mod it to get it to stop 'drooping'. That said, they're always very solid mobos. p4p800 is awesome if you dont o/c, but if you do, Abit all the way.

Asus still suck at voltage regulation to this day btw, even their new SLI32 mobo fails compared to an ultra-d in overclocking.
 
PrkChpXprss said:
From my experience (and what I've read of others') , the 3.0c tops out at 3.6. I know others may have gotten it higher, but they are the extreme end of things. 4.0GHz is better left to the E versions with longer pipelines (or phase change cooling!)
Click to expand...

Yeah, he's right "C" Northwood & "EE" Gallatins really struggle to get past 3.6-3.7Ghz. The "E" Prescotts are better for hitting 4Ghz in general. But then again a 3.6 Northwood is about equal to a 3.9Ghz Prescott in general.

MAX OC's
screen3666.jpg


MAX dual prime95 stable OC on default voltage! :)
2.4C stresstest.jpg


BTW, these OC's were hit using 3:2 ratio, as the highest I could go with PC3200 & 5:4 (and loose timings) was about 3.4Ghz.

3:2 and tight timings gave the best benchmarks as you can see my ram was giving me 6000mb/s. Normally Athlon64 territory or high end DDR2 800, etc..
 
interesting....

Well Epox had to call me this morning to wake me up and let me know that they have the 4pda2+ mobo and an extra round ide cable in stock and that they were calling to ask if I wanted it (i've filled out everything and ordered on Saturday)...so I said yeah and the lady says okay, thanks.

I was hoping they had sent it out on Monday (yesterday) but I guess they didn't.
 
Epox makes some decent boards overall. I don't think you'll have a problem with it.
 
wow can't believe i received the board this morning. it's version 2 alright but it's still sitting there. I'm now hunting for a good cpu cooler...such as the Thermalright SI-120.
 
I'm back after a week full of work and school with no time to play. What I've done right now is take a cardboard box (a semi-sturdy one) and just layed the Epox on top of it and hooked everything up. I'm running everything that was in my shuttle and powering it with a 350watt Antec PSU.

I just took the ICE cooling system from the shuttle and installed it onto my board. Here's something scary to read.

When I was removing the ICE cooling system from the shuttle's motherboard to gain access to the CPU, I pulled out the cooler after unclipping the heatsink and guess what? The CPU was f'n stuck on the underside and the motherboard's lock lever wasn't even raised. I basically ripped it out of its sockets. The Arctic Silver 5 was almost like epoxy or some kind of semi-super glue. It took me quite awhile to drench the AS5 in Arctic cleaning solution. After doing several cleaning sessions, I was finally able to remove the P4 3.0C off of the heatsink.

I carefully cleaned both the ICE and the CPU before installing them onto the Epox 4PDA2+ ver.2 motherboard.

And it all runs. I booted up from the 74GB Raptor that was installed in the Shuttle SB75S and what I found out was that everything works except when I access movie files. The computer just shuts down when i watch a clip and it ranges from a few seconds to a minute of viewing a clip.

Right now, my gripe is that I don't have a floppy drive to install the mainboard drivers of the epox onto Windows (they send me 3 floppies instead of a CD and forgot the bundled software as well. i emailed them about 2-4 days ago and they haven't replied).

My question? Will a wrong set of motherboard or mainboard drivers damage a system hardware wise if a different motherboard is used? My windows currently has the SB75S mainboard drivers installed and I'm wondering if those drivers will damage my current epox motherboard.
 
WGSquallx2002 said:
I'm back after a week full of work and school with no time to play. What I've done right now is take a cardboard box (a semi-sturdy one) and just layed the Epox on top of it and hooked everything up. I'm running everything that was in my shuttle and powering it with a 350watt Antec PSU.

I just took the ICE cooling system from the shuttle and installed it onto my board. Here's something scary to read.

When I was removing the ICE cooling system from the shuttle's motherboard to gain access to the CPU, I pulled out the cooler after unclipping the heatsink and guess what? The CPU was f'n stuck on the underside and the motherboard's lock lever wasn't even raised. I basically ripped it out of its sockets. The Arctic Silver 5 was almost like epoxy or some kind of semi-super glue. It took me quite awhile to drench the AS5 in Arctic cleaning solution. After doing several cleaning sessions, I was finally able to remove the P4 3.0C off of the heatsink.

I carefully cleaned both the ICE and the CPU before installing them onto the Epox 4PDA2+ ver.2 motherboard.

And it all runs. I booted up from the 74GB Raptor that was installed in the Shuttle SB75S and what I found out was that everything works except when I access movie files. The computer just shuts down when i watch a clip and it ranges from a few seconds to a minute of viewing a clip.

Right now, my gripe is that I don't have a floppy drive to install the mainboard drivers of the epox onto Windows (they send me 3 floppies instead of a CD and forgot the bundled software as well. i emailed them about 2-4 days ago and they haven't replied).

My question? Will a wrong set of motherboard or mainboard drivers damage a system hardware wise if a different motherboard is used? My windows currently has the SB75S mainboard drivers installed and I'm wondering if those drivers will damage my current epox motherboard.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't make a difference since they are probably all Intel chipset drivers. Maybe just go to Intel and download from there the latest chipset drivers. You can always go to Epox.com.tw and download the latest audio, network, etc. drivers.
 
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