Best motherboard for socket 478?

N

NHT

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 27, 2005
Messages
211
After exhaustive search for a motherboard with pci express capabilities to go with my socket 478 p4, I have come to grips with reality that it is like searching for a golden egg. It is a lost cause and will probably be more trouble than its worth.

So now, I turn to you guys again for help. Im looking for THE BEST agp motherboard to go with my socket 478 p4 that is priced fairly....best bang for my buck and cheaper than $150. I can stretch my wallet a little more if you can endorse that it will knock my socks off.

Right now, Im using an Abit VT7 that is giving me a lot of problems and I think it is bottlenecking my system. So Im looking for a mobo that will give me a performance increase. Thanks in advance for any suggestions and assistance.

BTW...this motherboard must have 2 IDE ports as I have two ide harddrives, dvdrw and one cdrom and it has to use ddr1 not ddr2



Abit Vt7 Mobo
3.4 Ghz Pentium 4
BFG 6800 Ultra
1 Gb Kingston PC3200
100 Gb Western Digital
160 Gb Maxtor
On Board Audio
480 Watts PSU
Windows Xp Professional
 
Come on guys...I know someone out there knows the answer to this question....help a fellow out.
 
Abit IC7-Max3 (rare, hard to find and expensive)
Abit IC7-G (more common than the Max3, few less features)
Asus P4C800
 
I use this msi board in my wife's computer. I've had it for about four years and it is pretty solid. The bios features a few simple overclocking choices. Although it uses AGP, not PCIE. I suggest MSI, I love their motherboards and just oredered one for my current system in my signature, i do not like biostar.

This is the best MSI board for 478, around $90.

But then again, you would need a different video card.

And therefor, my post is irrelevant.
 
IC7-Maxs, Asus P4C800 are the legendary performance boards for S478. Used they should be available for <$150 in the FS/FT forum. IS7 is an option if you want the 865PE as opposed to 875P chipset.
 
I guess obviously the Abit ic7 max3 is better than the ic7 g. The ic7 g is cheaper and easier to find but what are the main differences between the two? How much better is the max 3? Is there a next step down board that you can recommend just in case I cant find these two? There are a few on ebay but by the looks of it, they will end way over my budget.
 
NHT said:
I guess obviously the Abit ic7 max3 is better than the ic7 g. The ic7 g is cheaper and easier to find but what are the main differences between the two? How much better is the max 3? Is there a next step down board that you can recommend just in case I cant find these two? There are a few on ebay but by the looks of it, they will end way over my budget.
Click to expand...

Here are some of the differences from the Max3 and the G, there may be more.
1) Higher VDIMM voltages, Max3 goes to 3.2v and G goes to 2.8v.
2) Max3 has OTES cooler for PWM.
3) Max3 has 2(4 total) additional SATA-RAID ports on the onboard SiL RAID controller. Thus supporting RAID 5.
 
Thanks for the reply...also, I need to ask another question as I am a total newb and i really dont fiddle with my pc unless i have to. Therefor I am really at a lost for specs and the jargons.

I currently use an Abit vt7 board with my pc. Now judging from these specs, will my current processor work on the IC7? Here is the link....

http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/products.php?categories=1&model=162

Thanks for all your help.
 
Yea, all your hardware will work find in an IC7. You'll be switching from a VIA chipset to an Intel chipset which that alone should give you much better performance. I would recommend reinstalling Windows after you do a switch like that. You can get away without having to reinstall but theres probobly a bunch of crap left over from the VIA drivers.
 
abit IC7 Max, IS7, most abit boards come equiped for everything you need, but yeah you cant beat the IC7 Max 3 for a p4 board...
 
Yeah IC7 is probably the best one out there, I had an ASUS P4P800SE, a real beauty, lacking in the sound dept but I bought an Audigy2 anyways.
 
The only problem areas with recent ABit's I've owned is the Northbridge fan failing very early and the onboard sound and ethernet.

My first IC7 was a refurb and had a bad onboard network card, the second one I THINK may have a bad soundcard, I barely get any audio out of the rear two channels. I'm bought an Audigy2 ZS so its ok for now.

My IS7 is one of the first models with a gigabit ethernet onboard, for somereason it will not work on my DLink DI-624 AT ALL. It works fine on everything else, just my router. I just added a PCI card until I upgrade my router.
 
NHT said:
After exhaustive search for a motherboard with pci express capabilities to go with my socket 478 p4, I have come to grips with reality that it is like searching for a golden egg. It is a lost cause and will probably be more trouble than its worth.
Click to expand...

Dont give you just yet, theres a small chance newegg might carry the albatron mobo it if enough people ask for it.
Plus i have a lead on a store that apperantly carries them, still havent heard from them but i have a good feeling about it.
 
May I suggest the Asus P4C800-E Deluxe? I think this one is most considered as the best motherboard for S478. Sadly, it is much harder to find new these days. You can get also a P4P800-E Deluxe which are easy to find brand new. Pretty much the same in features but uses the i865PE instead of the i875P like the P4C800-E Deluxe.

Para

Oh, mine does 300FSB, no sweat ;)
 
i really wouldnt reccomend an asus, their quality has dropped tremendously in the last few years, i would go with the ic7, althought they may have faulty NB fans, they dont require active cooling anyways, so its no biggie (happened to my IS7) as for the ethernet being screwed up on the IS7 mine works fine, im using it now.
 
The IC7-Max 3 does have issues. Unmodded you cannot put more than 3.2v into Vdimm without major problems. It also has problems over 265FSB.
Other than that great boards.

I believe it was the only 478 board with 6 sata ports.
 
Parabellum said:
May I suggest the Asus P4C800-E Deluxe? I think this one is most considered as the best motherboard for S478. Sadly, it is much harder to find new these days. You can get also a P4P800-E Deluxe which are easy to find brand new. Pretty much the same in features but uses the i865PE instead of the i875P like the P4C800-E Deluxe.

Para

Oh, mine does 300FSB, no sweat ;)
Click to expand...

Only thing I didnt like about the P4C800-E is the vdroop problem. Other than that I would rank it #2 on the list of Top 478 boards, right behind the Max-3
 
I also recommend the Asus P4C800E - Deluxe. If you want performacne + stability this is it. It was ROCK solid, until I f'ed it up.

Had a 2.8E and got a free upgrade to a 3.0E and being such a [H] head I am and not thinking about anything other than performance, I poped the 3.0E. Well it wouldn't post, so I upgraded the BIOS and got video but it went totally nutz and im still trying to sort things out. So not worth the 200Mhz :(. I have a post around here somewhere trying to find if anyone has a solution :D.

P.S. about the saying "whats not broke dont try to fix it" well it applies to computer too.
 
Not really an answer to your question, but the 478/AGP path is a deadend, and your system is already pretty much at the end of it. If you want bang for the buck, putting more money into it with a $100+ top end 875P board would be the absolute last thing to do.

The cheap fix is a used or refurbed enthusiast 865PE board ie P4P800 SE, IS7, etc for about $50. Not any faster than what you have now but will solve your VIA problems.

The $150 burning a hole in your pocket fix is a NF3-250 754 board and a Sempron 64. Should overclock to at least 2.5ghz, works with the rest of your components, big boost for gaming.
 
I disagree. That 3.4 p4 will still be good for games. And will spank a semptron for things like encoding etc..
 
i'd toss another vote out for the Asus P4P800SE or ED

Or hold out for the Albatron board, my 3.0E and 7800GT work great with any game on the market right now!
 
I'm not saying that a P4 3.4 isn't good for games, just that spending $150 for a top shelf motherboard is the wrong way of making it any better.
 
As the owner of a IC-7 G, I've gone through a 2.4C, a 3.0E, and a 3.2E, all overclocked. A friend of mine has the max3, and has ran his 2.4C @ 3.2 forever. I CAN attest to the NB fan being a problem (noisy as hell for a min or so cold boot, but goes away). I usually keep my system on 24/7, so this doesn't bother me much. Make sure you have tight timings/good ram to run on the F1/Turbo settings, and expect to bump the voltage.
One other thing, I'm fairly sure Abit boards (can't say for the newer ones) don't quite report temps correctly.
 
I replaced the NB HSF with an aftermarket chipset cooler b/c mine died after about a year.

However, I'd still recommend the generic IC-7 over the Max boards. Same performance, just a lot cheaper. (minus the onboard LAN is the only thing some people will miss)

I do like the fact that the Asus boards could take a Pentium M chip though, as down the line you might find a cheap one for overclocking.
 
JetUsafMech said:
As the owner of a IC-7 G, I've gone through a 2.4C, a 3.0E, and a 3.2E, all overclocked. A friend of mine has the max3, and has ran his 2.4C @ 3.2 forever. I CAN attest to the NB fan being a problem (noisy as hell for a min or so cold boot, but goes away). I usually keep my system on 24/7, so this doesn't bother me much. Make sure you have tight timings/good ram to run on the F1/Turbo settings, and expect to bump the voltage.
One other thing, I'm fairly sure Abit boards (can't say for the newer ones) don't quite report temps correctly.
Click to expand...

usually 10C warmer.
 
Ok...Ive also come to grips that the IC7 max are extremely difficult to find and if found can get quite costly so now out of the IC7 G and the Asus boards, which would you guys recommend? Im really looking for something with stability and quality and overclocks too. With my VT7 board I never wanted to oc since Ive heard that it wont oc worth a flip. I want to get a good quality board that wont give me problems. Thanks
 
Lazier_Said said:
I'm not saying that a P4 3.4 isn't good for games, just that spending $150 for a top shelf motherboard is the wrong way of making it any better.
Click to expand...

I have the same setup, P4 3.4C and i875P, and I have to agree with this statement. Yeah, the P4P800-SE is a good buy.

Para
 
Abit IC7 Max3...'nuff said ;) Only reason I din't get one is because I have a Gateway mATX case...
 
sorry the price grabber link is for the pro-II which is socket T (775) the pro-I is socket478 which has no listing on Pricegrabber I still stand by Albatrons specs on the 478 PRO-I version having 3 IDE channels as evidenced by the pics one red IDE channel ATA100 TWO Yellow IDE Channels for ATA133 RAID 0,1,1+0! and 4 orange SATA Channels here is the link with pic and specs on the board
http://www.albatron.com.tw/english/news/news_detail_pr.asp?news_id=121
perhaps you should have checked the link to the Albatron site before saying I was wrong on the specs
 
NHT said:
Ok...Ive also come to grips that the IC7 max are extremely difficult to find and if found can get quite costly so now out of the IC7 G and the Asus boards, which would you guys recommend? Im really looking for something with stability and quality and overclocks too. With my VT7 board I never wanted to oc since Ive heard that it wont oc worth a flip. I want to get a good quality board that wont give me problems. Thanks
Click to expand...
If you look hard enough you'll find an IC7-G. E.g. just a few months ago I stumbled on a new (not refurb) Max II on atacom's website. Originally I had wanted a Max3, but then found out the Max3 has no serial or parallel ports.. which for various reasons was a deal breaker for me. The only limitation (if you can call it that) I've run into is a max of 2.8V for the memory, but it's been enough to run Corsair XMS (Samsung TCCD chips) stable at 255FSB :).
 
another vote for the Abit IC7-G Max 3, chipset fan just died on mine :eek:
 
chris.putertech said:
I still stand by Albatrons specs on the 478 PRO-I version having 3 IDE channels as evidenced by the pics one red IDE channel ATA100 TWO Yellow IDE Channels for ATA133 RAID 0,1,1+0! and 4 orange SATA Channels here is the link with pic and specs on the board
http://www.albatron.com.tw/english/news/news_detail_pr.asp?news_id=121
perhaps you should have checked the link to the Albatron site before saying I was wrong on the specs
Click to expand...

Thats simply a press release, if you read the actual specs for both boards you'll see that they only have 1 ide port and 4 sata ports.
http://www.albatron.com.tw/english/it/mb/specification.asp?pro_id=160#
http://www.albatron.com.tw/english/it/mb/specification.asp?pro_id=162#
 
chris.putertech said:
sorry the price grabber link is for the pro-II which is socket T (775) the pro-I is socket478 which has no listing on Pricegrabber I still stand by Albatrons specs on the 478 PRO-I version having 3 IDE channels as evidenced by the pics one red IDE channel ATA100 TWO Yellow IDE Channels for ATA133 RAID 0,1,1+0! and 4 orange SATA Channels here is the link with pic and specs on the board
http://www.albatron.com.tw/english/news/news_detail_pr.asp?news_id=121
perhaps you should have checked the link to the Albatron site before saying I was wrong on the specs
Click to expand...

I had that exact Albatron board for 2 months, I JUST SHIPPED IT OUT TODAY! I KNOW EXACTLY what it has.

see:
PX915P4C_Pro.jpg


ask RogueTrip he has one also

Here's a picture of it installed in my case before I sold it:
installed.jpg


Give it up, you're wrong. They were a very limited production product. So its not like there were millions with many varietys.

Why don't you read the actual product page instead of a press release page!! Things change from the time of press releases to actual production.

http://www.albatron.com.tw/english/it/mb/specification.asp?pro_id=160
 
Jasonx82 said:
another vote for the Abit IC7-G Max 3, chipset fan just died on mine :eek:
Click to expand...


Pick up a Swiftech MC-179. With an XP-90 upside down, you can cool it without a fan.
 
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