Good cheap/reliable 915p DDR mobo to pair with 630?

[Rudzer]

I'm seriously reaching the boilling point with all the problems i'm currently having with nforce4 based mobos (first dfi, now msi)...i'm seriously considering after many years of having only AMD on the primary computer to move to Intel.

So what good i915 based mobos (that work with ddr) do you folks recommend (totally noob when it comes to Intel these days), the idea is to use with a P4 630 btw :)

cheers

[Salkcin]

I hope you don't plan to overclock your primary computer then, because 915P is a very hard chipset to overclock due the 10% overclock limitation Intel has implemented on the 900 series chipsets.
Some of the 915P motherboards can overclock to a level of 235-255MHz FSB, but it requires of you to use PATA harddrives, Ati videocard (or a nVidia that tolerates more than ~115MHz PCI-E frequency) and so on.

If you are going for a Socket 775 platform and intend to overclock I'd say 865PE/875P hybrid board for a DDR/AGP solution and 955X for a DDR2/PCI-E (maybe the 925XE, but not 925X it's like 915P). DDR/PCI-E + overclocking don't seem to be a option with Intel rigth now...

[Rudzer]

just what I needed :/ bummer

I keep seeing people reporting oc's much higher than 10% with 9xx family based mobos tho...

[Kunaak]

925XE boards yes, 915 boards, run away from them as fast as you can, unless you like headaches and stress.

[Rudzer]

925XE boards yes, 915 boards, run away from them as fast as you can, unless you like headaches and stress.

the lanparty and platinum (attm) are giving me enough of those... :banana::banana::banana::banana:

so basicly going Intel will cost a :banana::banana::banana::banana:load of money since 925XE boards carry a premium price-tag, plus would have to get DDR2...pffff

[charlie]

Or just grab a refurb'd P5P800 or an AS8 for like $50 or $60....

C

[Rudzer]

Or just grab a refurb'd P5P800 or an AS8 for like $50 or $60....

C

problem is that they don't have pci-e

I'm so tired of all this...gezz :(

[Kunaak]

you have DDR1, just sell it.

DDR2 doesn't cost that much anymore.
its an easy switch, if you just sell what you already have.

[Salkcin]

just what I needed :/ bummer

I keep seeing people reporting oc's much higher than 10% with 9xx family based mobos tho...

There are few (Asus, Abit, DFI...) who made the limitation more tolerant by adding manipulating circuits wich enables about 25-30% overclock in most cases. Some other found out that applying more chipset voltage make the limitation more tolerant too, but this only makes 15-20% possible.
They got hold of the limitation, but the biggest problem is the "link frequency" and PCI-E can't be locked wich results in unstable video cards and no SATA drives found over 235MHz FSB. This a workaround by using Ati video cards and PATA harddrives... that's the best bet.

925XE was the choice because it had 266MHz native FSB wich makes 292MHz possible without having problems with the limitation, but now 955X is out and seems to be improved a lot (other things than benchmarks has been improved). The nForce4 Intel Edition is out as well, but I guess there's no more NF4 for you :P

[Rudzer]

you have DDR1, just sell it.

DDR2 doesn't cost that much anymore.
its an easy switch, if you just sell what you already have.

Just checked the pricing of current 925XE and it seems that 955 mobos will be in the same price-tag ummhhh...

Salkcin - the reason i'm considering moving to intel is due to the pos that nforce4 is :S

[ashish_mohanty]

The AG8 is a rubbish board. It wont do over 248 MHz on the FSB no matter what...

[Nasgul]

The AG8 is a rubbish board. It wont do over 248 MHz on the FSB no matter what...


http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y218/Nasgul/650.png


It could do on yours but the ram should be loosen up a bit and with some watter cooling it could reach more than 250MHZ, mine just can't go over because of the puny Zalman CNPS7000 all copper heat-sink-fan. BTW, I hear GEIL ram was not good for overclocking. Personally, most of the time I go for CORSAIR Value Ram or XMS but at newegg they had a link on DDR400, saw that the OCZ EL Rev.2 was the best and so I bought it and now I can see why. I still like CORSAIR better than OCZ though but I'm happy with this set of OCZ.

So, if a motherboard does not do more than or 299MHZ FSB is not a good motherboar? 250MHZ is not extreme? I wouldn't know much, I just started experimenting this whole overclocking thing and 235MHZ is good enough for me, as we all know putting such stress on the CPU it shorten its life and I don't plan on having to buy CPUs every 12-to-18 months.

[ashish_mohanty]

my ram happens to be ddr500, so theres no need to loosen the timings - it should run at an fsb of 250 with its default timings with no problems.

Anyway, ive got a 2.66 GHz pentium 4 which has been doing 3.2 ghz on air for over 3 years and is on constantly 24/7 running folding@home, so i wouldnt say overclocking shortens the lifespan of your cpu if you know what your doing.

[Salkcin]

It's voltage and not load that shortens the CPU's life a lot... if your CPU runs 4GHz at default voltage the lifetime of the CPU should be almost as long as when running at stock speed, but does it need 20% extra voltage to run it then you'll proberly shorten the life of the CPU to less than 12 months if it is'nt cooled below zero degrees....

As long as you keep the voltage below 10% over stock then your CPU should be able to run 24/7 untill the CPU is outdated...

[Nasgul]

Intel had a Pentium 4 2.66GHZ in May (or less than, since that's been over 3 years) of 2002? Odd, In Sept. 2001 the highest clocked Pentium was a 2.0GHZ running on a 400MHZ FSB and socket 423. That was a big change in a 6 month period, from 2.0 400mhz fsb to 2.66 533mhz fsb.

ZZF has still records of my first ever Pentium 4, I know the highest clock was 2.0 because I thought for over 2 weeks whether or not I should've spend the $400+ difference between 1.7 and 2.0 (2.0 top of the line back then, no Extreme Editions in the making nor heard of). I find it difficult to believe that over 3 years ago there was a 2.66ghz Pentium 4:


http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y218/Nasgul/P4T.png

I guess the rummors are true, GEIL is not such good memory.

[althes]

The AG8 is a rubbish board. It wont do over 248 MHz on the FSB no matter what...
Actually its not bad, my old one can hit 280 ;)

[ashish_mohanty]

Actually its not bad, my old one can hit 280 ;)
how how?? tell me, tell me!! *drools* :slobber:

[Dillusion]

2.8/AG8/TCCD

Also did 263 FSB for benchin but didnt screenie it, that was my everyday OC.

http://dillusion.net/pics/done.jpg