Best Socket478 Overclocking Mobo

[Circaflex]

Well guys i might be getting a new mobo for my socket478 rig and ive been kind of out of the computer scene for a while been busy with school and work and trying to save some money for a truck, enough with that. Last i heard the Asus P4C800-E Deluxe was king, is it still king?

[freecableguy]

IC7-MAX3 hands down

[sin0822]

i liked my p4p800se with 12 mosfets

[Circaflex]

but isnt the max3 hard to find now? as in discontinued?

[freecableguy]

that wasn't your original question :D

[Circaflex]

let me rephrase it, the best board that is still available, dont have the cash right now to get a fully new system so this will have to do for now.

[sin0822]

i say p4c800-ed i fyou can vmod, and ic7-g (Max II) if you cant.

[kiwi]

If I remeber right DFI LP 875 series were awesome

[jrw]

A second hand, fully modded IC7-Max3 will blow everything away :)

If not possible, this:


i say p4c800-ed i fyou can vmod, and ic7-g (Max II) if you cant.

[illidan]

IC7, and u can still find this mobo at market.

[Supertim0r]

P4c800e-dx :)

[calcal]

ic7-max3(i have one and it rocks in oc'ing...3.0c to 3.8 with 1.52vcore) first choice, then ic7-g then p4c800-e

[DAK1640]

P4C800-E-D is King for S478

[Disposibleteen]

Well if i was you i would get a P4C800E just so that when you want to upgrade you can get yourself a CT-479 adaptor and run a dothan in that mobo for a nice little upgrade.

[Thickbrit]

I'm with the Abit guys on this one.

[CrashOv3r1De]

P4C800 Deluxe-E and IC7 MAXIII both rock had them both ages ago

[Celeron Gamer]

P4c800-e

[Nanometer]

I used to use a fully modded ic7 max III. Best overclocker with water cooling for me. Then came my p4c800-e deluxe, then the DFI 875 board. I found the P4c800-e deluxe to overclock the best on air.

Get a p4c800-e deluxe, or p4c800 deluxe if you can.

[WeldZilla]

Epox 4PDA2+Ver.2 Still available from Epox USA. Now it is only $100
Has it all including full PAT enabled on the 1:1 no tricks it's just there
Use only mem that has a CL of 2 or 2.5 NO 3. With just a small liquid cooler setup at that time I ran my 2.C daily 303.5fsb at 3637mhz and my 3.0C daily at 4037mhz never any issues of any kind. This board puts out 3,3V to the mem without mods I built 17 systems in the last year and a half on this board and they are all still running today perfectly for my clients. Everyone of them is OC'd!! I set every system on 250 fsb and the mem on 1:1 with PAT enabled I use G.Skill and a couple of the systems run with OCZ PC4000 Gold Rev.2 all timings at 250 no matter which mem are the same 2.5-3-3-5.
Get the board that you like but you ought to give that one a look. I still have one here with my 3.0C on it. I have a guy that wants it bad but, I feel sentimental about it. My first machine to run daily at over 4000mhz.
This board WILL NOT RUN A PRESCOTT!! It is a Northwood Board!!
The system you see in my avatar is my 3.0C Cool and fast!!


WZ

[CPLB]

WeldZilla, the Epox board looks like a winner as far as features go. Is the one for sale on Epox's website version 2? Are mods necessary for full performance?

Does anyone else have any information on this MB?

[roger_h99.nor]

If you're going to OC the Northwood, any of thees boards mentioned is a good choice. If however you're planning to throw in a Prescott you should look for the board with the most mostfets and capasitors around the socket. Getting the Prescott stable above 4G is a demanding task for any mobo as the current-draw is massive. My choice for a Prescott would be Asus (P4C800 E-dlx or a Abit (IC7-G).

The Asus mobo needs a droopmod to perform satisfactory.

Regards.

[WeldZilla]

The one on their site is the Version 2 you need only install the magic bios on it when you install the chipset and it will go and get you the 3-24-04 bios that fully enables PAT. Then you are set!! There is a new version of the epox USDM that monitors volts and temps called ghost it will be on your desktop always unless your gaming or watching vids. It is a tranparent little window that monitors CPU temp, Cpu Voltage and Cpu usage. you can fully open to see more info. But remember as I said this is a Northwood only board No Prescotts. Were you to go prescott I would go 775 anyway. The board is truly wonderful. If you looked it over you have seen that it has about everything you can think of on it. But the best part is, it is an OC'ing little monster. The only thing you need to do to this board for full performance is have good cooling on the cpu and the mem. Yes the voltage will drop. When I set my voltage at 1.7 to run my 2.4C at anything over 3600mhz the actual voltage was 1.665 and from there it will only vary a tiny bit. You need no mods.
Here is a pic to show you I'm not bull:banana::banana::banana::banana:ting you
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v253/WeldZilla/cooking.jpg
Notice when on the 5:4 divider PAT is Not enabled. My mem was running however on MAX! in the bios and it still hits 6.6gigs of bandwidth. I ran PCmark04 at 3659mhz. I was able to run aquamark at 3685hz. the Epox board just pushes hardware to it's limits. Here is the pcmarko4 shot note
2.4 @ 3659!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v253/WeldZilla/Runningwiththewind.jpg
Look for me this was truly the best Northwood board I ever had the pleasure of using. You should get what ever you are comfortable with.

WZ

[sin0822]

p4p800se- 3.2e- 4.3ghz
p4c800ed- 3.2e-4.2ghz
ic7-maxII(G)-3.2e-4.3ghz

Same chip sl7e5

[freecableguy]

Here, just need to look: (you may need to register here before looking)
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=199700

Abit IC7-MAX3 for $135 shipped. I would jump on it if I were you.

-FCG

[illidan]

p4p800se- 3.2e- 4.3ghz
p4c800ed- 3.2e-4.2ghz
ic7-maxII(G)-3.2e-4.3ghz

Same chip sl7e5
IC7 -- 3GHz -> 4.2GHz
http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc?id=57250

[sin0822]

i wasnt saying those are better than anyones, i was just showing each oc as it went on each board. Also those oces are on water around 45c, oh and i couldnt stand the temp monitor on my ic7-g it reads way to high, i mean seriously if it was that high my chip woul dhave turned off.

[Celeron Gamer]

My P4P800 SE -2.4GHz -> 4.3GHz:)

[Pinnacle]

ASUS

Never go with gigabyte! I cant take my prescott beyond 3.67, crap mobo. And the divider is a crappy 5:4

[Circaflex]

Well ive emailed ASUS because my P4C800 Deluxe is fluctuating bad and they said i would be upgraded to the -E Deluxe which is nice, they also said this last time but i got back the non -E, hopefully they upgrade me its been hard finding a p4c800-e in stock and not at 300 bucks...

[sin0822]

lol all their vcores fluctuate liek crazy.

[Lestat]

run away from any IC7 MAX III that isnt pre modded.
ive had SEVERAL MAX III boards 2 of them were DIRECT rma's from ABIT that were absolute :banana::banana::banana::banana:. couldnt barely run stock.

the only good MAX III is one that has been modded by one of these fine modders here and other forums.
out of the box they are unstable as hell and dont do any good but for a paper weight.
although thats my opinion i have seen people saying theirs was stable out of the box without mods,. but the serious clocks and stability only happen after the baord is modded.

my recommendation ? and i will stand by this til the day i die,, best damn board i have ever had aside from the SLI-DR

MSI 865PE NEO2 FIS2R totally wicked board with all the bios options you could want. hard to find but worth every penny!!

[mr_knowitall15]

MAX3 sucks big hairy gooches, unless its crazy modded. Id say a p4C800E Dlx, or an abit IC7-G.

[calcal]

MAX3 sucks big hairy gooches, unless its crazy modded. Id say a p4C800E Dlx, or an abit IC7-G.
why do u think it sucks? u have a decent overclock with yours

[sin0822]

yeah man 3.4E didnt oc more than that anyway

[ZL1]

P4C800E or P4P800SE

D

[mr_knowitall15]

its got a bunch of things that are a pain. the northbridge fan dies easily (check abits forums) and when it does it makes a horrid noise. the Otes, same thing. The board reads 10 to 15 degrees higher than actual temps, supposedly to protect OCers, but since everyone knows about it, they just let it get 10 higher than it should be. Seems to have a wicked voltage fluctuation on VCore, the droop is so bad i had to pump 1.63V thru it to get 4.25 screenshot. In other words, i have to pump way more voltage thru the chip than is neccesary to make sure its got enough juice to not crash under a load when the droop happens. The worst thing is probably the VDimm. there is a well documented problem with the VTT that makes it unsafe to use any Volts higher than 2.9 because it will overvolt like hell. Even though you have up to 3.2 in the BIOS, you cant safely use it. Overall it is a nice board for moderate overclocking. anything more, and it needs crazy mods on everything. i also learned recently that it wont go past 270 FSB no matter what. A friend brought some Gskill PC4800 over to play with because i can drop my multi. even though the ram WILL do 300 fsb in other systems, this board just wont allow more than 270. I remember looking at all the mods in hipro5s guide to modding them, and he said doing all these other mods helped the max fsb thay could reach a lot. speakin of the multi, thats probably the coolest thing about this board, is with the new bios, and a presscott 3.4 and 3.2(maybe) you can select a 14 multiplier.

[elyrly]

i would recommend asus p4c-800 e deluxe, asus p4p800se since i'm running banias

[mr_knowitall15]

i just discovered something else weird.. dunno if its mobos fault or not but, when i just tried to plug my new digital camcorder in, the computer locked up. Just plugging in the firewire cable locked it up. after a restart, i had no mouse or keyboard. so i unplugged the cable, restarted again, and all is well. WTF?? is it the onboard firewire port being stupid, or is firewire ps/2s killer while its plugged in lol.

[masterofpuppets]

I own both the P4C800-E and the IC7-Max3, and the IC7 wins hands down.

[SPQQKY]

Epox 4PDA2+Ver.2 Still available from Epox USA. Now it is only $100
Has it all including full PAT enabled on the 1:1 no tricks it's just there

I have to agree on this one. I had the Epox 4PDA2+ and I gotta tell you, it provided the best bandwidth of any other s478 board I had. But it's a tough choice. I also had a IC7-G and P4C800E-Deluxe and they were also very good. The P4C800 was easy to mod the vdimm to 3.15 with a simple wire trick, but the Epox provided 3.3 vdimm out of the box.

[Dark79]

I have to agree on this one. I had the Epox 4PDA2+ and I gotta tell you, it provided the best bandwidth of any other s478 board I had. But it's a tough choice. I also had a IC7-G and P4C800E-Deluxe and they were also very good. The P4C800 was easy to mod the vdimm to 3.15 with a simple wire trick, but the Epox provided 3.3 vdimm out of the box.

Currently have a Epox 4PDA2+ and it ran really well with a 2x256 set of BH-5. I got my 2.4C up to 3.0 at stock voltage with the RAM 1:1 @ 2-2-2-5 (PAT enabled). That's as high as the RAM would want to go even with loosening the timings.

BUT.....

It doesn't run at all with 2x512 set of TCCD. Tried week 440 G.Skill and Patriot XBLK. Neither would run 250FSB unless I ran a 5:4 divider. If running 1:1 I had to up the vcore over 1.625 just to get it to boot windows (after which it would immediately BSOD). And that was with PAT completely disabled.

Wish I could go back to my MAX3, but after a borked mod the RAM slots won't detect any RAM :(