Best P4C Overclocking mb

[NaHeMiA]

Greetings. I have been around these forums for a while but never managed to register but here I am now

I just got myself a great deal on the Prommy Mach2 ($760 shipped) and I would like to get a great P4C motherboard to go along with it.

I am considering:
IC7-MAX3
P4C800-E Dlx
AI7

The ram I am using is Mushkin PC3500 BH-5. Now I made quite an intresting discoveyr with this ram. I ordered the 512m mushkin pc3500 lvl1 dual chan kit from excaliberpc.com. As soon as I got it I decided to take the heatspreaders to look if the ram was Ch-5. I was very stunned when I took them off because the ram was winbound bh-5. I have pics if you guys like.

Anyways back to my decision. I am looking for a motherboard which will allow me to mount the prommy head with ease aswell as provide sufficient vdimm for my ram. I have never vmodded a mb and I am afraid of doing it. I wouldnt want anyone else to do it for me because it would kill a lot of time.

I know that bh-5 ram requires plenty of vdimm to run high fsb. I would need this ram to do around 285 fsb so I can overclock a 2.8C M0 to 4ghz

Please suggest a motherboard and tell me why you think I should choose this one.

Thanks for help in advance. Cheers

[Iridium192_217]

mushkin pc3500 level II is always bh5

I'd go with the P4C800-E. With a vdimm mod, it rocks. The Max III would be good, but it has vdimm stability problems as well as VTT problems.

Welcome to XS!

[skate2snow]

welcome to XS!!!!!

you should get P4C800 Deluxe (P4C800-E Deluxe if you need) but like Iridium said you need a vdimm mod

[Tedinde]

The Max III would be good, but it has vdimm stability problems as well as VTT problems.

Man i love how abit made this board especially for extra voltage to everything!!! Strapped some good cooling to the mosfets, then they have problems.


They should use whatever is on the AI7 board, The Mosfets are 1/3rd the size of the IC7's and are rock stable @ 3.2v and you can even touch them??

[NaHeMiA]

Thx!

Well my ram wasnt level2. It was level 1

this is what i ordered and it turned out to be bh-5

http://www.excaliberpc.com/product_i...oducts_id=2366

[NaHeMiA]

How hard is the vdimm mod and what tools do I need to do it. I cant really trust myself with this....

I know there are some "working" max3 out there but its a lottery and almost no one wins they all get caught and loose their money

my friend nikshub got a working max3 lucky dog

[typer77]

I did my mod on P4C800E DLX. You'll need smd grabbers or soldering to make the VDimm higher. (plus a 50K VR. But I would definitey recommend the grabbers; they will ave you a lot of soldering time.... even though there's only 2 spots you need to solder, The pins on the chip is so small that you need an extra hand.

But if you want higher voltage than 3.3V, you also have to mod your PSU and it's an easy mod but involving taking apart your PSU.

[st0nedpenguin]

How stable are SMD grabbers when in place?

I'm going to pick some up to tinker with until I get round to pulling out the soldering iron, so an idea of how stable they are in place could save me some soldering action.

[Grace]

Originally posted by NaHeMiA

I know that bh-5 ram requires plenty of vdimm to run high fsb. I would need this ram to do around 285 fsb so I can overclock a 2.8C M0 to 4ghz

Please suggest a motherboard and tell me why you think I should choose this one.

Thanks for help in advance. Cheers

I really hope you don't mean 285FSB 1:1. It doesn't have a chance to work up there. You'll have to use the 5:4 divider.

From the motherboards you listed, I'd pick the Asus since you want to 'play' at high FSB. The Abit motherboards still have problems with the dividers at high FSB speeds, they will keep you down.

[QuadDamage]

Yeah i agree with Grace on this one.

whassup Grace, how's going?

[kromosto]

as everybody says get asus do all the mods

[Grace]

Originally posted by QuadDamage
Yeah i agree with Grace on this one.

whassup Grace, how's going?

That's a familiar person.....

All things go fine here Quad. Hopefully for you too.

[QuadDamage]

Kromosto,

yeah, Asus is slightly better overclocking mobo than Abit IC7. I think Asus is the best CW mobo out there and it's the fastest clock for clock.
Also it's easy to mod it unlike Abit.

[kromosto]

yes i did my first mod on my p4p800 as an amateur it was very easy to mod the mobo and oc in performance is very good but one problem i have detected was usb connection problem with netmaster cable modem which was also detected by a friend of mine who has p4c800 the problwm is when you connected from usb after 1 minutes or 2 it suddenly restarts the computer with a sudden but loud noise which sound like some electrical problem talking this to asus tw or asus turk doesnt give any solutions to this problem they never accepted that there is a problem about this but when the thing comes to a point that they cant give anymore advice to solve this problem they choose not to talk anymore asus is a good company but i think they have some problem about accepting that there is a problem in their products i am talking like this because this is not the only problem i had with asus older mobo p4sdx's problems was worst than this and i the final is same after all the advices finished asus goes into a big silence like the mail adress you have got mail from it yesterday was never there it suddenly disappears

[st0nedpenguin]

Originally posted by kromosto
but when the thing comes to a point that they cant give anymore advice to solve this problem they choose not to talk anymore asus is a good company but i think they have some problem about accepting that there is a problem in their products

They aren't the only one, look how long it took ABIT to even acknowledge the VDIMM/VTT issues on the MAX3, and they still refuse to comment on the VTT matter.

Go ASUS, as mentioned before, the P4C800-E and the MAX3 are both pretty much neck and neck, but you have much more of a chance of getting a good P4C800-E than you do of getting a good MAX3.

[kromosto]

yeah above all the problems i still buy asus mobos

[NaHeMiA]

Yeah that sux....poor abit....well actually poor max3 owners..

Grace yeah 5:4 of course. My amount of posts doesnt relate to my computer knowledge

How well does the prommy fit on the p4c800-e and on the max3 (the reason why i am asking about the max3 because if you remove a certain ic or something like that..then the vdimm problem is fixed. Read it on the abit forums

[Malves]

Originally posted by kromosto
yes i did my first mod on my p4p800 as an amateur it was very easy to mod the mobo and oc in performance is very good...

The vdimm mod is the same as on the P4C800?

[kromosto]

almost the same only the chips place is different

[NaHeMiA]

Im thinking of giving the MAX3 a shot. I am exchanging somne pms with the staff at excaliberpc.com and Im trying to get them to test one of their MAx3s for me. They told me that Abit has fixed the vdimm stability with their newer max3s and I would like them to test it for me. Also I asked them to see how well the board overclocks. I know that overclocking is not guaranteed and that I WILL get different results from them without a doubt but my results will probably be better since I got a Mach 2

As long as the board ocs well for them it will oc well for me.

[st0nedpenguin]

I still wouldn't go for the MAX3, the VDIMM issue might be resolved, but the VTT problem is still there, playing hell with decent overclocks...

[NaHeMiA]

Yeah. Im in a tight spot here. Well somone contacted me and offered to vmod my P4C800-E for me. Now it all depends on location/price. This may solve my issues

if not ill go w/ ai7

[st0nedpenguin]

Phew, you had me worried for a minute there, I wouldn't want that Prommi to go to waste.

[Malves]

Originally posted by NaHeMiA
...to vmod my P4C800-E for me. Now it all depends on location/price. This may solve my issues

if not ill go w/ ai7

Once I heard someone suggesting to take the mobo and a pic of the mod (how to do it) to a TV repair shop and have them do it.

[NaHeMiA]

Ok guys I have officially solved my P4C800-E Deluxe problem
I am going to buy fuggers vmodded bnew p4c800-e after hes done testing it

in other words w00t