Asus P4P800 versus Abit IS7 versus MSI Neo 2 865pe

mixerman

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Jun 17, 2003
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Okay after reading some of the reviews on these motherboards, they all seem pretty comparable and hard to choose between. The MSI having their dynamic overclocking, and the Asus and Abit claiming to re-activate PAT on the 865pe chipset... so in the end what is everybodies opinion on these boards..? What is the best board out there for the 865pe chipset?
 

jiffy

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Well I have the P4P800, though I don’t know how the PAT is re-activated, so I don’t know if it is or isn’t, until I figure out what they named it, or what triggers it, which maybe threw enabling some speed tweaks. I have DDR 2400 which runs at DDR 333, but shows DDR330 for reason I forget, also reach DDR 400 once, but had to raise the volts 2.75, so it’s back to default and DDR330. I’m at Cas 2.5, no luck with Cas2, maybe more tweaking or dif ram, might change that, though at the moment I’m not worried about it.
I like the feature that says 20% Overclock, and then the mobo does all the figuring. I have a 2.8 at 3.34, and runs cooler then my XP1800 did with more fans all on high, while I only have two now on low.

Hopefully Creative Labs won’t charge me an arm and a leg to get my Sub woofer back, and then I’ll try out the built in sound, I have speakers now, but with the 500 watts speaker can compare better. I did have a SB Live card still do, so I’ll compare the two, if the built in sound is just as good I’ll leave the card out, also like not having a Nic card in and using the 3com, because I don’t have a problem not having PCI cards. Though may up the sound card one day. I had the mobo about 5 days and have no complaints. Can’t comment on other mobo’s.


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When you feel that reality does not suit you, live a fantasy life.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by jiffy on 06/17/03 04:03 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
 

Spatcher

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I have been in the same jam as you. I think that the Abit IS7 or the ASUS P4P800 are the way to go over MSI 865PE Neo 2 because they are cheaper (the Abit is $110, ASUS $120, and the MSI was $160 about last I checked) and they perform better (they are neck-in-neck from what I have seen).

So if you agree with me your down to the Abit and the ASUS. At the moment I am leaning toward the Abit b/c it comes with IEEE support and I like the sound of their "Graphics Accelerator" over ASUS "Hyper Path", though I have yet to find anything comparing them. The only thing bugging me is the ram issue with these boards... Corsair recomends you use their CMX512-3500C2 for springdale MoBo's and not XMS LL. I would like to find something compareable but cheeper since I wont be overclocking, unless using the graphics accelerator or hyper path IS overclocking and needs better ram.