Abit IC7 MAX3?

[^CHILI^]

this board will have better oc then the IC7?
the preview...
http://www.digital-daily.com/motherboard/abit-ic7-max3-preview/

[Drake]

All I've heard of the board is that it has a higher vmem, and of that I am uncertain.

I doubt there will be any significant difference in overclocking, seeing how it's just having air ducted over the power regulation circuitry and no heatsinks at all.

[Player0]

Abit aims their MAX series towards serious overclockers. It will most certainly have a few upgrades to improve stability and performance, but if you need a system now, theres nothing wrong with an IS7/IC7. But you WILL have to vmem mod it if you are serious.

[mdzcpa]

Agreed. Aside from the potential of Abit tweaking things a little more, the board will likely clock about the same as the IC7. The extra Vdimm would be a welcome addition though for those that want it.

On that note, I have recently been finding that using 3v and above doesn't add a whole lot more for the average enthusiast. I've modded every board that I've had in the last year to run Vdimm at 3.1 or better, but I find that I run it back at 2.8 or 2.9v anyway for 24/7 use. The extra 10mhz or so on the mem overclock gained by jacking the Vdimm doesn't due much except help the benchmarks a little.

Another thing, using the divisors that come on the new Intel boards (like 5:4) might make the need for high voltages become unneccessary. Often the memory ends up in a range below what you would need high voltages for (EG my P4 3.0Ghz tops out at 272 FSB x 15, or 4080mhz. Since my memory cannot possibly run synchronously there, I use the 5:4 which clocks the memory at 217. At that speed, only 2.65v is needed to run tight timings.

This situation could obvioulsy change if your running a different CPU (and mutliplier), different cooling, etc. So higher voltage choices are always welcome. It's just that they might not be needed. so, plan it out and consider what you need before holding put for the new board, or modding an existing one.

[Player0]

Yeah, with my lowly 2.4C, My FSB is up in the 280s-290s, using 3:2. I haven't had sucess with 5:4 above...well, I dont remember. But, 5:4 is the place to be, for sure.