iB4
Power Member
Well people, I think it is safe to say we're looking at two very fine new motherboards here from Abit and Asus. Intel's new i875P Canterwood chipset is really where the P4 needed to go, in order to compete head to head with the AMD platforms out there, from a price/performance standpoint. We've been able to find the IC7-G (note the "G" denotes Gigabit LAN on board) for around $225 on various online search engines. The P4C800 Deluxe seems to be weighing in at around $190 or so. The difference in cost can most likely be attributed to the fact that the IC7-G bundle is much better than the P4C800 kit. Abit gives you the additional USB 2.0 backplate, SATA data and power cables, as well as their "Serillel" converter, in their bundle, which drives the cost up a bit but gives you everything you'll need to build up a new system from scratch and then some. What's more impressive perhaps, is that you can also get an Abit IC7 (note no "G" on the end here), which doesn't have Gigabit Ethernet on board, nor the extra Silicon Image SATA controller but lists for around $150 at several online resellers. We haven't seen a "non-Deluxe" version of the Asus P4C800 yet but that may or may not be coming, down the road.
We're completely torn between these two new Canterwood Motherboard actually. On one hand, you have Abit's great SoftMenu Award driven BIOS, with its fantastic bundle, Intel GigE and Silicon Image SATA RAID controllers. For sure, the IC7-G performed admirably and it overclocked with grace, in typical Abit fashion. On the other hand, you have the P4C800, which displayed a slight performance edge over all, had fantastic overclocking capabilities, despite its lower CPU voltage range, and comes in at a lower price point but with a lesser pack-in bundle. If it weren't for the use of the AMI BIOS on the P4C800 (sorry, it's just not the same for us, without Award under the hood and boy did it play havoc with our flat panel), the scales would have tipped in Asus' favor. For now, it's a dead-heat in our opinion...
O review completo em:
http://www.hothardware.com/hh_files/Motherboards/abitic7g_asusp4c800.shtml