I am building a few systems for friends/family. I have the AOpen AK-77 333 board (my first AMD board) and extreamly happy with it. But three things are certain about these systems: 1. Must be economical (not to a fault) 2. Not high end users but want to keep up with gaming 3. Using AMD XP (probably the 1800+) What I have worked on myself Abit KT266A KR7A (I have heard a lot of rages about this board here) Crucial DDR 2100 - about 256MB Maxtor 60GB drive (not interested in the debate here) PNY Geforce3 Ti 200 - the card I have is fooging arsome Taisol 760 - of course... This I can build this at just under $500 (I didn't list everything like PSU etc.) which is around what they would like to spend. I don't know a hell of alot about KT266 boards so let me have your ideas and why. Keep in mind these are intended for: economy, stability, and performance. Anything I build will be better than what these people have now. RAID ain't gunna happen with these people.. that would be a CF (ask me if you want to know what that stands for...
i have a KR7A-133, who's being saying its a bad board, ill have the ballz for tea i tell ya'. it seems about right for there needs, nice choice. what does CF stand for ? lol. .icecube
Economy - Jetway make a darn cheap KT266A board, the V266A. £60! Epox boards are pretty cheap as well, as are Solteks KT266A based boards. Stability - I swear by Asus for stability, but most decent branded boards should be equally stable. Look for Epox, Asus, Abit, Gigabyte, Soyo and MSI, in no particular order. Speed - All KT266A board are pretty fast, the Abits being the fastest (but not so you'd notice in the real world) followed by Epox and Asus..... My choice - The Epox K3A....ok so its KT333A but its fast(er), stable, and excellent value as well (the 8kHa is only slightly cheaper but slower) For ~£90 you'd do well to beat it. Abit do the best KT266A based boards (KR7A RAID) and KT33 board (KX7333) but from my experiences ABits quality control varies a hell of a lot (seen a lot of faulty Abit boards at work, especially KT7As..........my boss won't stock Abit again for a while as he's had so many dodgy ones), and they are sliughtly more expensive then the Epox equivalent.
KR7A was widely regarded as the best KT266A board. Also, if you want stability, I'm afraid Gigabyte and Abit blow Asus out of the water, especially gigabyte. Have a look at the Gigabyte GA-7VRXP KT333 board also. Under £100 inc vat and delivery from dabs, with lots of good features (USB 2, RAID, etc).
"cluster f#$%" - when so many small to mid-range problems arise at once and forces you to wonder why you tried to attempt the task at hand in the first place... that's the official webster's version... These are all good replies BTW... exactly what I needed and expected here
Looking at the Gigabyte GA-7VRX where I normally purchase parts and for $89 that's a pretty sweet deal! Plus, looks like they dropped the CNR slot (plus) and onboard sound would save me some bucks too. I use the onboard audio on my AOpen board... what is your experience with it on the Gigabyte board? is it any good? Keep in mind, the standards aren't too high here...
Judging by the A7V and A7V133 I'd agree with you......but I have to say my A7V266-E and other recent Asus boards have been very very stable. A7V and A7V133 were a bit pap to say the least, as were some (but not all) KT7As (6 out of 10 KT7As we sold from one batch were duff in one way or the other). Stability depends on what board you are judging really.........
I have the KR7A-133R and its amazing. Worth every hard-earned penny Crucial DDR is excellent. I tried both generic and the ever-so-slightly more expensive crucial in my KR7A and for the price difference there is no contest. I'd take Crucial every time :dude: I think the Athlon XP 1800+ gives the best performance for money (I chose that too ) Sounds like a great system
Personally i still dont like gigabite boards from the socket 7 days and will never go back. Asus are exceptional IMO, well the A7v133 was - never had an issue, really fast board. MSI arent as good (as ive found out with my KT266a msi). Never owned an abit or epox but my next mobo will be either one of the 2.
i have the latest revision of this board (the V266B funnily enough) and its extremely good for the price (exactly the same as the V266A) the onboard sound sucks tho
I've had nothing but good experiences with gigabyte boards. I still use my old GA586TX2, and that board was only designed to take up to a P233MMX, but it's been 100% stable with a 366 K6-2, which puts the board at max bus and multiplier. My GA-6VX7-4X survived my attempt on its life with a soldering iron (although the celeron didn't), and now lives again with another celeron. Gigabyte traditionally have not been overclocking boards. These days they offer plenty of oc features, if not quite as well as abit, and still their tremendous stability. Epox I am suspicious of. It comes down to the fact that my GA586TX2 has been around longer than the epox company, and thus epox don't have the experience in the market. Same goes for Soyo, Soltek, etc, etc, etc....The big three in retail mobos have always been gigabyte, asus and abit. I have a personal prejudice against asus, but all three offer good products. My three machines run on gigabyte GA586TX2, gigabyte GA-6VX7-4X and Abit KT7A boards.
From what I've heard, Epox boards are fine. They have a pretty good reputation, and best of all are great for overclocking I havent used one personally, but someone I know has two and hasnt encountered any problems with them (althout he's only had them 5 months or so, so there is plenty of time for things to go wrong )
I've built 2 Machines for friends based on what is called a Lex board, ob the VIA KT 266 chipset, I haven't heard them moan once about having problems with stability (they run XP Pro) I thikn I got the boards from Stak Trading, they do a RAID version aswell and these boards also support the XP cpu's. Also has DDR and SD Ram slots, so you've got the best of both worlds. I beg to differ on Gigabyte, I had a Socket A 71XE 4 and the poor comp was alwyas crashing, got myself an Asus board and haven't looked back since.
Admittedly the GA-7IXE4 was not a clever board (my landlord has one), but it was the only Socket A board based on the AMD 750 chipset. Another board to consider at a great price is the ECS K7S5A. I got my brother one of these to replace his A7V (which was an appalling board), and it has been EXTREMELY stable. It's picky about memory and PSU, but if you have good quality components, it's superbly stable.
might be the only person here who likes asus boards, but the A7V266-E has been workin great for me... sticking to abit asus and gigabyte should give you a good quality board all the same....
