A7M266 or A7A266???

[AMDPwred]

What's the difference (other than the A7A can hold SDRAM also)? Is the A7M worth the extra money?

 

[j@cko]

A7M266 uses AMD 761 north bridge, whereas A7A266 uses ALi's.
I strongly suggest you go with AMD 761 one. It has superior performance but more expensive. However, this particular board does NOT have multiplier switcher or whatever you want to call it.

 

[AMDPwred]

Are you saying it doesn't have the dip switches on the mobo? If not, then can you just do it in BIOS?

 

[Mungla]

The A7M allows for manipulation of everything but the cpu multiplier. You cannot adjust the multiplier on that board in the BIOS nor via dipswitches. If you want multiplier support on it, you'll have to whip out the soldering iron and do a bit of modding. That board is outrageously expensive, the cheapest is somewhere around $180. To tell you the truth, all of the AMD761 boards perform the same. If you want rock solid stability with support for all overclocking features, then go with the Epox 8K7A. You won't be sorry; it's an awesome motherboard that can hit 160+fsb without a problem. Epox just released a BIOS for this motherboard that allows for FSB settings up to 250MHz and official support for AMD's Palomino. For $132, that's not something to scoff at.

 

[187]

a7m uses AMD chipset, which is currently the best chipset but also the most expensive. a7a uses aLi magik chipset which i heard had some problems and is less stable then the AMD 761. the a7m is really expensive for a DDR board(mainly because there arent many in stock) i agree with mungla. u can get the ep0x board with or with out RAID support. the standard 8k7a is aroound 140 with shiping included @ newegg. i suggest that.

 

[AMDPwred]

Thanks for the advise. BTW, this PC is for a friend. He thanks you too

 

[187]

glad to be of help. let me know how the project turns out.

 

[AmazonRasta]

The A7M-266 can, however, be modded to have dipswitches. I'm not sure of the site that it's at, but it is around. I'll take a look and report back.

 

[AMDPwred]

Does the board (A7M) OC well by changing the FSB?

 

[Mungla]

As long as you install the chipset heatsink, which is for the 761 Northbridge, that comes with the board you will be alright. I haven't heard too much chat about the A7M's FSB overclockability, but I would assume you wouldn't have a problem.

 

[MGMorden]

Also from what I've heard/read the mod for the A7m266 is nothing more then soldering a single wire between two pins on the board where there WOULD be a dipswitch if Asus had put it in. After you solder in the wire mult settings should be changable in the bios.

 

[damocles]

What are the stability probs with the ALi Chipset?


I know the first batch of Asus boards were a little suspect, but overall i have heard only good things about the ALi's Stability

 

[ruther]

Stay away from A7A266!!! The ALI chipset suffers a problem of high latency - there´s an article here in anandtech with this issue...

 

[damocles]

Later ALi bios fixes have speed up this chipset noticably. It still isnt as good as the 760, but where is a recent aticle showing these problems?

 

[AdamK47]

Actually MGMorden, the A7A has the single wire mod for multiplier adjustment. The A7M266 has a little more complex modification.