A7V133 or EP-8KTA3 or ???? which would you get?

[SpeedTrap]

ive got it narrowed down to these two boards i think. which one is better and why?

pros and cons also
I know the chip im getting is a retail 1.4 GHZ and right now memroy platforms not a issue.

but i want the reliable chipset

 

[Rafael]

You might want to take a look at Anand Tech article about the KT133A chipset mobos.
The best mobos are Asus A7V133 and the Iwill KK266, for OC, everything, stability, etc.
But the Epox, Abit, Gigabyte are very good mobos too.

Regards,

Raf

 

[Bglad]

A vote for the Asus. It is the reliability king and thats what you said your priority is.

 

[chainbolt]

no flame intended (at least not a big one) I, forgive me, think it's a SHAME to put such an outstanding powerful CPU in such a board like the A7. That was and is a good board, but you stay far beyond the potential of your 1.4 Giga TB. To buy NOW a 133A board, oh my ......
It's like a buying a 450 hps, 10 cylinder racing engine, and putting it into a Toyota Corolla.
Go for a DDR board, there are solutions where you can use your PC133 RAM for a while, if your cash flow is low, and later upgrade.

 

[HKSturboKID]

I am using the EP-8KTA3 board, its pretty stable. For the price of $90 you can't go wrong. It have build in sound and it supports ata100.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

I went to Epox for the ISA slot, extra PCI, and a much lower cost. My last two boards were Asus boards.

 

[psyched]

DDR big deal !

so what you get an extra 10% in speed !

I'm running a A7V133 with a 1.333 t-bird and it runs great !


At this time I feel it is not worth the extra coin for the MB and ram when a board like the A7V133 is still a strong contender.

 

[AppleTalking]

psyched: Sorry, but I have to disagree with you on this one. The original poster said that the memory platform was not an issue, meaning that he is probably going to buy new RAM either way he goes. With the price for DDR the same (or even below) the price for PC133, I don't see why you wouldn't want to go DDR. The Epox 8K7A motherboard costs $135 the last time I checked. That's only about $40 more than the 8KTA3. For a 5-15% overall performance gain, I think the $40 is well spent. Especially if you're already spending the money on a high-performance chip like the 1.4GHz. Athlon. $40 is not a lot compared to the overall price of such a system and is certainly worth the performance gain.

WSPTrooper: Take a look at the Epox 8K7A for a stable, low-cost DDR board. If you're willing to spend a little more $$$, the Gigabyte 7DXR or the upcoming Abit DDR board will give you onboard RAID and more than 2 DDR slots (3 on the Gigabyte, 4 on the Abit).

Nick