A7V333 or A7S333?

[Brendanagainetc]

Right,

First off, hi. This is my first posting here - I've found this website invaluable in helping me with putting together my own music PC.

I've whittled my mobo choice down to just two - the Asus A7S333 or A7V333. I do mostly audio work, in Windows 98, sequencing in Cubase, on an SBLive (for the soundfonts) and a Hoontech DSP24 Value.

Originally, I was going for the SiS-based A7S333 until I was advised that it didn't have ATA133 support which my Maxtor hard drive supports. So, it would be foolish, I thought, to choose a mobo that effectively slowed down my hard drive.

So I took a look at the VIA-based A7V333, which seemed fine, but I've come across a couple of threads on other forums saying that it has a poor PCI-bandwidth, which would be unfortunate for me because audio recording needs a good PCI bus performer. Apart from that, the A7V333 seems fine for my needs.

So can anyone tell me either way? Are there any PCI bus issues with the A7V333? If not then it's the one for me. It's taken me *ages* to get my choice down to these mobos, so any advice to nudge me in one direction or the other would be appreciated.

Ta
Brendan

 

[CraigRT]

You'd be fine with either of them, I however would go with the A7S333 and it's alot cheaper. Both boards work just fine, but the price is alot lower on the A7S and both boards seem to run well. by the way, about the ATA/100. despite common beliefs, that will not slow down your hard drive, transfer rates never hit ATA/100 spec anyways, they are usually lower around ATA/66 so don't worry about that, it's worth it to save like $30 and go with the SIS based board. I rather like SIS anyways, I think they make good chipsets.

hope this helps!!

 

[eplebnista]

A7S333

 

[Brendanagainetc]

Thanks guys, but in response to Yield, surely this isn't just an issue of streaming audio to disk in one stream, when you're sequencing or playing audio back, you're actually playing many streams back (in fact, as many as the number of tracks you're running, x2 if they're in stereo). In which case the difference between ATA100 and ATA133 might become significant.

Could you give me your thoughts on that please?

Ta
Brendan

 

[CraigRT]

Let me just say this, and most edumacated people will agree...

ATA/133 and ATA/100 have basically zero real world difference this day and age. don't even worry about ATA/133. transfer bottlenecks are lower than ATA/133, and the standard is not at all useful yet. wait a year and maybe ATA/133 will become useful.

 

[Brendanagainetc]

Oooh , yer a tresh!

Ta!

 

[Brendanagainetc]

Right, last question, and I promise you this is the last, because you occasionally have a bad temper:

IF my mobo supports ATA100 and ATA166, AND my hard drive specs say ATA133 only (Maxtor 6L040J2), THEN am I shafted? Or would the drive just downshift to ATA100?

Ok, that's two questions...

 

[wyesgye]

You will not notice any difference between ATA100 and ATA133.. in fact, IMO, you would have been better off getting a pair of Western Digital JB's (special edition, 8mb buffer). Most music folks use SCSI anyway. If you use the Maxtor on the A7S, they will run at ATA100.

Go with the A7S as you will benefit more from the increased PCI bandwidth.

 

[Brendanagainetc]

Excellent.

Many, many thanks to everyone who helped me out here - I am now pretty confident in my choice. Now I just have to build the damned thing!

I'll let you guys know how I get on!

Cheers
Brendan

 

[Eagle17]

I have both boards and very much prefer the a7v over the a7s for overclocking issues. Now as far as your case I would say the a7v offers usb2.0 and it is really handy when it comes to adding devices to the system. ohterwise the a7s is very stable and works quite well, it is just not as fast... And I will agree with both above statements ... ata 133 is marketing, and the 8mb cache on the Western digital jb drives "own" (term to mean that they are the highest level in there respective catagory).