Abit KT7A-RAID vs Asus A7V133 problems?

[Wooster]

Which board has more problems, when comparing to each other? I know KT7A-RAID has several BIOS problems, which related to RAID, SCSI boot, sound and power (overheat). How abouthe Asus A7V133? If A7V133 is close to perfect & reliable, I would thinking to get rid of my new KT7A-RAID and get A7V133 board instead.

What's your opinon?

 

[Dulanic]

The only real problem on the A7V133 is Cold Boot problems, however even that isnt a big issue since you can just use the Vcore jumpers instead of jumperless and it's fixed.

 

[Biggs]

The Asus uses the Promise controller chip which many consider the better and reliable brand.

 

[nealh]

I have an A7V133...I think it is more finicky with some ram types..eg Mosel will not handle the newer bios at higher front bus speeds

Also this is a 2 phase not 3 phase moffet board...so it may have (no one knows for sure) with high speed Palomino...probably those over 1.6 to 1.7v...I am basing this on reports from various hardware sites...one did say they expect to easily run the 1.5....but o/c these maybe a problem because the amps supplied by board may not be enough....can this is speculation...

So if I had to do it over again I might go with the Abit board or Iwill...3 phase moffets

 

[Joemonkey]

i have the KT7A-RAID, running Win2K, and only problem i had was when i installed the 4 in 1 update. was kinda strange, Nero wouldn't recognize my burner, yet discjuggler would. anyway, after i uninstalled the 4 in 1 update, everything has worked like a charm. anyway, the point was, i haven't had a problem that couldn't be worked around. i just wish i had some experience with the A7V so i could contrast and compare, but there's my $.02

 

[Wooster]

Looks like both of them have their own unsolvable problems. Maybe I should stay with Intel board after all. It's slower but stable at least.

 

[Bunta]

Hey Nealh,

When you referred to the A7v133 being finick about mosel ram, were you talking about mosel vitellic? I just bought two 128meg sticks which I was planning to use on an a7v with an oc'd 1.2 tbird. Which new bios version are you refering to (1003a?). Any more info would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Dulanic]

<< Looks like both of them have their own unsolvable problems. Maybe I should stay with Intel board after all. It's slower but stable at least. >>



What specific problem are you talking about? The A7V133 is plain and simple the MOST stable board I've had in one of my own PCs. No Intel board has not crashed with Anand's stability test..... both MSI and Asus never crashed... so I dont see what you mean by your stability comment.

 

[gtd2000]

Only problems I get with my KT7A is when I push the Duron 700 past its limits - totally rock solid otherwise so far....

 

[Wooster]

Dulanic:

KT7A-RAID problems I am refer to are SCSI boot, sound, RAID and overheat (due to some power supply). Those are the major one. From what I heard, A7V133 surfer some RAM and cold boot problem.

 

[nealh]

Bunta it is any bios including 1.002a, 1.003, and 1.003A...they set certain memory settings that the mosel ram does not like.

My mosel vitellic is the 6layer pcb with pc133 7ns cas222 that everyone is getting to cas222150
my tops out in bios 1.001D at cas222 146..if I go higher I need to lower it to cas322....
Could be my ram is bad ..but others have reported same problem

 

[grendelkhan]

KT7A-RAID here, after dumping ACPI I have had zero issues. Running 2 IBM 45GP GXP's in a RAID-0 config and it's been schweet.

 

[Dulanic]

<< From what I heard, A7V133 surfer some RAM and cold boot problem. >>



As I said you can use the Vcore jumpers to override the jumperless settings... that fixes the cold boot problems and you can still do everything else jumperless. As for RAM problems yes the newer BIOS does enable some memory timings that some RAM does not like... I have this problem, so Im just still using the older 1001D BIOS... and since it has no problems everything is perfect.

 

[TeMpT]

Check our Linky for the A7V133s. There is some mods (including one with no soldering) that can up the V I/O. Hopefully that will be enuff.

 

[djchemistry]

Dulanic's absolutely right. After I manually set the voltage with jumpers on the Asus A7v133, the board's been absolutely phenomenal. It's the most stable and easily overclockable board I've used yet. And I don't say that lightly since I've been spoiled by some of the best recent mobo's (Asus P3B-F, Asus Cusl2, MSI 815e Pro).

All I want now is a new Bios that lets me turn my computer on with my mouse/keyboard. Damn I miss those days.

 

[SCSIfreek]

djchemistry,

All I want now is a new Bios that lets me turn my computer on with my mouse/keyboard. Damn I miss those days.

I just mentioned that couple days ago. Damn i got spoiled bu=y the P3B-F. now i miss my good old P3B-F board (Most stable board i ever had)

Now i own a A7V133 which is stable as it can be(after you undated the bios, and drivers). I also wished ASUS would include a mouse/keyboard turn on button.


--SCSI

 

[gtd2000]

yes it's a hell of a stretch to the power button....

 

[TeMpT]

For whatever it is worth, A7V133 does seem to have less problem than the KT7A (from personal experience). If you have plan on having a SBLive and DVD/CDR on the 2nd IDE channel, then make sure you don't get the KT7A (not sure if KT7A-RAID is affected). However, I do miss the performance tweaks from the KT7A. I was getting really nice results on the KT7A (Unreal Tourn FPS of 118 while the A7V133 only 98).

 

[Nikepete]

Hi TeMpT, I confirm that the KT7A-R has no problem with SB Live and DVD/CDR on the IDE2 channel. That's exactly my config: SB Live on PCI3, Iomega 12x10x32 as master and Sony DVD as slave on IDE2.

 

[TeMpT]

I guess rAID is the answer...damn...should have traded for an ABIT RAID instead

Asus is stable..but ABIT is so tweakable...

 

[DigitalWolf]

Greets,

I use an Abit KT7A NON Raid and I love it... totally stable unless I push it to some ungodly FSB. I run my 900TBird at 7.5x133 (1000MHz), I know its not much of an OC. I just wanted a gig and I can run default votages and everythings happy.

Now then... what exactly are the issues with a SB Live and CDR(W) / DVD on IDE 2 ??

Because I just happen to use a SB Live XGamer with a TEAC 12/10/32 Secondary Master and Samsung DVD Secondary Slave. I have two Maxtor hard drives on the Primary channel.

I have ZERO issues.

What issues were you having??

I used a Abit KA7 before this and had no probs with that setup. Before that I had an Asus P3BF which was a very nice board too.

With BOTH Abits I had USB Mouse, Scanner and game controller too. Seems like a lot of people have USB issues with the Abit for some reason. I haven't had that so far luckily.

Just my experience for the last 6 weeks with the KT7A and Last year with the KA7.

-DW

 

[TeMpT]

The problem with the KT7A I've experience is that if you install the 4in1 driver, the VxD version of the IDE Busmaster craps out if you try to enable DMA on the CDR and DVD while having SBLive going. This is most evident in the burning of CD roms or watching a DVD for over an hour(I've only experienced the CDR problem).

The VxD version of the IDE driver is the one that DOES NOT install the IDETOOL. The only solution around that is to manually install the Miniport version of the driver(which installs IDETOOL). The problem with Miniport is that it has a higher CPU overhead when accessing the IDE channel/harddrive (as seen in the increase from 6% to 20% cpu usage in HD Tach).

I have not tested my USB yet on my A7V133 and am crossing my fingers...