Abit NV7133-R vs. MSI KT3 Ultra2

[AppleTalking]

Okay, so I think my Epox 8K7A has gone belly up, since it won't even boot into Windows 2000 without automatically restarting or giving me garbled video. I've tried two different graphics cards and two different sets of memory, but no luck. (For my whole rant on this thing, see this thread.)

So here's what I want. I want a good quality board that will remain stable. I don't care about overclocking and I don't really care about features. I already have a Santa Cruz, a network card, a FireWire card, etc.. I have no real use for RAID or USB 2.0, although I obviously won't turn them down. All I want is a quality replacement board that's going to last me for a while.

Based on reviews and a search of the forums, I picked the A7N133-R and the MSI KT3 Ultra2 as two likely suspects. Does anyone have any experiences with these boards that might be of help? Are there any other suggestions? Since I've already bought a new graphics card this week, I'd like to try to keep it to around $100 if at all possible, although if it's a really stable board I'd be willing to splurge.

Oh, and Epox is automatically out of the running.

Thanks,
Nick

 

[AppleTalking]

Okay, here are the pros of the two boards as I see them:

MSI KT3 Ultra2:
-- Nice red color
-- $10 cheaper
-- newer chipset

Abit NV7-133R
-- Not Via
-- Onboard ethernet
-- Onboard RAID

What do you think? Which of the two boards should I get? I'm trying to order today from newegg, so any responses would be appreciated. Thanks!

Nick

 

[Smilin]

I'm grabbing an identical board (the MSI) from newegg this evening as well

I've already got SCSI so I'm not using the raid and I have a raid card gathering dust anyway. I already have dual nics and I think the SB Live 5.1 I'm running will do fine for audio.

I dig it for the red pcb. There are some Ti4600 boards as well as the ATI R300 stuff that's matching red. It should all look pretty good with a plexiglass panel on the case. This may be a silly reason, but it's my money

Also - the MSI has been shown to be stable with all memory slots filled. I'm sorry but I don't care if I use all the slots or not, the fact that anyone would actuall sell a mobo that isn't stable is BS.

anyhoo - yay for my new computer (in a few weeks)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[tuan121]

I would get the nforce b/c its not via!!! The abit comes w/ all those features and is ultra stable. Also there built in sound is better than sb live. =D

 

[AppleTalking]

Smilin: LOL, I was thinking the exact same thing. I ended up going with the MSI board because I don't need the added features of the Abit board, the reviews on it looked great, especially in terms of stability, and because of the red color! I actually have a fire engine-red Gigabyte Radeon 8500LE that I'm planning to use in the board. Add in some red rounded cables and you've got one heck of snazzy looking case! Now, I just have to pick up the acrylic window for my Chieftec case from newegg and I'll be all set. However, I think I'll wait until my next paycheck for that, as I've already spent enough money on this computer for one week!

Nick