I need to know what is the best AMD Athlon chipset that accepts SDRAM instead of DDR RAM ... plus please give me some motherboard recommendations.... Thanks a lot guys..
Best AMD Athlon Chipset...
- Thread starter Darkhawk28
- Start date
<< KT266A or AMD760 >>
He said SDR not DDR. In that case I'd say KT133A. My FIC az11e was a fabulous board until I replaced it with my ECS K7S5A.
<<
<< Sis 735 Chipset on the ECS K7S5A mobo. Supports SDR and DDR RAM and is extremely stable. >>
Hahahaha, it's a 50/50 chance that you'll get a good board.
I say stick with the KT266A. >>
We'll have to agree to disagree here
I've had trouble with all my VIA based boards but I've had no problems with my ECS, and neither have two of my friends who bought the same board.VIA is suck, and that's ******CONFIRMED******
Hands down, SiS 735. It's rock solid and offers performance comparable to KT266A. Of course, SDRAM brings down performance a bit, but a board like the K7S5A ought to work well for you.
In fact, there aren't too many choices. KT133A perhaps, but I'd steer clear of VIA if I were you. SDRAM limits your choices considerably.
Hands down, SiS 735. It's rock solid and offers performance comparable to KT266A. Of course, SDRAM brings down performance a bit, but a board like the K7S5A ought to work well for you.
In fact, there aren't too many choices. KT133A perhaps, but I'd steer clear of VIA if I were you. SDRAM limits your choices considerably.
NFS4
No Lifer
- Oct 9, 1999
- 72,636
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<< VIA is suck, and that's ******CONFIRMED******
Hands down, SiS 735. It's rock solid and offers performance comparable to KT266A. Of course, SDRAM brings down performance a bit, but a board like the K7S5A ought to work well for you.
In fact, there aren't too many choices. KT133A perhaps, but I'd steer clear of VIA if I were you. SDRAM limits your choices considerably. >>
Lemme see here...what does AMD use for it's Athlon XP demo system (and when it gave away Athlon XP's and motherboards duing their XPP tour)?? Was it the SiS735 based ECS K75SA?? Hmmm, no it wasn't.
It was an AMD760 based motherboard using a VIA southbridge.
<<
<< VIA is suck, and that's ******CONFIRMED******
Hands down, SiS 735. It's rock solid and offers performance comparable to KT266A. Of course, SDRAM brings down performance a bit, but a board like the K7S5A ought to work well for you.
In fact, there aren't too many choices. KT133A perhaps, but I'd steer clear of VIA if I were you. SDRAM limits your choices considerably. >>
Lemme see here...what does AMD use for it's Athlon XP demo system (and when it gave away Athlon XP's and motherboards duing their XPP tour)?? Was it the SiS735 based ECS K75SA?? Hmmm, no it wasn't. They used the perfectly stable Gigabyte KT266A board.
Now tell me, why would AMD give away "sucky" VIA based motherboards to prove the performance and stability of their new Athlon XP? I don't know, but I think that I'd trust AMD over you anyday
>>First it was AMD vs Intel, now it's SIS vs Via. When will this madness end!?
NFS4 wrote:
"Lemme see here...what does AMD use for it's Athlon XP demo system (and when it gave away Athlon XP's and motherboards duing their XPP tour)?? Was it the SiS735 based ECS K75SA?? Hmmm, no it wasn't."
Likely, because AMD uses Gigabyte boards for their reference testbeds. And more likely, Gigabyte had a crapola of the old KT266 boards left over, before they switched to the 8366A north bridges. Anotherwards, they were cheap. I'm a bit surprised they'd bundle such a low-performing solution ... but they're getting it for free. Probably explains why so many of those mainboards appeared on eBay and in the various FS/T around different forums.
"Lemme see here...what does AMD use for it's Athlon XP demo system (and when it gave away Athlon XP's and motherboards duing their XPP tour)?? Was it the SiS735 based ECS K75SA?? Hmmm, no it wasn't."
Likely, because AMD uses Gigabyte boards for their reference testbeds. And more likely, Gigabyte had a crapola of the old KT266 boards left over, before they switched to the 8366A north bridges. Anotherwards, they were cheap. I'm a bit surprised they'd bundle such a low-performing solution ... but they're getting it for free. Probably explains why so many of those mainboards appeared on eBay and in the various FS/T around different forums.
Adul
Elite Member
<< VIA is suck, and that's ******CONFIRMED******
Hands down, SiS 735. It's rock solid and offers performance comparable to KT266A. Of course, SDRAM brings down performance a bit, but a board like the K7S5A ought to work well for you.
In fact, there aren't too many choices. KT133A perhaps, but I'd steer clear of VIA if I were you. SDRAM limits your choices considerably. >>
too bad ECS Mb are peaces of garbage that no one in their right mind should buy.
Was it the SiS735 based ECS K75SA?? Hmmm, no it wasn't. They used the perfectly stable Gigabyte KT266A board.
One note, I happened to win an XPP package, and inside was a GA-7DX mobo (it's the Gigabyte AMD760 board without raid)
Back then the GA KT266A board wasn't out yet; once it came out, AMD may have switch to the GA KT266A board. But anyway, if they didn't switch over, I'd say that AMD favors their own 760 chipset, since that's what my free board had on it.
One note, I happened to win an XPP package, and inside was a GA-7DX mobo (it's the Gigabyte AMD760 board without raid)
Back then the GA KT266A board wasn't out yet; once it came out, AMD may have switch to the GA KT266A board. But anyway, if they didn't switch over, I'd say that AMD favors their own 760 chipset, since that's what my free board had on it.
Adul
Elite Member
I think they are now 266a MB.
wait I think i should follow Snow patrol's lead here.
pabster is suck!
wait I think i should follow Snow patrol's lead here.
pabster is suck!
NFS4
No Lifer
- Oct 9, 1999
- 72,636
- 47
- 91
<< Was it the SiS735 based ECS K75SA?? Hmmm, no it wasn't. They used the perfectly stable Gigabyte KT266A board.
One note, I happened to win an XPP package, and inside was a GA-7DX mobo (it's the Gigabyte AMD760 board without raid)
Back then the GA KT266A board wasn't out yet; once it came out, AMD may have switch to the GA KT266A board. But anyway, if they didn't switch over, I'd say that AMD favors their own 760 chipset, since that's what my free board had on it. >>
I made the mistake there. It is an AMD760 board with a VIA southbridge. And we all know that it is the southbridge chips that most people complain about when they have problems with "VIA" boards. AMD doesn't seem to have a problem dishing them out for consumption.
Alright guys, back to your neutral corners!! This wasn't supposed to start a big flame war.
I just need to know the best chipset for a SDRAM based system...
I just need to know the best chipset for a SDRAM based system...
In my opinion, the best SDRAM chipset for the Athlon is the KT133A. It is very mature and high performing. The Sis735 does take SDRAM (ECS), but it is slower than the KT133A IIRC with SDRAM. The best SDRAM, KT133A motherboard out IMHO, is the Iwill KK266-Plus or the KK266-R Plus if you need RAID. Look here for the Iwill board. They have a nice configuration of 1 AGP, 6 PCI, and 1 ISA if you still have a hardware modem. It also comes with a host of overclocking options, onboard hardware based 5.1 sound that supports EAX, Direct Sound, and A3D, plenty of fan headers, and quality tri-phase power supply circuitry to keep those high speed Athlon fed with clean, stable current.
As much as I dislike Via, a mature kt133a is probably your best bets if you dont trust ECS. I have k7s5a myself with sdram and it performs very well, but their have been a number of documented problems with this board so I would probably steer clear of it.
Here are a couple very nice kt133a boards:
Soyo K7VTA-PRO KT133A ATX MOTHERBOARD 78.00
or
EPOX 8KTA3PRO Motherboard 93.00
Here are a couple very nice kt133a boards:
Soyo K7VTA-PRO KT133A ATX MOTHERBOARD 78.00
or
EPOX 8KTA3PRO Motherboard 93.00
Well, you kind of contradict yourself in your original question. You don't want DDR, but you want SDRAM, but DDR is a kind of SDRAM. What you want is SDR SDRAM in which case I would recommend the ECS K7S5A motherboard or something based on Via KT133A.
NFS4 wrote:
"I made the mistake there. It is an AMD760 board with a VIA southbridge. And we all know that it is the southbridge chips that most people complain about when they have problems with "VIA" boards. AMD doesn't seem to have a problem dishing them out for consumption."
Not sure if they switched to a different board at some point, but I know the first few events (for sure) were handing out were KT266-based. It's quite probable they did switch, but I remember a flood of those old KT266 boards showing up, and people mentioning they were bundled with their XP from the XPP.
And you're right -- VIA's south bridges suck. Their IDE performance is consistently the lowest in class; USB troubles are common; they have known incompatibilities with certain hardware (eg Creative sound cards), and they often suffer from PCI latency and timing issues. And I'm not just speaking about 686B. 8233 also has issues. 8233A is supposedly in production, but I haven't seen any manufacturers' pairing the new 8233A south bridge with the 8366A north bridges.
"I made the mistake there. It is an AMD760 board with a VIA southbridge. And we all know that it is the southbridge chips that most people complain about when they have problems with "VIA" boards. AMD doesn't seem to have a problem dishing them out for consumption."
Not sure if they switched to a different board at some point, but I know the first few events (for sure) were handing out were KT266-based. It's quite probable they did switch, but I remember a flood of those old KT266 boards showing up, and people mentioning they were bundled with their XP from the XPP.
And you're right -- VIA's south bridges suck. Their IDE performance is consistently the lowest in class; USB troubles are common; they have known incompatibilities with certain hardware (eg Creative sound cards), and they often suffer from PCI latency and timing issues. And I'm not just speaking about 686B. 8233 also has issues. 8233A is supposedly in production, but I haven't seen any manufacturers' pairing the new 8233A south bridge with the 8366A north bridges.
NFS4
No Lifer
- Oct 9, 1999
- 72,636
- 47
- 91
<< NFS4 wrote:
"I made the mistake there. It is an AMD760 board with a VIA southbridge. And we all know that it is the southbridge chips that most people complain about when they have problems with "VIA" boards. AMD doesn't seem to have a problem dishing them out for consumption."
Not sure if they switched to a different board at some point, but I know the first few events (for sure) were handing out were KT266-based. It's quite probable they did switch, but I remember a flood of those old KT266 boards showing up, and people mentioning they were bundled with their XP from the XPP.
And you're right -- VIA's south bridges suck. Their IDE performance is consistently the lowest in class; USB troubles are common; they have known incompatibilities with certain hardware (eg Creative sound cards), and they often suffer from PCI latency and timing issues. And I'm not just speaking about 686B. 8233 also has issues. 8233A is supposedly in production, but I haven't seen any manufacturers' pairing the new 8233A south bridge with the 8366A north bridges. >>
What issues do current VIA southbridges have?? Even with the 686B, it was only the Live! that had problems. Every other sound card worked fine. The Live! even had problems with Intel i815 boards.
I currently have a KT266A board. Best performance in class (KT266A and nForce are pretty much equal), excellent stability, IDE performance is top notch, the motherboard is loaded with 5 PCI cards right now (6 possible) and three PC2100 DIMMS (four max) at MAX memory settings, and I also have 7 USB devices hooked up right now. Your point is...
Don't blame VIA, blame half-ass mobo manufacturers
<< Don't blame VIA, blame half-ass mobo manufacturers >>
Whenever I get the chance, I blame VIA. I will never forgive them for the MVP3.
I have had terrible experiances with VIA. My personal experiances does cloud my judgment about the company. I admit that.
MVP3 had major issues.
My KT133 had major issues.
I have had Intel chipsets and none had issues.
I have had Sis chipsets and none had issues.
This is my own personal experiance and it may be different for someone else, but I am entitled to my own opinion, however flawed it is.
You'd think VIA would have tested their southbridge rigously with the sound blaster live... apparently, they didn't catch a major flaw with their southbridge. And, I am saying it's VIA's fault because no other southbridge has a problem with the thing.
VIA breaks laws releasing chipsets that they have no right to make. I'm all for DDR on P4, but what is VIA thinking? Did they actually expect many motherboard manufactures to go against Intel's wishes and use this chipset that they have no right to make?
VIA never can seem to get ANYTHING right the first time. You ever notice that?
MVP3 had major issues.
My KT133 had major issues.
I have had Intel chipsets and none had issues.
I have had Sis chipsets and none had issues.
This is my own personal experiance and it may be different for someone else, but I am entitled to my own opinion, however flawed it is.
You'd think VIA would have tested their southbridge rigously with the sound blaster live... apparently, they didn't catch a major flaw with their southbridge. And, I am saying it's VIA's fault because no other southbridge has a problem with the thing.
VIA breaks laws releasing chipsets that they have no right to make. I'm all for DDR on P4, but what is VIA thinking? Did they actually expect many motherboard manufactures to go against Intel's wishes and use this chipset that they have no right to make?
VIA never can seem to get ANYTHING right the first time. You ever notice that?
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