Best motherboard for Duron 600 / TBird 1000

[defiant]

Hello all,

I am in the process of building a new machine for myself. I am planning on getting a Duron 600 right now and then eventually going up to TBird 1000 when prices are more reasonable. Any recommendations on mobo's?

Couple of factors to consider:
1. Obviously, the mobo has to have the capacity to handle both a 600 and a 1000.
2. I dont plan to do any overclocking and stability is important.
3. From what I have read here (anandtech reviews), I am leaning towards the Asus or Abit offerings.
4. What problems do people have with SB Live and either the Asus or Abit offerings?

Any replies will be appreciated!

 

[Mem]

Well for the best stability where overclocking is NOT important definetly the MSI K7T PRO this board is rock solid & as had the least problems here from all Socket A boards by Members.Also I`m using a SBLive & Geforce2 MX with no problems at all.

Quote from Anandtech "Next came the Microstar K7T Pro in July, one of the most stable KT133 motherboards tested in our lab".

 

[TheNeck]

I would recommend the ABIT KT7, thats what i have and its rock solid.

 

[Mem]

JobLessOne ,ask Red Dawn what he thinks of the two Abit KT7 boards he had,he was not impressed.

 

[SuperSix]

Microstar, without a doubt.

Ewww... AAaaaaaaaabit...

 

[Dravic]

abit all the way....

Not one BSOD yet.

I also recommend the antec s1030 soho case..comes with amd recommended 300watt PS

together this was the easiest setup i have ever put together. It all took about two hours, and thats was with being overly cautious.

But EVERY install is different!!!!!!!

dont own a SBlive, i have an older Turtle beach Montego a3d card... no issues with that either. Althought the sound was fading in and out yesterday, but it turns out the cord had been slightly pulled out. LOL

 

[Sid]

I have my Duron 600 on an MSI K7T Pro. Also invested in an Antec SX830 case, which is the best $95 I have ever spent. But I have had NO problems with the K7T. I don't spend much time with games and dont do any o/clocking - I feel lucky just getting things to run at the normal speed. Had I known, I might have waited for the MSI K7T Master which is just coming out. I have also heard good things about the new Tyan socket A board that just came out, can't remember the exact name.

 

[wjones]

Another vote for MSI K7T Pro. It is about $20 cheaper than Abit KT7.

I just purchased a MSI K7T Pro, and the best price I found is $121.65 shipped.

http://direct.mwave.com
$121.65 shipped

https://www.cdrexpress.com
$123.02 shipped

http://www.paragon-tech.com
$128.08 shipped

 

[osage]

wjones, where you at in MT ?

 

[zuze]

How about MWAVE.com --$113 for the MSI kT7Pro.
Stay away from Abit board--too expensive and the system is not really friendly to some configs.
I own both kt7-raid and THE MSI BOARD(guess why I typed in caps), but of course its possible that I got a crappy KT7-RAID.kt7-raid was freaking out on my ECC stick of ram, msi took it with a happy beep. Your odds are really 50/50 after all.

 

[crapito]

defiant: if you are not going to overclock, any stable motherboard should treat you well. I've had MicroStar motherboards in the past, so I think their KT133 boards (ie K7T Pro) would make a good choice; Gigabyte's KT133 [ie GA-7ZX] boards should be worth a look as well. the Abit KT7/KT7-RAID and Asus A7V boards are great, but if you aren't going to use the extra features (primarily the CPU multiplier unlock) than the other companys' boards will save you $20-40, depending on what you get.

personally, I can't understand why people smart enough to post on this board, don't overclock (in general). just yesterday I put together my Abit KT7-RAID + Duron 600 setup. using the simple pencil trick to bridge the L1 gaps on my Duron, I am able to run at 980 (9.5x103bus) stable. all this from a ~$60 CPU! sure, my Abit KT7-RAID was about $30 more than a MicroStar K7T Pro ($150 vs $120), but a Thunderbird 950 is $280+ more than a Duron 600 ($340+ vs <$60), yet the performance will be similar. for a mere $30 more, you can at least experiment with overclocking and maybe even find out that you won't need to spend the cash for a TBird 1Gig as your OC Duron is enough.

zuze: the Abit KT7-RAID doesn't support ECC RAM according to the manual, so that would explain your problems.

 

[AMB]

I personally think that the Abit KT7 is the best, it is very stable, the only down side is the price i guess

 

[zuze]

good point, crapito.

 

[ABErickson]

Does the MSI have dip switches/jumpers for CPU mulitplier adjustment?

 

[John]

Big Al, nope