Epox K8HA+ vs. K7S5A

[kjacobs]

Any thoughts on which is better? I already have the K8HA+ on another PC and love it.

Both can be had for about the same price (if I hurry)

Current memory would fit in the K7S5A so would have to upgrade for K8HA+.

PC will be used by kids for school and will utilize wireless networking.

Not planning to OC.


CPU will be some form of AMD XP processor. New case would be an ANTEC SX600II with 300W PS.

Thanks.

 

[chizow]

Based on your needs, K7S5A is the way to go. 8KHA+ is a tweakers/performance board with no bells and whistles and no integrated stuff (except for bad sound ). No point in upgrading to pricey DDR if you don't have to, it should handle everything those kids throw at it with a nice AXP in there.

Chiz

 

[CraigRT]

even just reading the subject, the EPoX is better... why get a cheap mainboard when you can buy one of the best...

 

[Mem]

Current memory would fit in the K7S5A so would have to upgrade for K8HA+.

PC will be used by kids for school and will utilize wireless networking.

Not planning to OC.

It comes down to cost of buying the ram for the Epox board,the Epox is the better board for sure and probably the best KT266A board ever made,on the other hand if you don`t want to buy new ram for it then the ECS should be ok for the kids.

 

[PCHPlayer]

I have both. My machine is the Epox and the kids is the ECS. The ECS is great due to its integrated features (sound and LAN). The only card I added to it was a cheap ATI 7000 32MB DDR. It was not as totally reliable at first, but I changed the memory timings from "Safe" to "Ultra" and all BSOD problems went away (go figure). I don't care if it crashes every once on a while. It's only used for Web surfing and game playing. I put the whole thing together for $225. Both of these motherboards require decent power supplies. Make sure the 3.3/5V rail supplies at least 180W, but 200W is even better.

 

[kjacobs]

It still doesn;t seem a clear choice as I read that the Epox doesn;t "like" Voodoo video cards. I read that on the Epox site somewhere. Something about 2X and 4X AGP slot. BUT I have read so many posts about the PS issue with the ECS board (sigh).

Ken

 

[LED]

Either MoBo's will suit your needs and if the Antec Case has an Antec PSU the ECS will work fine...I belive the Voodoo issues are fixed on the Epox with an update to their BIOS (you already got that 1 so Pop the V in)...Considering that the kids will be using the Puter and not OCing then I would go with the ECS because it's simple, you may already have SDRAM, and it includes 1 NIC...Choice is yours and I'm sure the kids could care less as long as sweet Poppa delivers!...Enjoy

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: kjacobs
It still doesn;t seem a clear choice as I read that the Epox doesn;t "like" Voodoo video cards. I read that on the Epox site somewhere. Something about 2X and 4X AGP slot. BUT I have read so many posts about the PS issue with the ECS board (sigh).

Ken

Yah 300W Antec should be plenty, but I dunno, I've never had an ECS. As for the issue with Voodoo's I ran my V5 in there fine, but it was PCI. Its the first time I heard about issues with the V5 AGP though; were people running it at 4x and 2x? The V5 can't use either, so that might be the problem. Not sure if you can set AGP to 1x or not, but that might help.

Chiz

 

[Peter]

... and yet again ... NONE of the Voodoo series chips actually uses AGP. These are PCI chips that happen to work on the AGP bus as well (because they're 66-MHz capable), no more no less.