HELP- If you were going to get a Duron... what motherboard would you choose?

[fjorner]

Variation on theme of my original question involving Thunderbirds.

Looking to buy in the 1st quarter of 2001. Keeping in mind new BIOS releases and versions, as well as support from peripherals, what motherboard would YOU choose for a Duron (650-800) system?

Home usage computer, not much heavy gaming or busapps. Will want a CDRW, a soundblaster sound card (won't use any onboard shrite).

 

[andylawcc]

if price is a concern, MSI K7T pro,
if overclocking is, Asus A7V

 

[fjorner]

what about the GigaByte GA 7ZM? or the Biostar M7VKA?

anyone heard about them? these are the motherboards I have found bundled with Durons.

 

[Zeeliv]

If you're getting it in the first quarter of next year, I'd wait until then to choose. Choosing now is rather pointless when there may be as many as 3 (AMD's, VIA's and ALI's) new chipsets to choose from by then.

 

[fjorner]

oh well.

 

[Sandan]

The highest rated Socket A board by Anand is the Abit Kt7. I have the board and it is fantastic. Overclocking is done in the Bios...No jumper movements or dip switch settings. Compatability with hardware has been great. When I installed, I didn't even reformat and everything was recognized without IRQ or DMA conflicts. I have since added a CD burner and it was recognized with no conflicts.

 

[Noriaki]

Right now I'd say MSi K7T Master or K7T Pro because I don't care about overclocking, if you want overclocking then I'd say Asus A7V.

The ABit KT7 is also a very nice board, but the mere thought of having to deal with ABit tech support gives me nightmares now, so I avoid their boards, but it is a very nice board.

 

[Spearfodder]

My sig says it all...

 

[Jonny]

I have a TB, but I was originally going get a Duron. I have an A7V and I love it.

 

[loogie]

If you wanna oc, abit kt7 or msi k7t pro 2, when its out. Otherwise, msi k7t pro.

 

[hungrypete]

heres a comparison type review
Toms Roundup
he reviews your gigabyte board too. Alot of people around here don't like Tom because he is biased, but everyone is to some extent. I personally find Tom to be biased in much the same ways I am.... and he likes Asus like I do. Abit makes sweet boards, but thier QA sucks because they have seem to have a higher RMA rate.

 

[hans007]

i've got the ga7zm, its a great board, real stable, the bus speed o/c works up to 117. But no voltage, and its microatx, so if youarent gonna o/c its real good

 

[springdale]

I agree with Zeeliv.
If you are waiting, wait for the new chipsets form VIA etc.

 

[LXi]

andylawcc: Andy, if price is a concern, get K7T Pro2! Yes, w/ multiplier adjustments.

 

[blammo22]

I have an A7V, and it is (finally!) working well for me. But, getting it running stable was quite an adventure - I had way more problems than with the Trinity 400 in my other machine. Then again, I have a pretty early revision (earlier than 1.01p), so maybe that's one of the reasons I had so many problems.

In retrospect, I think right now I'd recommend a Abit K7T (non-RAID) with a Promise Ultra100 PCI card separate (if you want an extra ATA100 controller). From what I've read, the Abit is as stable/overclockable (if not more so) than the A7V, and overclocking can be done easily from the BIOS. For my A7V, if I want to OC above 800MHz, I have to go to jumper-mode... As for the KT7-RAID, I've had bad experiences with Highpoint controllers (BP6), and the RAID isn't that great (aside from synthetic benchmarks) from what I hear. Promise controllers work well for me, althogh bootup can be a little slow (I have an Ultra66 PCI card, and the Ultra100 is built into the A7V).

Just my two cents...