Help picking out a new Socket A board.

Truxman

Member
May 15, 2001
68
0
0
OK. I am in the market for a Socket A board and would like some help and info on what I should look for. Here is what I have for the rest of the parts:

AMD T-Bird 1gig AXIA chip (I won this at the Team AMD Tech Tour about 3 weeks ago now)
512MB PC133 that I can steal from my other system. This is Micron Brand.
2X 15.3 Gig IDE ATA/66 7200RPM WD Drives.
8X4X32 CDRW Philips brand.
TNT2 M64 32MB AGP video (Will upgrade to Geforce2 Pro 64MB DDR soon.)
SB Live not 5.1
Intel DSL Modem card.
3Com 3C905B Nic



I am looking for a stable, high preformance board. I am willing to change to DDR if the system is stable, and the preformance increase is worth the couple extra dollars. Raid is not required, and overclocking is not top priority either. The one thing I don't want is to buy a board now and then wish I had bought something else in a couple weeks.

I have been looking at some MSI, ASUS, and EPOX DDR boards. Please recommend brand and models, chipsets or even review web sites where I can get more info too.

The last thing is which stores or online sites do you recommend to buy from?

Thanks,

Truxman
 

Boonesmi

Lifer
Feb 19, 2001
14,448
1
81
there are some excellent pc133 boards out right now
expo 8kta3 $90
asus a7v133 $115
iwill kk266 $110

if you do want to switch to ddr some of the best are
asus a7m266 (hard to find)
epox 8k7a $140
gigabyte 7dx $140

www.newegg.com
www.mwave.com

prices are from memory and could be off a few dollars

 

Boonesmi

Lifer
Feb 19, 2001
14,448
1
81
most of those boards have onboard sound that is pretty good

the reason i mention it is the kt133a boards sometimes have problems with sblive sound cards (for that matter any board can have probs with that card :) )


another thing i noticed is you have 2 hard drives, if you want to run them in a raid the asus a7v133 has onboard raid as do some of the other boards listed have above
iwill kk266r
epox 8k7a+ and 8kta3+
d7xr
 

pay

Golden Member
Jan 28, 2001
1,401
0
71
I wouldnt recommend the KK266 for a good RAID setup. And i dont think any of the DDR boards has 4 IDE's for RAID? Correct me if im wrong.
 

Coligeon

Senior member
Jun 18, 2001
246
0
0
Well chipset wise, if you are worried about that, I'd wait till July, becasue all the new KT266 motherboards will be out, hopefully anyway, and I think Nforce might launch and Sis also. not sure on Nforce and Sis though, but the new K266 motherboards should be coming out. Might be a good idea to hold off. Newegg.com is a great source for purchasing and Mwave.com is great too, have bought from both. Have fun ^_^.
 

AppleTalking

Golden Member
Dec 15, 2000
1,316
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Here's the key question: do you need this computer now, or are you willing to wait a month or two?

If you need the computer now, then I recommend the Epox 8K7A or the 8K7A+ depending on whether you need RAID or not. It's very stable and has good performance (the AMD 760 is the best DDR Socket A chipset out there now). On average, it will perform about 5-15% higher than the KT133A based boards for only about $30 more.

If you don't need the computer now, wait a couple months. The nVidia nForce chipset looks very promising performance-wise, although it will probably be a bit expensive. The SiS 735 also looks like a good performer at a decent price, but without all the bells and whistles of the nForce. And then there's the Via KT266, which, well, no one knows how well it will do. The first launch was awfully disappointing, but it's supposed to have been improved. Personally, I won't believe it until I see it.

Anticipate a September or October launch date for motherboards based on the nForce or the SiS 735, and July or August for KT266 chipsets.

First rule of thumb when buying computer stuff: buy what you need when you need it. There's always something looming right around the corner.

Nick
 

Coligeon

Senior member
Jun 18, 2001
246
0
0


<< Here's the key question: do you need this computer now, or are you willing to wait a month or two?

If you need the computer now, then I recommend the Epox 8K7A or the 8K7A+ depending on whether you need RAID or not. It's very stable and has good performance (the AMD 760 is the best DDR Socket A chipset out there now). On average, it will perform about 5-15% higher than the KT133A based boards for only about $30 more.

If you don't need the computer now, wait a couple months. The nVidia nForce chipset looks very promising performance-wise, although it will probably be a bit expensive. The SiS 735 also looks like a good performer at a decent price, but without all the bells and whistles of the nForce. And then there's the Via KT266, which, well, no one knows how well it will do. The first launch was awfully disappointing, but it's supposed to have been improved. Personally, I won't believe it until I see it.

Anticipate a September or October launch date for motherboards based on the nForce or the SiS 735, and July or August for KT266 chipsets.

First rule of thumb when buying computer stuff: buy what you need when you need it. There's always something looming right around the corner.

Nick
>>


Hmm...Well two motherboard did pretty well on the KT266 chip that I know of, the Ak31 did well over at Clubocnet I think the link was, and the Msi K7T266 did good at Hothardware.com and Hardocp. BTW, anyone know when the new revision of the K7T266 is due out, I would like to get that motherboard, thanks.