I will buy new DDR mobo this week. what's the best?

[Planktune]

Just sold my primary system, so time to build a new one.
Anyone have good or bad experiences with these DDR boards

 

[broadwayblue]

this won't help you (unless you decide to wait) but i am putting together a system and am awaiting the release of the asus a7v266 later this month.

asus a7v266

as you can see in the pic this board supports both pc100/133 and pc1600/2100 ram along with the new "C" 266 fsb athlons.

 

[Planktune]

I like asus for giving you the choice to assign IRQ's in bios. but I need to get anew system this week. The DDR chipsets are far from settled so I think even waiting a year may not give you the optimun platform. so far the IWill board is most prominent

 

[raaboso]

Check out the Asus A7M266. It's hard to find but it is a super nice mobo, very stable.

 

[Judgement]

I would honestly stay away from the Asus A7M266 if you want to overclock at all...apparently there is no way to change the multiplier at all.

 

[Mr.Mike]

Check This out, Don't know how goo it is but it's from MSI
http://www.msicomputer.com/products/detail.asp?ProductID=164
And is selling and in stock here for $134.00
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=22&manufactory=1312

 

[Planktune]

I was hoping for a Athlon board.
No multiplier on the Asus is bad news.
What chipset is most favorable?

 

[rosarian007]

YEAH! The new ALI Athlon chipset looks promising but I'm still hesitant on getting it because of past ALI chipsets. I need to build a performance Athlon Thunderbird System with 256MB of PC133 (DDR2100) DDR memory, but I'm having trouble deciding on which chipset I should go for. ALI, AMD or VIA??

 

[Planktune]

I guess its smart to wait but I need to order now.
looks like the Iwill KA 266 R with the ali chipset is the best right now.

 

[Judgement]

The Iwill has bad reviews compared to the Asus DDR board. Then again the Asus has its multipliers locked. I've also heard that the Iwill, with a newer bios is doing much much better..but I who really knows.

If your going to be getting a new 266mhz FSB athlon at 1-1.2ghz I think I would go with the Asus simply because it will already have the multiplier lowered some at default to allow you to get the FSB higher.

I'm still hoping new bios's will fixing the Iwill, simply because its a much cheaper board and has multiplier manipulation. The Asus board looks to set you back at least $200 right now.

 

[Planktune]

I read the Iwill rev 1.3 is great. I am looking to avoid the kt133a chipset, also the amd seems limited. Hell the whole DDR thing is really not quite there yet. If I'm going to buy ram might as well get the DDR, so just jump in.

 

[Judgement]

I wish I could find a decent review of the KA266 (Iwill) and a comparison of it against the Asus A7M266 as of right now. All the ones I've seen are of a beta version of the Iwill board, and it was blown away by the A7M266

 

[Planktune]

I have not seen any comparision of these two boards just sepaerate reviews.
could you point me to one?

 

[Judgement]

I've yet to see a head to head comparison either

 

[IntelConvert]

Right now, MSI's K7Master (MS-6341) looks like the best AMD760 DDR board. TomsHardware reported that it's very stable. An OEM on Tom's MB-forum ("Stable&quot agrees with Tom and also says that ASUS' A7M266 is anything but stable!

Some new DDR boards based on VIA's fast KT266 ("V-link&quot chipset are due out within the next few weeks, so you may want to wait and see...

 

[Geocross]

Almost all reviews of the Ka-266 board were of revisions 1.1 & 1.2, which are not the retail board which is sold in stores right now. The 1.3 outperforms the AMD760 board currently and the likelyhood of this board getting even better thru further bios' is very high. If you HAD to buy a board today, I would highly reccomend the Iwill.

 

[IntelConvert]

Geocross... Where did you read that "The 1.3 outperforms the AMD760 board currently" ...can you provide any links???

 

[Judgement]

I'm interested in links for the 1.3 also.

 

[Planktune]

thats the board that sells at newegg. They specify 1.3 rev on the site

 

[GourmetPC]

I will be purchasing the FIC AD11. It is priced decently and according to the anandtech review it is very stable and performed beautifully.

 

[Xerin]

The FIC AD11 does seem to be a stable board. However it also seems to be slower than the competition, according to this review. Also you get limited FSB choices ((100, 103, 105, 110, 113, 117, 133, 138, 140, 144, and 150MHz).

 

[Judgement]

I'm still wanting to know how the newest revision of the Iwill stacks up against the Asus A7M266

 

[Planktune]

asus has no multiplier ajustments.
this kills what would have been a no brainer for the A7M266.
I will go for the Iwill KA266R

 

[Planktune]

ordered the Iwill KA266 R from newegg.com $170 and winfast geforce2 GTS w/ 32megs of 5.5ns ddr $164 and free shipping.
Now if crucial would only stock some more 2100 ram... I should of bought last week...snooze you loose.

 

[Gorin]

Just got my ka266 from axiontech. rev 1.3 also. No ram yet so I can't tell you how good the board is.