if you owned an asus a7v133...

[broadwayblue]

and were going to build a new computer in the next month or two, what motherboard would you build your next system on? i have had my a7v133 for 8 months now and although it is the only mb i have ever bought i couldn't be happier with it. 8 months of 24/7 use and 1 crash! so, i officially love asus. what should i get for my next pc? is there a new mb coming out soon that i should wait for or is the next generation not worth waiting for? as always, thanks for all your help!

 

[AkumaBao]

I just bought a Iwill XP333. Haven't heard a single issue about it yet. (Except that it doesn't use a KT266 chipset :disgust: ) Can't tell you about it, becuase I haven't got it yet, but you can see the specs here. I myself, would pick an Iwill over an ASUS anyday. I'm using an ASUS right now, and I don't like it at all! I shouldn't have taken the Iwill out at all. :disgust:

 

[chizow]

That's an excellent board, I upgraded from it myself, but as always, there's something faster and better out now. Sounds like you are a big Asus fan; lemme ask you this: did you use all the extra features of the A7V133 like RAID, CNR, AGP Pro, integrated sound? If so, you may want to consider the A7V266-E, which features everything the A7V133 had, but has the faster KT266A DDR chipset and 6 channel on-board sound. Don't forget, you'll need DDR PC2100 RAM now, so you'll probably want to hop-in on the Best Buy Crucial Memory sale ($35-10MIR=1/2 market price). I wouldn't recommend the Iwill XP333, its a brand new board with few reviews and its chipset maker (ALi) isn't exactly the best name in the business. Don't be a guinea pig for that board, let people like AkumaBao do the leg work

Chiz

 

[sohcrates]

All the systems i've built have been based on Asus mobo's..including my latest (a7v133)

BUT, i have to admit that i'm blown away by their A7V266's

I'd probably go with an Epox 8kha+ for my next upgrade.

hate to do it, but it's just my $.02

 

[FlipSide]

I am very happy with my A7V133. If I were to upgrade, my next mobo is a toss up between the A7V266-E and Soyo Dragon+. Never really gave it much thought lately as funding for a new rig is still questionable. When I have the funds then I will really get into thinking which one

 

[microAmp]

Like you I love my A7V1333 With W2K on it been extremely stable, no o/c. I will more than likely go with an ASUS mobo again, the new one at that A7V266-E just going to wait for the price to drop a bit and the revisions to go up. Don't think I'll be upgrading anytime soon, I say that now but next month..... never know

 

[chizow]

I'd also consider the Abit KR7A-Raid if you are looking in that group of boards. I'm on an 8KHA+ and don't need the extra features (RAID, onboard sound) but if I needed on-board RAID I'd probably go with this board...heard nothing but good things about it.

Chiz

 

[broadwayblue]

thanks for the replies. i'm not ruling out another brand but i've had success with asus so they are at the top of my list. actually my a7v133 didn't come with onboard sound and i never used the raid feature or the agp pro, so i guess i went with more mb than i needed. but it has performed flawlessly so it was probably worth it. stability is the most critical feature for me as i havn't really gotten too involved with overclocking. do these new boards have usb 2.0 support? i just ordered a stick of the $25 pc2100 ram from best buy and my $50 sx830 is on the way from outpost. now i'm thinking about getting one of those dirt cheap maxtor 7200rpm drives too. i was telling myself i wasn't going to build a new pc until spring but i don't know if i will be able to hold out....i really want to try out my new $40 copy of win xp pro. i still may wait...unless i find a sick deal on a video card.

also, is there much difference in performance between pc2100 and pc2400 ddr ram?

 

[chizow]

<< thanks for the replies. i'm not ruling out another brand but i've had success with asus so they are at the top of my list. actually my a7v133 didn't come with onboard sound and i never used the raid feature or the agp pro, so i guess i went with more mb than i needed. but it has performed flawlessly so it was probably worth it. stability is the most critical feature for me as i havn't really gotten too involved with overclocking. do these new boards have usb 2.0 support? i just ordered a stick of the $25 pc2100 ram from best buy and my $50 sx830 is on the way from outpost. now i'm thinking about getting one of those dirt cheap maxtor 7200rpm drives too. i was telling myself i wasn't going to build a new pc until spring but i don't know if i will be able to hold out....i really want to try out my new $40 copy of win xp pro. i still may wait...unless i find a sick deal on a video card.

also, is there much difference in performance between pc2100 and pc2400 ddr ram? >>



A bunch of points here:

The MSI K7T Pro 266-RU is the only KT266A board that supports USB 2.0 (haven't double-checked since the latest board releases but I'm pretty sure this is still the case). Seems like a good board and stable if you don't OC. Has the same problem stories from any other board.

The Maxtor D740X ATA133 7200rpms are awesome drives, can't say enough about 'em. I also picked one up when I got my 8KHA+. Its raging fast and is really quiet (compared to my Quantum Fireball LM). Very high drive scores under Sandra (~25k) under ATA100. One thing you might want to consider here is that the Abit and Asus (not 100% sure if this is all of em) have onboard highpoint RAID controllers that support ATA133. Not sure if you'll notice any real-world difference b/c the majority of apps access the HD in bursts, but the onboard RAID controller can function as non-RAID IDE controller as well.

PC2400 RAM is usually just hand-picked micron chips that are tested for OCing. Just go with Crucial, its the same stuff and generally performs just as well without the price premium.

You may want to look at other boards without all the extra features, b/c the premium on the features you may not use are definitely noticeable. All the KT266A boards seem to have matured a good bit, so a little research here and there should help you make your decision.

Have fun!

Chiz

 

[pcmodem]

<< and were going to build a new computer in the next month or two, what motherboard would you build your next system on >>



Yo,
Running a Tbird 1.133 Ghz o'clocked to 1.233 Ghz on an A7V133 put together last February. Like you, am considering a new system, although the present system is fast enough for everything, even RTCWolfenstein.

The Asus A7V266-E looks nice, but is overpriced. That Soyo Dragon offers a lot. I'm not convinced of the Abit KT266A's stability yet, which is a bummer as their board would fit the new gigantic Alpha 8045 cooler. Not sure if the others can.

An alternative worth considering is waiting for the 760MPX boards to show up. The first pic of MSI's has surfaced, although it won't be very overclockable due to the transistors being placed too close to the CPU sockets -- you're not going to be able to fit much of a heatsink on either CPU. Let's see some benchmark comparisons of the 760MPX to the KT266A, not to mention stability testing, as games often do not run as stable on dual processor platforms.
-PCM

 

[Wind]

Just in case u guys didn't know...the A7V133 support XP CPU. Just upgrade the CPU & u'll feel the difference. If u use XP CPU on this mobo, O/Cing is limited as it is stable only to jumper mode. The A7V133 had the limitations in the vcore controller chip tht forbid jumperless mode to run stable.

Version 1.05 & above fully support. Ver 1.04 success had been mixed.

 

[DragonFire]

I'll say that mine just sucks.......

Well I mean everything was great at first but then my PS/2 socket went dead while I was in the middle of a Quake2 CTF game! and it hasnt worked since. Then I ordered some PC150 ram (3 sticks x 256megs) and found that one stick would pervent my computer from booting up by itself, the only way it would work is if I had all 3 sticks in. Iv now learned that this same stick runs just find by its self in a Abit KT7E board.

Also, even when I disable the raid controller and take out all but my hd and NIC, my Abit board running a Duron 900 loads Windows XP Pro faster then my A7V133 with a TB 1.4GHz.......My memory scores are higher on the Abit board by at least 40megs/sec over my Asus board......


May my Soyo Dragon Plus get here soon!!