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If you were buying a KT133A board today which would you get?

N

Noriaki

Lifer
Lets not have any arguments over which is better, personal insults, stupid flame wars, or fights of any other kind. All the boards have good points and bad points.

You personally, which one would you buy?

Asus A7V133
ABit KT133A
EPoX EP-8KTA3
Gigabyte 7ZXR 2.1
MSi K7T-Turbo

are the main ones I'm seeing floating around so far....
of course this isn't a complete list..

Hmmm should have made it a Poll...oh well those things are annoying as hell anyways....and we can all type.
 
Personally, I would buy the A7V. I have used nothing but Asus boards for the past 8 years or so . . . and find them very reliable and I know my way around them. They are to me somewhat akin to Chevy trucks . . . "Like a rock!" 🙂
 
MSI Pro Turbo should be out anyday now. MSI seems to have higher quality components. thats what I've read anyway. I am interested in the PRO master myself
 
Asus A7V133 - just bought it last night.

Unlike the Epox, it has dip switches so you're "guaranteed" to be able to run at the 133MHz FSB. (If you don't care about OC'ing at the 133MHz FSB, Epox is definitely the way to go. Epox has the "feature" that it boots at the default CPU multiplier when it initially tries to run at the 133 MHz FSB. So, for example, if you get a T-Bird 900 and you want to overclock, if your chip won't post at all at 1197 (9 * 133), there is no way you can get it to run at 133 MHz FSB unless you start cutting and connecting bridges.)
 
Not only would I, I did buy a Asus K7V133 yesterday... Seems to work really well... I would not suggest the Abit KT7a....
 
EPOX!

i have the epox and im very happy 🙂

i also have a msi kt7pro2a and its a good board but the epox has more nice features and it is rock solid.

abit has good reviews but look on the abit newsgroup and you find many people with problems.

EPOX or the ABIT KT7A without the HPT controller (since my abit BE6 i dont like onboard raid or HPT controller anymore 🙂
 
I spent so long trying to configure and make a K7T-Raid stable... The K7Ta is the same board with another chipset...

I went through 3 Abit K7T-Raid boards, and I tried litterally everything... I went through install guide after install guide, and I couldn't get this board stable... IE run my stress test for more than a couple of hours...

My A7V-133 is going quite well so far... I'm not finished tweaking it yet... but at least it is stable.
 
Are there problems with the original KT7-RAID too? Or just the "A"s?

After hearing nothing but good things about it, I ordered a KT7-RAID about 2 weeks ago (maybe a little less). LITERALLY the day after it shipped, the first review for the 133A chip came out... a few days later there were tons of reviews (good ones, at that) for the KT7A board. I was pissed because I had just ordered my regular KT7. But am I better off with that afterall? Will it be more stable/have less problems than the KT7A?

I have my KT7 here, unopened (don't have my processor or heatsink yet, so i can't use the mobo). Should I keep it?
 
Return it. You don't have to necessarily get a KT7a, but definately get a mobo with the KT133a chipset. It means you can overclock the FSB to at least 133, probably 140+. With the KT133 chipset you're lucky if you get 115.
 
yes, the reviews of the abit kt7a are good.
but ask in the abit newsgroup and you will hear screams of pain and disaster ;-)

i never get my HPT contoller on my abit be6 100% to work, so i dont even think about buying a kt7a RAID.

so if you buy the abit kt7a go for the "non-raid" version (and buy a pci promise controller if you need)

my 5 cents
 
I have an epox 8kta3 on the way 🙂.
I think that the iwill and msi boards are also good options.
I havn't really seen much about the gigabyte though but they seem to make some very stable boards.
 
I should note that I'm not a big hardware guru at all... I've never overclocked ANYTHING, since i'm scared as sh*t to mess with my stuff. 🙂

But I figured with the Softmenu BIOS on the Abit, I could OC a little bit with no problems, and feel safe doing it. The Softmenu was a huge selling point for me, as it's a lot easier for a hardware newbie like me to OC without messing something up. That's why I like the Abit... but now I'm hearing about problems with the KT7A, and maybe even the regular KT7 (which is what I bought).

I should also note that I'm getting a 1.2 GHz T-bird, and that will be up from my PII-400, so I wouldn't need to OC very much and still have a kick-ass computer in my mind. So for me, it's less about overclocking, and more about stability, lack of problems, etc. Why did the Abit get so many awesome reviews across the board? I don't think I saw one single bad review.
 
@waz

i think the "reviewers" have good hardware (memory, hd´s, grafikcards) etc. and they KNOW what they are doing.

most people dont even know that they must install the VIA 4in1 driver 🙂

many "normal" buyers run into issues and have no idea how to fix a unstable system.

a good board should run out of the box with no problems and (as far as i know) thats a little difficult on abit boards. (i had a abit be6, abit bx and for a short time the kt7).

but finally you got a abit board to work it is a fast and stable system like any other board. but it can be tricky.

 
There are quite a few very happy ABIT KT7A owners on this forum, including myself. Before that, I built 6 KT7 non RAIDS, with no trouble out of any of them. Just look around the forum and you will see for yourself that most everyone that has received their KT7A is pleased with it.

As far as the Highpoint onboard RAID controller on the KT7A goes, I used the latest drivers, and had it up and running in a flash with very good performance. As far as stability, I have been putting this board through the wringer 24/7 running the Prime95 Torture test in the background at 146FSB, and running the Prime95 Torture test with the 3DMark2000 demo looping all night (sometimes longer) and have yet to see a crash or lockup. It rates a nice 8.5 on the Anandtech review, and as you have stated, has not gotten a bad one on any other site.

A short while ago a lot of people on this forum were going on a mass MSI Pro2A frenzy. Now there are legitimate issues popping up on this "wonder board" . I know first hand because I tried one myself.

I think that it is crazy for anyone to suggest that you return a board that you already have before you try it yourself. You could always send it back or exchange it if you do not like it.

The review on the MSI K7T Turbo was a pre-production board, which means it could be as good, better, or not as good as the reviewed board when they are available. (I think next month) The KT7A at this time is one of the few boards that do not have the problem of dropping the multiplier, and raising the FSB "out of the box" like some of the EPOX and others are having.

Bottom line: Do your research, talk with people that ACTUALLY have the EXACT model mobo that you are interested in, and make a choice.
 
Abit KT7A-RAID, especially one of those week 52 and up ones for the high FSB. 😀

I've had good luck with Abit so I'd hope it would continue. That, or the MSI K7T-Turbo, but only if it did a 150FSB.
 
If I had to get one now, I'd be torn between the Abit and the Epox. Stability issues have been all but worked out on my KT7-RAID with the latest 4-in1's and BIOS. This considering I'm using 4 PCI cards, AGP vid card, AND the HPT controller all at once with Win2K. From what I've seen so far, the Abit benchmarks a little faster in games, but the ability to adjust the AGP voltage on the Epox is attractive.
 
Except that it died on me after 2 months of use, my Kt7-Raid was rock solid.
My friend just got a kt7A-raid, he's happy too.
 
MSI K7T Turbo no question 🙂however, i did read a thread in which one guy (or gal, 🙂 ) bought a tbird 1.2ghz on an abit k7ta raid....and it oc'ed to a nice 1.45 ghz by going mulitplier 10.0 and fsb 145 wowie, that's pretty goodso i guess the abit would be another consideration.
 
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