I'm trying out the AK31A and the 8K3A.....your advice wanted

[Shooters]

Okay, so I'm trying out both a Shuttle AK31A and an Epox 8K3A with my new 1600+ AGOIA "Y" chip. The Shuttle likes to randomly reboot at around 140MHz FSB and 12.5x multiplier. I'm guessing it could be a power supply thing eventhough I'm running a 350w Enermax. I just started testing the Epox at 140MHz FSB and it seems to be okay so far. However, the 5v rail is quite low (about 4.76 under full load). If the Epox holds up and doesn't error, then I'm probably going to keep it, but should I be worried about the low 5v rail? I've read some posts about how Epox + Enermax often means bad news. What do you guys think?

Just for the record, I could really don't care about the fact that one board is KT266A and the other is KT333. I'm only trying the 8K3A right now because my local Fry's didn't have the 8KHA+. I only have PC2100 RAM, so I don't plan on running the RAM that fast. The only reason I'm running above 133MHz now is because the multiplier on both boards is maxed out and I just want to see how much higher I can push this chip.

Update
Okay, the Epox just failed Prime95 at 140MHz FSB, but I just got a halt error instead of a reboot which is what the Shuttle likes to do. I'm trying 139MHz right now.

Update again
The Epox just rebooted itself at 139MHz FSB running Prime95. I guess my power supply isn't up to par since I've gotten random reboots now on 2 different boards.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

I originally had an AK31A rev3. It was a great board other than the fact that the northbridge fan should be replaced pretty much at purchase (almost always fails). Mine couldn't really overclock past 140Mhz stably. Other than that it was a VERY fast board for the $68 I paid for it. I ended up troubleshooting a bad NIC incorrectly and replaced the mobo with an 8KHA+. It overclocks a good deal better (most EPOX boards are great overclockers) but it's still limited due to the lack of 1/5 PCI divider. The 8K3A should be a good overclocking board if your memory can handle it. Running memory asyncronously isn't my favorite thing to do, but it's still very fast.

 

[Shooters]

When you say that Epox boards overclock a good deal better are you referring to the FSB or just overclocking in general? The reason I ask is because having a high FSB isn't that important to me. In fact, when I overclock, I just like to raise the multiplier and try to keep the FSB as close to 133MHz as possible. If both boards top out at about the same speed, which appears to be the case, then I'll just keep the Shuttle since it is $30 cheaper.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

Well, overclocking with just the multiplier is more dependant on the chip than the mobo. Even lower end boards usually have enough voltage adjustments to supply an overclocked Athlon. The AK31 is an inexpensive board with plenty of overclocking options so if you're using multiplier only, you should have an equal amount of success with both boards...

 

[Shooters]

Thanks for the advice; I'm going to keep the Shuttle.