Is there a consensus on the best Athelon motherboard and between DDR or SDRAM?

[Moonbeam]

It's hard to keep up but I thought maybe the Iwill kk266 an sdram board. Mot looking to start anything, just get opinions on what weems the consensus. Thanks, looking to upgrade my celeron 300a.

 

[Insane3D]

For SDRAM, Iwill KK266/KK266-R. For DDR, Epox 8K7A/8K7A+...

 

[Bozo Galora]

i would agree on the iwill for sdram but lean towards the gigabyte GA7DXR for ddr

here

 

[yaethom]

I personally would go for DDR.

It's true that SDRAM is dirt cheap, but DDR really isn't too far away.
But you have to draw the line somewhere, before you start buying flame decals and fog lights for your pc.

😀

 

[damocles]

Between DDR and SDRam i think DDR is a clear winner, unless you have a stockpile of SDRam or want to use and ungodly amount of it (ie need 4 dimm slots etc)

I don't think there is a clear consensus on the best DDR motherboard at all

 

[PC Freak]

Another vote for Epox

 

[RedShirt]

Everyone likes Epox because of the Price... However, it has 2 stage power... Which doesn't seem like a bad deal YET... But if you plan on keeping your board for a very long time...

With a 2 GHz chip, the Epox may overheat and expode into a million pieces. Maybe not that bad, but there may be some issues.

Just pure speculation on my part, but the MSI and Gigabyte ones have 3 stage power, making the board run cooler.

 

[Grendel99]

Just curious, but how many ppl actually keep there motherboard for "a very long time"?

 

[jaybert]

iwill ka266-r rocks. 3 ddr dimm slots. 🙂

 

[chainbolt]

🙂The currently overall best DDR solution for Athlon & Co. is the 7DXR
in terms of performance, features and design. The 7DXR has

- a 3 way power supply (the 8K7A has only a 2-way power supply and is running MUCH hotter)
- a 4-channel CL chip (the 8K7A has only the VIA integrated solution)
- an AGP pro socket with an additional power socket (8K7A nothing)
- DIMM sockets (8k7A only 3)
- 5 fans headers (8K7A only 4)
- Promise Raid controller (the 8K7A has a High Point, that's a matter of taste, but most people prefer a Promise controller)
- high quality impression with blue PCB, golden HS

The 7DXR went slightly higher in both FSB and CPU frequency in our review. That board is now in such a high demand in some countries that some vendors in UK have hundreds of back orders. Unfortunately this board is rather expensive.

The 7DXR and the 8K7A are based on the same chispet the AMD 760. The performance is identical. The 7DXR looks expensive and is expensive, and the 8k7A looks cheap and is cheap. In "actual" life I would say, the 8K7A is as good as the 7DXR, because it's cheaper and obviously you easily get the baord.

 

[Moonbeam]

How about near future boards. I think Nvidia has a chipset comming that's supposed to be hot. How far away and how worth waiting for?

 

[kmmatney]

Another vote for Epox AMD 760 board. One advantage is that it will be compatible with the Athlon 4.

 

[chainbolt]

<< Another vote for Epox AMD 760 board. One advantage is that it will be compatible with the Athlon 4. >>



that's barely an advantage for a just released baord. Gigabyte was the first company to publish a list with Palamino compatible baords back in May. Of course the 7DXR is on this list. Do you know of any official statement from Epox regarding the Palamino/Athlon 4 compatibility of the 8K7A? 🙂

 

[StarRover]

I like my MSI K7 Master.It is already for the Palimino.I change motherboards every 3 months and cpu's.The other rcomponents change only slightly if at all.

 

[jockdisvdude]

If I had the money I'd buy the 7DXR but I dont have 170 dollars, It is also harder to find. They used to have some at newegg but it sold out. Instead I ordered the EpoX 8K7A from newegg for 120. I think they are both in the same performance range but the gigabyte is better. For 120, I thought the Epox was a good deal so went ahead and got it.