KT133A vs SiS 735 for a Duron 1GHz

[Acts837]

A friend just gave me an awesome deal on a Duron 1 GHz and I already have a 256mb stick of Crucial so I'm on the hunt for a Socket A board.

I've been looking at the MSI K7T Turbo2 (KT133A) and the ECS K7S5A (SiS 735). Both are the same price and I can't see spending any money on the DDR memory. I don't plain to o/c as this box will just sit and serve files. Stability is what I'm after. Any thoughts?

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Update 12-7 Last night I went to the local computer show. Couldn't find a single Biostar M7VIG or MSI K7T Turbo2 board so I got the ECS K7S5A.
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[CraigRT]

I'd grab the Turbo2 if you don't plan on getting DDR and want a stable, fast solution.
I think the 133A will be faster than the 735 when both are paired with SDRAM.

 

[Peter]

No, 735 is faster overall. That's simply because KT133A still used the stoneage chipset architecture that connects the north and south bridge parts over the main 133 MB/s PCI bus. SiS 735 has north and south integrated into one chip, with a 1 GB/s link. Therefore, PCI and southbridge traffic (IDE, USB, sound, modem) don't get in each other's way. SiS 735 RAM controller isn't exactly slow either.

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: Peter
No, 735 is faster overall. That's simply because KT133A still used the stoneage chipset architecture that connects the north and south bridge parts over the main 133 MB/s PCI bus. SiS 735 has north and south integrated into one chip, with a 1 GB/s link. Therefore, PCI and southbridge traffic (IDE, USB, sound, modem) don't get in each other's way. SiS 735 RAM controller isn't exactly slow either.

I'm still not sure that just because it's all in one chip that it's faster. a VIA KT266A is faster than SiS 735 and that's even running DDR.
the KT133A is a fast chipset for SDR based rigs too.. no slouch.
I bet on a head to head bench they are not far off each other.

 

[sadb0i]

The ECS board you have has been known to be a PITA.
just some of the thing you MIGHT run into:

-dead Power Supplies: board is picky about the PS used
-memory: picky about ram it takes...will get some initialization error message after a cold boot...i had to go to cheapo sdram to get it to fix this problem
-if you want to go with a tbird later on. problems running tbird cpus @133 FSB...i've seen this personally...had to get the overclocking bios to run at 124 fsb
-running memtest will give you lots of errors. havent actually done this or seen this..but heard plenty about it.

thats the main things i think that people complain about.

If you guys wanna add anything..please do. inform this user of the ecs k7s5a

I say go for the MSI board if you are sticking to sdram and the duron for awhile.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I built a couple of workstations for a client based on the K7S5A almost a year and a half ago and they both run 8+hrs a day in a business enviroment 6 days a week trouble free so I can recommend it for stability and reliability as the only service I've provided for them is upgrading both to XP Pro. The performance of the SiS735 is solid as Peter pointed out and the ability to upgrade should you choose to a little down the road is obviously far superior allowing for use of all XP CPUs through at least the 2600+ and DDR2100.

 

[Toonces311]

Get the ECS K7S5A. It became the best selling socketA mobo for a reason. Great value, Great performance, Easy upgrade path. I have deployed many systems with this board and even used one in my main rig for a while. I couldn't beleive I was using an ECS board and loving it.

I have used it with SDR and DDR. With SDR it was faster than my Asus A7V133 (KT133a chipset). I personaly believe that this is because of the MuTOIL techlogy that is used in the chipset. Like Peter said it can use up to 1.2GB/s to communicate with PCI bus unlike the the VIA.

 

[Acts837]

Thanks for the feedback.
I'm really after stability since this will just be a linux box. Don't see going to DDR for this rig.
That being said...wouldn't the MSI be a better solution?

 

[MithShrike]

Aye, mate go with the MSI, my friend decided he was going to build himself a system but the K7S5A he chose died on him. I would go with and ECS K7VMM though, it is supposed to use the KT266A memory controller and it has support for PC133 or PC2100. It DOES have everything integrated but also has 3 PCI slots and an AGP slot for graphics. Yeah, if your just and average user I'd go with the K7VMM.

 

[mechBgon]

At the time it was released, the SiS735 platform was hands-down the fastest AMD platform available. Look here for how it stacks up to KT133A, the original KT266, KT266A, and AMD 760. Granted, those numbers are with DDR memory. You can see how it does against KT133A using both DDR and SDR memory here. Hope that helps with the performance question.

 

[Acts837]

Thanks for the links. I've read that MSI is a better motherboard manufacturer than ECS so I'm pretty much gonna go with the MSI K7T Turbo2.

 

[IFICUDIWUD]

Sounds like you had your mind made up befor u asked the ????.. Personally, You dont have enough money to buy my k7s5a.. Its been running w/ myxp1600 for over a year almost 24/7s and not a hiccup.. But suit yourself.. IMHO you will be missing out on a great board.. Do your self a favor and research the k7s5a at least as much as you did the other mobo b4 you decide.. You owe it to yourself.. Happy Trails..........

 

[Acts837]

I'll admit that I went into this leaning towards the MSI board. However, I was hoping some savy AMD lovers would help me choose the best route. From todays posts, and reviews of prior posts, I see that the field is split on these two boards and I will in the end go with the more reputable company.

 

[CraigRT]

Heh, to do a wrap up, I started out hating K7S5A because it was SUCH a pain for me to get that board running properly the first time I used it.

the guy who owns that computer i originally setup, asked me why his computer powered off and wouldn't come back on the other night, i told him to grab a different PSU to test, didn't work.. after a while of troubleshooting turns out to be the board, and the PSU is still good as he is now using his old parts again in his system with the same PSU. the board just upped and failed.. heh.. I guess the crappy ECS boards have a life expectancy and it's not incredibly long. cannot be measured in years, but mere months.

this doesn't happen to everyone, but it doesn't help me like that board any more than i already did.
meanwhile, my K7T Turbo Limited Edition is running perfect (really is) it even feels comparatively fast to my KT266A rig, it's really a great board. wel over a year now, about 15 months it's been running non-stop.
I really love that MSI board.

People have had problems with K7T's in the past, but the Turbo Limited Editions are exempt almost from those capacitor problems and they seem to last just like they should. excellent mobo!

 

[Acts837]

what is the difference between the "Turbo Limited Edition" and the "Turbo2"?

Does the Turbo2, MSI's latest KT133A board, have the capacitor issue?

 

[Acts837]

What about the Biostar M7VIG ?

 

[dannybin1742]

k7s5a is da bomb

got mine running my entertainment center

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: Acts837
what is the difference between the "Turbo Limited Edition" and the "Turbo2"?

Does the Turbo2, MSI's latest KT133A board, have the capacitor issue?

Not that i am aware of, the difference i am not too sure.
the early K7T's were affected with a life-threatening bad capacitor issue, but on the LE's (limited edition) it was sorted out.
the Turbo2's came after those, so i bet they are just fine.

 

[GR8Madmax]

I just got a MSI K7T Turbo2 v5 (supports xp 2600+) for $56 (brand new retail) for my new project (upgrading brother's old PC). I liked
what I saw from MSI in regards to support for the board, overall performance, SDRAM/AMD XP combo, etc.

I've seen too much negativity surrounding K7S5A.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: Yield

Originally posted by: Peter
No, 735 is faster overall. That's simply because KT133A still used the stoneage chipset architecture that connects the north and south bridge parts over the main 133 MB/s PCI bus. SiS 735 has north and south integrated into one chip, with a 1 GB/s link. Therefore, PCI and southbridge traffic (IDE, USB, sound, modem) don't get in each other's way. SiS 735 RAM controller isn't exactly slow either.

I'm still not sure that just because it's all in one chip that it's faster. a VIA KT266A is faster than SiS 735 and that's even running DDR.
the KT133A is a fast chipset for SDR based rigs too.. no slouch.
I bet on a head to head bench they are not far off each other.

Now let's altogether guess why VIA uses a faster, non-PCI chipset interconnect on these later chipsets too ... and remember, if you look at the benchmarks from when K7S5A came out one and a half years ago: Back then, SiS 735 was fresh out, BIOSes and drivers were not much optimized, while KT133A's were. By now, the gap has increased.

As for stability ... you'll be perfectly fine with K7S5A (or any other board for that matter) if the stuff around it is OK. With an insufficient power supply or RAM that doesn't live up to its specs, you'll see symptoms. Only those differ from board to board. E.g. with bad PSUs, K7S5A tends to act up straight away, while other boards hang on to it until the PSU goes up in smoke. Happens all the time, guess which results in more damage.

 

[Acts837]

Should have stuck to my guns and stayed away from the ECS.
Got it working, don't know what was wrong but it works now.

 

[Regalk]

Even though gys like Peter generally gives pretty solid advice I will always differ from him, Buzzb and others. The ECS k75SA should never been allowed to get this far - an apology for a MB. As I said in the past anyone buying ECSpurely on $$ basis should not be in this game.
Never ceases to amaze me why people even think of MSI and ECS in the same breath - completely baffling. Money perhaps and as the saying goes you pay for what you get.
Now why did I stop by.:disgust:

 

[Peter]

That's what I keep asking myself too ... particularly because the outcome of the thread contradicts you even before you started ...