KT266A motherboards to avoid

[Mooncalf]

This isn't meant to be another tell me which is best post but rather for people to compile a list of boards that are problematic that they have either direct contact with or through word of mouth.

Some of the most hyped boards on first impressions for previous chipsets turned out to be less than originally thought (KT7A, K7T266Pro2A, etc) so do you have any experiences with a KT266A board that has been more trouble than it is worth?

Obviously no one board is perfect but are there any that you feel would be best to avoid altogether?

 

[themadmonk]

Never heard of any current KT266A motherboards that turned less than the hype that surrounded them.

 

[EtOH]

I had nothing but problems with the MSI K7T266 PRO2. I think I got a bad board but none the less it was a headache.

Problems:
IDE Chain unable to successfully use 2 drives on the secondary chain. The drive setup worked fine on the KT7A.
Bios Flash. Flash went fine, said sucessful, said reboot, then after reboot nothing but beeping.

Just my experiences with this board, I am sure alot of people have had great luck with the MSIs. The Asus that replaced it rocks though

EtOH

 

[mboy]

Hey Mooncalf (one of my favorite Traders I have the 8KHA+. Aside from the soft boot problem over 145 FSB and some occasional lockups (at high FSB that may be attributed to my 330W Eneramx) I like this board a lot. VERY fast. Hope my soon to be arriving (today or tomorrow) Antec 400W will solve that.

 

[Doomguy]

mboy: Let me know if that antec helps. I'm getting a 400w Leadman to replace my 350w enermax because of the low +5 readings.

 

[AkumaBao]

Don't care for my ASUS A7V266 at all. You're right, just surrounded by hype. I didn't see a performance increase from an Ali Magik 1! That's sad! It's more trouble for me, than the extra $50 was worth!

 

[NelsonMuntz]

I put a PC together recently based on the Shuttle AK31A and it was a very simple procedure. It didn't have all the bells and whistles of some of the other mobos I have worked with in the past (only one IDE ribbon cable and no extra USB risers), but it was very solid and performed well. For the price it is really tough to beat. The KT266A chipset is just a variation of the KT266, so it is very mature and doesn't have a lot of bugs associated with a brand new chipset.

 

[chizow]

<< Don't care for my ASUS A7V266 at all. You're right, just surrounded by hype. I didn't see a performance increase from an Ali Magik 1! That's sad! It's more trouble for me, than the extra $50 was worth! >>



Um yah, that's because the A7V266 is based on the KT266 chipset. The A7V266-E is based on the KT266A northbridge. Yah if you're looking for a KT266A board, you should definitely avoid the A7V266 because its a friggin KT266 board!!!

And yes, both the original KT266 and ALi Magik performed below expectations, but the KT266 performed better than the KT133A in most cases where that was not the case with ALi Magik.

Chiz

 

[tsnyder]

I have to say my shuttle board was a pleasant suprise, I wanted an ASUS but it wasn't available at the time. I doubt it's worth double the money. The performance from the shuttle is fantastic and the board is the most stable of any I've ever owned. Then again 99% of my stability problems came with Win98 and now I'm running WinXP. I would say the only comprimise you get with this board is features, it certainly isn't a comprimise as far as quality is concerned. If you don't care for integrated, Ethernet, RAID and good sound than it's really the best board to buy.

 

[anime]

avoid MSI board in my case--Never had any luck with them going from intel mobo to amd mobo...
always something wrong with the board.