Looking for a new KT333 motherboard.

[daction]

I'm looking for a new motherboard with the KT333 chipset, and I'm leaning towards the Epox, but I've noticed that they have 2 versions of the 8K3A, 8K3A and 8K3AE, and I can't really tell what the difference between the 2 is, does anyone know? Also I'd like to get some opinions on the best bang for buck KT333 motherboard that people like.

 

[Excelsior]

First off, go to www.epox.com.tw for info on the different boards, but IIRC, 8k3a+ has RAID, 6 channel audio..8k3ae is stripped down, then the 8k3a is one step down from the 8k3a+. Either one is good.

Also, check out the Abit KX7-333R, many people love this board, but ive never gotten to try it out.

Both of those boards would do the best for OCIng, but also check out Shuttles boards. They can OC ok, and have been reported to be very stable. Good stuff there. Buy from newegg.com, and hell, even check there for info on the boards themselves. Just select kt333 in the motherboard section and browse them all.

PM me if you have any questions. Good luck!

 

[daction]

Thnx, ya I'm referencing and probably going to buy from Newegg. I'll check out the Shuttle boards, didn't even consider them. Do you know exactly what the 8K3AE is missing from the regular 8K3A? Also does anyone know anything about the Biostar M7VIP, I just need to know if it has good fsb selection in the bios like the other boards, cause it's only $62 at newegg, KILLER deal.

 

[chocobaR]

http://anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1636

The A7V333 and MSI KT3 Ultra seemed to do really well compared to the others. Personnaly I'd go with the A7V333.

 

[Actaeon]

What about an Epox 8K5A2?

Check out the motherboard forum, and look at the topic on top. The offical thread, read the reviews, and decide if you like it or not.

Its the best KT333 board out there... and outperforms most, if not all, KT400 boards.

 

[daction]

Ok I will check out that thread, thanks.

 

[BD231]

I have an MSI KT3 Ultra2 and it ownz, very solid board.

 

[Excelsior]

Actaeon is corret. The 8k5a2 series is very nice. I forgot to mention that I like MSI alright, but ive never dealt with their newer boards. And I doubt anything you need/care for is missing from the 8k3ae, but I do know that newegg has the specs listed for it. Just compare the 2. Quite frankly, I dunno why they released the 8k3ae.

Night

 

[nemo160]

i have an 8k3a+, extremely good board, i'm very happy with it
but if i were buying now i'd probably go with the 8k5a2+, its basically the 8k3a++,
it has an updated southbridge which adds native usb 2.0 support

 

[daction]

Thanks everyone for the advice.

" I have an MSI KT3 Ultra2 and it ownz, very solid board. "
Funny you say that cause I just narrowed down my 2 choices, MSI KT3 Ultra2 or the Epox 8K5A. Now I just have to decide
The MSI I can get from newegg for 82 shipped and it has the realtek onboard 6.1 audio, to get that with the Epox I have to get the Raid + version which I can't really afford, my budget is right around 80 bucks. I found the Epox 8K5A at cnetpc.com for 88 shipped, the raid version is 101 the cheapest I found. So I have to decide if the Epox for 88 without good onboard audio is worth it over the MSI for 82 WITH the audio. Oh btw I have an OLD original SBlive value so I'm eager to try something else.

 

[Markfw]

OK, your budget aside, I have both the A7V333 (raid) and the Abit KX7-333R. The ASUS appears to be a little faster on I/O, and the A-bit seems to be less picky about other things (like installing McaFee on the ASUS required a lot of "tweaking" after the install, before I could boot after installation.) I have no clear winner, except the Abit was only $115, and the ASUS was a lot more, and that was quite a while ago, and not mail-order which is quite often cheaper.

Well, your budget doesn't seem like it will stand either one of these, but they are great, so good luck whatever you do.

Mark the biker.

 

[BD231]

Originally posted by: daction
Thanks everyone for the advice.

" I have an MSI KT3 Ultra2 and it ownz, very solid board. "
Funny you say that cause I just narrowed down my 2 choices, MSI KT3 Ultra2 or the Epox 8K5A. Now I just have to decide
The MSI I can get from newegg for 82 shipped and it has the realtek onboard 6.1 audio, to get that with the Epox I have to get the Raid + version which I can't really afford, my budget is right around 80 bucks. I found the Epox 8K5A at cnetpc.com for 88 shipped, the raid version is 101 the cheapest I found. So I have to decide if the Epox for 88 without good onboard audio is worth it over the MSI for 82 WITH the audio. Oh btw I have an OLD original SBlive value so I'm eager to try something else.

On-Board audio is kind of weak compared to an add-in card, but if all you have is that old SB Live then the On-Board audio should stack up just fine. I'd recomend getting an inexpensive Philips Acuostic Edge. I had an SB Audigy and I feel that the sound from the Philips AE was better with MP3's, it also dose great with game's for me and all together the card cost me under $30 dollars. I'm all for the MSI board but only because I've had LOTS of trouble with EPox boards and their tech support. Either board will be a good buy, so it's pretty much just an issue of the on-board sound now.

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: daction
Thanks everyone for the advice.

" I have an MSI KT3 Ultra2 and it ownz, very solid board. "
Funny you say that cause I just narrowed down my 2 choices, MSI KT3 Ultra2 or the Epox 8K5A. Now I just have to decide
The MSI I can get from newegg for 82 shipped and it has the realtek onboard 6.1 audio, to get that with the Epox I have to get the Raid + version which I can't really afford, my budget is right around 80 bucks. I found the Epox 8K5A at cnetpc.com for 88 shipped, the raid version is 101 the cheapest I found. So I have to decide if the Epox for 88 without good onboard audio is worth it over the MSI for 82 WITH the audio. Oh btw I have an OLD original SBlive value so I'm eager to try something else.

The RAID version of the Epox, the 8K5A2+ is ~$99 @ Mwave, and ~$95 @ CnetPC. Not only do you get RAID and 5.1 sound, but also onboard LAN. Those three things alone are worth the extra $10 IMO. The Epox is pretty much the fastest Athlon board out now...period. It's not only faster than all the KT333 boards, but it beats the KT400 boards out as well. If the Epox was out of the running, the MSI KT3 Ultra2 would be my second choice..

One other thing...Epox just changed their warranty from 1 year to 2 years on all their boards made after September 2002.

 

[daction]

Thanks guys, well I MIGHT just be able to scrounge up enough to get the 8K5A2+, which is really the best board to get right now for Athlon, so hopefully I'll get that, if not then it's the MSI.

 

[CraigRT]

KT333?
one comes to mind for me.

EpoX 8K5A2+ and 8K5A3+

sweet mobos.

 

[Joecheng]

If you don't want to oc . . .the ECS K7VTA3 v3.1 is cheapest. I am using it right now and its running perfectly. The only thing i would mention is if you don't want to setup raid, don't buy the version with promise raid. Other than that, its a great bang for the buck.

 

[novice]

One more voice chiming in for the KT3 Ultra2. Installed very easily as an upgrade to an old MSI-6309/Celeron system. Didn't have to reinstall windows 98, just had to update a few drivers. Seems to run nice and fast. My budget only allowed PC-2100 memory, so I haven't tried any overclocking yet. The XP 1700+ is running nicely at default, extremely stable. My son is enjoying Unreal Tournament 2003 on it as I type this. UT2003 looks great on it and runs smoothly with geforce 3 Ti200 and 512 mb of PC-2100 ram. I went for it because I have had very good luck with MSI boards over the past 3 years, and I thought that $82 delivered for a quality KT333 board was a solid deal. Go MSI!
chuck