Mobo selection

[xynder]

I have to choose between an ECS K7S5A (SiS 735 chipset) mobo and an Asus A7V333 Mobo (Via KT333 chipset) for my new comp... the difference is about 80 bucks... is it worth it to get the Asus or what? My CPU/RAM is AMD 1800+ and PC2100 DDR.

 

[John]

Why is your selection limited to those two motherboards?

 

[QTPie]

No. Your PC is still a POS after 2 yrs or so.
The performance gain is not noticable.

 

[Booster]

<< I have to choose between an ECS K7S5A (SiS 735 chipset) mobo and an Asus A7V333 Mobo (Via KT333 chipset) for my new comp... the difference is about 80 bucks... is it worth it to get the Asus or what? My CPU/RAM is AMD 1800+ and PC2100 DDR. >>



It depends on whether you're gonna OC or not. The K7S5A, though a decent board, has no OC features. None. Zero. It's a great, cheap OEM board for non-OCers (probably not for me, ). With that ASUS mobo you can yield excellent OC results, it's got great stability and speed. Personally, I'd go with ASUS. Yes, it's more expensive but it will last longer at the same time, IMO. You won't have to change the board b/c you don't like it, it's a very important factor. With it you can OC and use the forthcoming T-bred CPUs. Go ASUS!

 

[rarotonga]

Hey,

Check out the review at the following link:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/mainboards/kt333-sis745/

And now a few words about the tested mainboards. According to the above discussed results, there are two leaders in our test session: MSI KT3 Ultra-ARU and Gigabyte GA-7VRXP on VIA KT333 chipset. It was not only remarkable performance that pleased us a real lot in these products, but also good overclocking opportunities and rich integrated features.

At the same time we would like to say a few more good words about the PCB design of Gigabyte GA-7VRXP mainboard. It would be really cool if other mainboard manufacturers could follow Gigabyte's example and pay as much attention to the convenient components mounting.

ASUS A7V333 mainboard deserves the title of a "bonus winner". Its specs list is really outstanding. Unfortunately, ASUS A7V333 failed to impress us with performance against the background of solutions from MSI and Gigabyte, but still.

EPoX 8K3A+ undoubtedly deserves to be called "an overclocker's dream". We have never seen such a rich set of overclocking friendly options. Besides, EPoX paid special attention to the stability of its mainboard when working at higher FSB frequencies, which will definitely have a positive effect during extreme CPU overclocking. However, our tests showed that it is the slowest solution of the 4 boards tested.

I sell both the MSI, Gigabyte and Asus boards. The MSI and Gigabyte's are a much better deal with quality and performance ahead of ASUS.