Most Stable Athlon Motherboard?

[IceGod]

Hi,

What is the most stable Athlon motherboard? DDR would be nice, along with a good speed rating, but after having problems with my current KT133 based motherboard, I'd just settle for a motherboard with no problems. Does such a board exist?

Thanks,
Tom

 

[Mean MrMustard]

I went with the Epox 8K7A. No problems what so ever, except an IRQ conflict with a network card, which could happen to any system.

 

[IceGod]

The Epox 8k7a review I was jus tlooking at said it had 686B, does that mean it still has all the problems associated with the VIA mobos and SB Lives?

Tom

 

[trungma]

Your going to have a hard time finding an Athlon motherboard that doesn't use the 686B southbridge. Even most DDR boards using the AMD 761 northbridge still uses the Via 686B southbridge. The SB Live problem doesn't crop up on all computers and I beleive that there are enough patches and fixes for the problem, although we shouldn't have to in the first place. I like my Iwill KK266, I found it to be more stable than my Abit KT7A and Asus A7V. I haven't used any DDR boards so I can't give you any recommendations on them.

 

[formulav8]

I think the Epox has been proven to be one of the most stable boards out.

 

[Bingo13]

The boards I have used recently in order of best stability;

Gigabyte 7DXR
Asus A7M266
Gigabyte 7VTX
Abit KT7E
Epox 8K7A+
Iwill KK266-R
FIC AD11
MSI K7T-Pro
Asus A7A266
MSI K7 Master-S

note- realize the difference is very small between these boards, my personal opinions under W2K-Pro, utilizing GF3 cards,ATI Radeon, Hercules 4500, 3dfx V5500, and Matrox G400. When it comes to overclocking stability (multiplier settings) I would rate the Gigabyte boards as the best with the Epox and Iwill boards very very close. For pure overclocking the Epox board is the best I have used with the Iwill close behind. Any of the boards would make very good systems, depends on your usage, features required, and price sensitivity.

 

[HansXP]

The Asus A7M266 is a VERY stable motherboard, IMHO.

 

[heffe734]

Forget the A7M when the epox is like 50 bucks cheaper...you could invest that into something like a good HSF. Anyways...performence wise...the Epox is just as good and i heard the a7m's don't allow you to change the mult. Well, then i would think that you're gonna cap out early if you OC, unless you have some good parts that can handle high FSB.

 

[rommel]

i never had an issue witht he soundblaster live cards and any of the 686b mobos...and i tried 4 of them....but i like the epox best...i am running this one witha 1.4tbird@1600mhz at defualt voltage to the cpu and running the ddr voltage at 2.7 and settings are 8862222....i built a system for a friend with one and am gonna order another for my niece

 

[Lithium381]

Soyo Sy-k7vta-pro

that's what i've got for my athlon 1.2, been running GREAT for three months now, only frozen once the entire time, i keep SETI running, so it's full load all the time. i've also got the SBlive in there, no problems there

Soyo-sy-k7vta-b

that's what i've got for my durno 800, going to upgrade to a 1.2 atlon soon though, i've got the sblive too, no problems on this one either!