Motherboard Chipsets...

[Treedude]

Hello!
I need some advice on a mobo for my new system. Should I go with a KT226A, nForce, or SiS 745 (I think that is what their new chip is call) board. I am having trouble finding many reviews on these chipsets. Money isn't really an issue to me and I don't really care about onboard ethernet or audio; just performance. Also, in addition to suggesting a chipset to me, if you could suggest a board too, that would be helpful. Oh yeah, if you have a lot of money to blow on a video card that you really dont need would you get an OCZ Titan 3 and a GF3 TI-500 base card, and if you would get a TI-500, what manufacturer. Thank you very very much!

Nick

 

[novalogic88]

ASUS A7V266-E which is a kt266A board, i trust ASUS.

 

[John]

Epox 8KHA+ w/ KT266A

 

[AthlonMan]

Abit had the best review for the last AMD chipset the AMD 76X

so try there new one, ABIT-KR7A-RAID (EVEN HAS ATA 133 which those boards don't)

CPU
Support AMD Athlon XP 1500+ ~1900+/AMD Athlon 700MHz~1.4GHz or future Socket A Processors based on 200/266 MHz(100MHz/133MHz Double Data Rate)
Support AMD Duron 600MHz ~ 950 MHz or future Socket A Processors based on 200 MHz
(100MHz Double Data Rate)
Chipset
VIA KT266A / VIA VT8233

Memory
Four 184-pin DIMM sockets support up to 4 GB PC1600/PC2100 DDR SDRAM module
BIOS
SoftMenu?III Technology to set CPU parameters

Functions
Four channels of Bus Master IDE Ports supporting up to 8 Ultra DMA 33/66/100/133( RAID 0 /1/0+1).
Miscellaneous
1 AGP slot, 6 PCI slots.
Ultra DMA 100/RAID
High Point HPT372 IDE Controller
Ultra DMA 133MB/sec data transfer rate

 

[Ausm]

<< Epox 8KHA+ w/ KT266A >>




I agree with John this is an awesome mobo have installed several in my clients computers


Ausm

 

[Mem]

Hehe I also agree with John since I`ve already ordered mine yesterday ,not keen on Abit boards since their RMA rate is so high and Asus are overpriced IMHO.

 

[NesuD]

All reports seem to point to the Epox and shuttle KT266A boards as being top notch performers and very stable. The shuttle board also appears to be very attractively priced $81 at Newegg if it's feature list fits your needs.

 

[nortexoid]

grab the sis 745 - the sis735 right now has virtually on par performance w/ the kt266a in most benchmarks, with an enhanced memory controller and support for DDR333 (pc2700), this thing will definitely smoke a kt266a using pc2100...

not to mention it should be cheaper, especially since ECS will undoubtedly be making a board based around this chipset..

nfArce is a good choice if you want to pay fortune...or unless u want an mATX board w/ no full-height cards for a flexATX case w/ decent video performance...

 

[DickBurns]

Another vote for the Asus A7V266-e w/kt266a. If price is not too big of a concern go with the asus board, mine is on order from beatprice.com for $162 plus shipping. Asus may be a little more (ok they are sometimes a lot more) but spending an extra $30 to get the very best quality seems worth it to me for my own system. If I were building a system for someone else I would probably use the Shuttle.

Just my $.02

 

[Treedude]

Yeah, I was thinking about the asus board, but what about the new Abit KR7A-R, heard heard that was supposed to rock and be the top contender with the Asus for the KT266A title. Also, even thought the SiS formally supports 2700 RAM, I am not a too big fan of that. In my current computer I am using Mushkin High Performance RAM, which they claim is faster than their 2400 RAM. I tested that and it is true. Using Sandra I got a higher score using a 256MB stick of Mushkin High Performance than 2700 OCZ RAM, which was the only company I could find selling it. Because of that I am not too keen of the SiS chipset, but thanks for you input on it. If you could find anything to prove my tests wrong please let me know. Thanks.

Nick

 

[flexy]

how can some seriously NOT recommend nforce...with the argument 'it's too expensive'..and the same time recommend Asus.... (/me shakes head)

What eg. does the Asus make that better than a shuttle ak31a (kt226a) for not even $80 ? You can also get an epox 8kha+ for around 110.-.....i wouldnt know ANY reason why to spend much money on an asus kt266a with all that unnecessary stuff on the asus board...except you need that stuff for some reasons....

As for me....i'll go with an nforce board....even when i spent a fortune already for an external gf3 ti 500 and do not use the internal gf2 mx...if you can sum up what you save for an soundcard and NIC (audigy $60, NIC $15..then nforce for sure is NOT expensive AND you get an extra spare gfx-card on board with it just in case. (Besides the fact that the nforce is the fastest socket A chipset right now...and everyone praises its stability which is a huuuuuge factor in my buy decision!).
Look at all the people with some epox kt266a boards and what trouble they have....


But..i must agree that the sis 745 looks also very good...but its very hard to find any information about on the web.....i'd like to see how it performs...didnt see anything about it...

So..now you know my recommendation..NOT that i say the shuttle ak31a or epox 8kha+ would be bad...these are cool boards too.

Edit: get a leadtek gf3 ti 500...plug it in your nforce board and welcome in the 3l33t-benchmarker's club