Motherboard Dilema

[JorgeElPrimero]

Currently I have an ABIT-KT7A Raid board but the board has just stopped working (IDE drives are working) the board is under warranty so I am going to get that one replaced but that is going to take three weeks (or so I am told) but, I am leaving for college on AUG. 11th and I NEED a motherboard by the time I leave, so I am going to purchase another board and will make on of those boards, when I get the other back into a server, I am trying to decide if I want to try a new motherboard has to be Athlon or just get another KT7A. I WANT all opinions on sdram boards and ddr boards Help me choose my new board.

 

[rickn]

Epox 8k7a for DDR

Because they are VERY stable, and have tons of overclocking features (core voltage, ddr voltage, multiplier adjustments)

I am a die hard ASUS supporter, but since a friend of mine had good luck with his Epox, I got one. It is a great board.

read some reviews as well. Epox has a lot of links to reviews on their epox website

here is one to start you off Epox review

 

[JorgeElPrimero]

why?? please give me reasons to try the boards

 

[ucvb6]

for SDRAM boards,

i've two rigs, one with n ASUS A7V133 and another with an IWILL KK266.

IMO, if you want to overclock, get the IWILL KK266.
I've heard that the ASUS A7V133 was supposed to be stabler than the IWILL KK266, but i havent had any problems with the KK66, excellent board, no hassles setting up either of the boards.

just my .02 cents

*edit* anandtech has a review for both boards and others here: mobo review

 

[vampiro]

The 8K7A, it is the most overclockable DDR board out there. It is also has rock solid stability, and is extremely fast. For more opinions on the 8K7A and other AMD motherboards, go here. They will tell you everything you want to know.

 

[JorgeElPrimero]

I should have stated I am not looking for overclockability I am looking for stability with high end performance in games, graphics, and CAD.

 

[Athlon4all]

Go DDR, and for stability, MSI K7 Master. It has limited oc ability, but it's the most stable non-oced board there is. For SDR, still KK266-R or Asus' A7V133 are the best options.

 

[AvidOC]

what about a MSI K7T Turbo, it has multiplier, RAM voltage and Vcore adjustment, the is a review on Anandtech which says they could get it up to 150FSB i think it was, i have aone and its excellent, i was able to reach 1.3GHZ with a 1GHZ athlon @ 1.675V it survived the burn it test n sandra all night with no BSOD or anything, it reads temps a bit on the high side tho

a good board all in all

EDIT: Just found link Here It Is

 

[JorgeElPrimero]

are these the only suggestions?

 

[JorgeElPrimero]

Do any of these boards have a built in SCSI adapter or Firewire connections?

 

[Athlon4all]

There's a version of K7 master called MSI K7 Master-S, it has on-board SCSI. But that version is very expensive, like $250 or higher, compared to $130 for K7 Master. Dunno about Firewire.

 

[knutp]

The same happend to a friend of mine two days ago. What happend was that it detected the harddrives, but it froze immidiatly after the post... so I couldn't boot from the harddrive or floppy. What I did was to check the connections, clear the cmos and rebooted. It went right up.

I hope that's your problem, so you won't have to rma it.

 

[JorgeElPrimero]

My Problem is whenever I put heavy usage on my hard disks the computer froze. So i thought reformatting would work but no dice when I went to install win2k I got through most of the setup until save settings and it froze with the exact same error. Should I try to clear the CMOS? If so how do I go about doing that?

 

[knutp]

Oh... strange... that could be many things. First of all, check the temperatures! Second, reset the configuration in the bios, and change the settings are are certian to work.

If that wont work. I would run a diagnosic program for your harddrive. Most of the harddrive manufactures now does have such a program free for download at their webpage.

 

[MichaelD]

I second what Knutp has suggested. I'm not saying that it is not possible your mobo is busted; I'm saying that you're probs are kinda "weird" and it could be something else. In your original post, you said the IDE drives WERE working. Did you mean to say they ARE NOT working? Run the diagnostics on your HD(s) first and recheck your temps.