Motherboard Suggustions..

[Maezr]

I'm building a computer from scratch, I'd like a bit of advice on a motherboard..

I'm definitely going with DDR ram, and an Athlon 1700+ XP CPU. For a while, people were suggusting the KR7A-RAID.. but I see quite a few complaints here about problems with it..

I know the KG7-RAID supports two additional IDEs.. I've kinda assumed that the KR7A does, too.. Does it?

Would the KR7A-RAID still be the way to go, despite the complaints?

 

[moosey]

ASUS A7V266-E

 

[Maezr]

Thanks.. the onboard sound seems like a plus, but it only supports three sticks of DDR.. the KG7-RAID and KR7a-RAID both support four, don't they?

Also.. when a board has raid, do they always have the additional two IDEs..? Thanks..

 

[cipher00]

Another lob for Asus. I've had great experiences with them. Onboard stuff is often optional; check their website. As for the 3 sticks of DDR, how much are you planning on putting in? Last, it's probably me, but I haven't found a real way to make RAID work that seems to me to be worth the hassle (I'm not talking top o' the line machine building here, but something that will definitely fly). A Seagate Cheetah would do the trick for me!

 

[Maezr]

I plan on starting with one 512 stick, but I really want the ability to add quite a bit more in the future..

The reason I've mentioned the RAID boards isn't really for the RAID itself, I just like the ability to have two more IDEs, really.. is that the case with all RAID boards, or just some..?

Thanks again..

 

[cipher00]

I'm not familiar enough with RAID boards to answer your question, but the motherboard reviews here and at Ars Technica might help. Off the top, I think the max ram the Asus will support is 2G, but I'm not at all certain of that. With huge memory considerations, you might want to look at dual processor boards. Good luck.

 

[AA0]

You probably won't use that much memory, 3 sticks should be more then enough. The Asus board seems to have the least problems.

 

[lahockey]

Maezer ...
there are too many darn questions to ask about how you plan to use the mobo ...
can you tell us if this is a gaming machine?
For work?
For school?
Do you have spare parts laying around that you plan to use?
If so ... what parts?
Memory?
Hard drive?
What do you expect out of your new PC?

 

[piasabird]

The only thing I see wrong with the Asus A7V266-E is it does not support USB 2.0.

Raid is kind of Goofy to play with. The drives to actually run Raid need to be ATA 100 7200 rpm. It comes with one ATA/100 cable and a Floppy and slower cable for the CDROM.

I set up one of these boards and it seems to be very stable.