MSI vs. ASUS (in DDR with Athlon XP)

[elfnumber1]

Like the title says, I'm looking to determine which motherboard to use with my new setup.

I'm gonna be running the Athlon XP 1700+ // Crucial 512mb DDR PC2100 ram // Maxtor 40gb HDD.

This motherboards are:

ASUS A7V266 and MSI VIA KT266

Please let me know, thanks!

-elf

 

[madthumbs]

Same chipset, negligible performance differences, big price difference. Getting the Msi K7t266a Pro Ru would give you more IDE channels, same chipset, and 8 USB including 4 USB2. It's also an OC'ers board.

 

[dvander64]

Just remember that the msi board only has 2 channels for non-hard drive devices because of the light version of the raid controller that the other channels use. Hopefully this won't be a problem for you though.

 

[AA0]

you better mean the A7V 266-E, otherwise you'll be stuck with an awful chipset.

I took Asus, MSI is on my hated manufacturer's list. They have made boards that fail for no reason, unstable boards in the past, I don't want to know whats in the future.

 

[ChrisADuffy]

Wow that is too bad, I would go for the MSI in this case.

 

[thermite88]

What is the difference between K7T266 Pro (MS-6380) & MS-6380LE?

A. MS-6380LE removed the following features:
1.Overclocking capability
2.USB PC2PC function
B. MS-6380LE packaging & manual will be simpler

Quote from MSI Q&A

 

[NelsonMuntz]

MSI - more features for the $$$

 

[elfnumber1]

More information on the boards are thus:

MSI K7T266 Pro [MS-6380] (it's not the Pro-R or Pro-RU) - Does had the fuzzy logic overclocking & USB PC2PC capabilities.

vs

ASUS A7V266 (on the manual cover it states E766, but that's most likely the manual's revision)

Both have the chipsets of VIA VT8366 (552 BGA) and VIA VT8233 (376 BGA) integrated audio (i'm not too fond of integration) and ATA100 in which my HDD won't be supported up to its ATA133 capability. They seem basically similar in most ways except the MSI seems to have more USB inputs. Other than that, I'd like to know which motherboard would be "better." Any suggestions would be great too. Thanks

-elf

 

[elfnumber1]

Oh yes, no worries about money because I already have both these boards, just need to know which to install. Thanks.

-elf

 

[Aquaman]

I have the K7T266 Pro2 with 512mb crucial and Athlon XP 1600+ for about 3 months now (no overclocking though). Everything is fine.

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Paladin]

Since you already have both boards, stick with the ASUS. It will perform a little better (check some benchmarks and reviews around the net), and might be a little more stable and reliable (debatable). I have the A7V266E, with a XP 1800, 512 Crucial, VisionTek GF3 Ti200, and haven't had any problems at all (running XP Home).

 

[The Sauce]

I had the MSI board and just RMA'ed it. I was getting god-awful memory benches and it was really quirky...no-posts after some BIOS changes and whatnot. I was getting memory scores in the 600's with the MSI board. Now with my Shuttle AK31 and everything else being identical I get 800-900's. Might have just been a bad board but I personally would get the ASUS board now if I had to choose between the two.

 

[elfnumber1]

Great advise guys. I'll be running the ASUS board. Thread closed unless someone has solid evidence otherwise. Thanks again!

-elf

 

[madthumbs]

Yeah,
A while ago people discovered why Asus is able to get better performance out of the SAME chipset. Thier front side bus is set slightly higher than others, though it's not read as being higher by the bios. You can simply increase the FSB on the MSI by 1 safely to compensate.