Need a T-Bird motherboard recommendation...

[Staz]

I am currently running a Celeron 366@550 on a Asus P3V4x motherboard. I was planning on upgrading my CPU to the P3 800E CPU soon, but I am having problems with my motherboard. If I have to replace my motherboard, I am thinking about going with AMD instead of Intel. I like the fact that the T-Bird 900 is a good $30-$50 cheaper than the P3 800 and I presume it would be faster. Which motherboard is considered the best/fastest Thunderbird motherboard out there and why? I would be using my existing PC100 Micron CAS2 memory, so factor that into the equation. I would also be using my 45GB ATA/100 hard drive and an ASUS GeForce SDR video card. Any info would be helpful and thanks.

 

[noxipoo]

are you going to OC? people who OC likes the abit or asus, the MSI k7t pro2 and an epox board can OC now too i believe. for stability w/o OC, people say the MSI k7t pro is best. They will all take your ram, but not all will run the HD at ata100, but thats not a big thing. and all will take the GF

 

[Electric Amish]

For your basic "run-of-the-mill" system, the Epox EP-8kta is a decent motherboard. You can adjust the RAM speed to 66,100,133MHz. Not the best for overclocking. Uses jumpers and switches on the motherboard. No softbios.

For the overclockers and high-performance people out there, the Abit KT7 or the Asus A7V are good choices. They have all the functionality of the Epox board, but they run about $50 more and have the very nice softbios. No Jumpers.

The Abit and Asus support ATA-100, I believe. I don't think the Epox does (only does ATA66).

amish

 

[noxipoo]

the Asus A7v uses dip switches.

 

[Electric Amish]

Hmm... A7V uses diswitches now??

That's strange. The KX133 chipset had it in bios....

amish

 

[AMB]

I personally think that the Abit KT7 is one of the best around

 

[Lombardaga]

Actually, not much heard of on this forum, but the Aopen AK33 is VERY good for a non-overclocker. It is very stable and is of very good quality. The best thing is the price, which is lower than the MSI K7T Pro, but is just as great.

 

[Noriaki]

i've become very fond of MSi motherboards lately.

The MSi K7Tpro is a very good stable board, and the pro2 has multiplier adjustments if you want it.

they are also much cheaper than Asus or ABit...and while I love asus there seems to be no end of problems with the A7V...
And Abit..well I won't go there I've had that argument enough times.


Your PC100 RAM will work fine, you can select 133Mhz or 100Mhz, you could probalby set it to 133Mhz CAS3 which is slightly faster than 100Mhz CAS2 I think (Micron is good RAM you might even be able to get it at 133Mhz CAS2)
Your ATA100 hard drive will run in ATA66 mode, but that's not a big deal...an IBM75GXP maxes out at 37GB/s from the disk so you will lose almost nothing (unless you happen to have two 75GXPs on the same channel)
Your GeForce should be fine, there were some issues with GeForces and earily revisions of AMD751 and KX133, but I haven't seen any issues with KT133.
And yes a TBird 900 will be faster than a P3-800E

 

[Mule]

Another vote for the MSI KT7 pro2, great quality for overclocking and best stability around. They are pretty cheap too, can pick one up for $113 at mwave.com here

I recommend the board as well as the dealer. Ordered from them before and great service.

 

[Staz]

Thanks for the info. I don't want to overclock because I got burned doing that once. I too like Asus boards, but sounds like their Thunderbird one is having problems. Can anyone confirm this? Had a couple of Abit boards in the past, never liked them too much. Sounds like the MSI K7T Pro2 has the most votes. Too bad it only has ATA/66, oh well.

I have 3 more quick questions. First is I presume I can put this motherboard in my ATX case? Second question is would I be better served if I took my memory to PC133 CAS3 or leave it at PC100 CAS2? Would there be much of a difference in overall system speed? Third and last question: I mainly use my system for Internet and games. Would it be worth saving $50 and get the 800 T-Bird instead of the 900 T-Bird or is the 900 T-Bird noticeably faster? I was going to get a P3 800 anyway and isn't the P3 800 and 800 T-Bird roughly the same speed?

 

[PCResources]

Go with the K7T Pro2, it's a good quality, good oc board.

I wouldn't recommend the Abit board to anyone, it's just too unstable.

Patrick Palm

Am speaking for PC Resources