Need to decide today Epox 8k7a or Soyo Dragon

[highme]

Hey folks. Had a Kt133a board arrive DOA so I figured "Why not go DDR instead." Anyways, I have a 1.3 Thunderchicken on the way, and 512megs of Crucial PC2100 RAM and need to decide between these two boards.


The Epox is in FS/FT and comes with 128 megs of PC2100 (which I won't be able to use due to the 2 ram slots on the board) and an OCZ Monster 2 heatsink (however I have a Lapped Gladiator on the way from Gizzo also so that won't be used) and the price for all of this is $125, plus a couple of extra dollars as I will be needing the board right away and am opting for overnight shipping.


The Dragon is at Fry's a couple of miles from my house and is $159. Which seems to be pretty competitive for this board. I spent last night reading over the Dragon thread and it seems that these 2 boards are pretty popular at the moment. I like the idea of have onboard 5.1 sound (especially the optical out for my MD recorder) and the onboard LAN. It did seem that everybody was initially stoked on the Dragon, but then "issues" seemed to pop up. I don't have a lot of USB items, and buying a cheap PCI usb card isn't a huge deal.

Anyways, pros/cons/experiences with either board is appreciated. I don't want to take a long time to decide since Martrox is nice enough to hold the Epox for me as I make up my mind. So I don't want to drag out the procedure for him.

thanks in advance
highme

 

[rickn]

8k7a

 

[MEGA]

I only had a Soyo dragon for a couple of hours, and i thought the board was awesome. I never saw so many features. 4 IDE, Overclocking dodads, it seemed like best board out there. Of course at 160, its alot of money.

 

[Bingo13]

If you like the sound/lan option then go with the Dragon. If you like to really overclock a system then take the Epox. I found my Dragon to be more stable than the Epox at stock settings.

 

[highme]

I could really oc the Dragon, if I deal w/o the USB. Besides, grabbing a USB 2.0 wouldn't be the worst thing to happen.

 

[Krueger81]

LOL you have the same last name as me

COOL

Krueger81

I hve heard good things about the ECS K7S5A and I am running one if you wanna look into those

 

[TuffGuy]

insane3d had an 8K7A, and he picked up a dragon. he then returned the dragon and got another 8K7A. i myself use an 8K7A, am running at 175mhz fsb, and i've had it up to 192mhz. he's gotten his up to 200mhz fsb.

 

[highme]

<< insane3d had an 8K7A, and he picked up a dragon. he then returned the dragon and got another 8K7A. i myself use an 8K7A, am running at 175mhz fsb, and i've had it up to 192mhz. he's gotten his up to 200mhz fsb. >>



I noticed that. Not the FSB (200 is insane) but doesn't he run his Watercooled?

 

[highme]

thanks for the help. I was even offered a Soyo Dragon for $115 plus shipping, which made this decision even harder to make. However, I decided to go with the Epox board for now.

 

[tazdevl]

Should have waited 2 more weeks when the KT266A and nforce come out. Not only would you have the opportunity to buy a better board potentially, but their introduction will considerably lower prices of KT266 based boards.

 

[highme]

If one constantly waits for the next generation of mobos/chipsets/vidcards/harddrives/ram/blah/blah/blah you'll never get a new computer.


However, an Nforce board would be sweet. Besides, I am getting a great deal on the Epox board $125 for the mobo/128megs of Crucial PC2100/OCZ Monster2 HSF shipped. I can unload the ram and the HSF and get the board down to $80ish.

 

[need4spd]

good choice highme...

... I had a Epox 8K7A+ for a short while and it worked just fine...
the only bummer is having to open the case to set jumpers...

I agree with your remark about some people waiting to buy "next months technology"
and never actually ever getting anything!

Good luck dude

 

[fergiboy]

I bought an MSI K7 and had to get rid of it because of AGP issues, I switched over to an Epox 8k7a. Not only did the problem still exist but the board was crashing alot. I have an Elsa Gladiac GF2, I am waiting for a kt266a board. I suggest you stay away from AMD 760.