Newbie needs to know of any known issues with the ASUS A7V266-E

[Andypickers]

Hello,

Are there any known issues with the ASUS A7V266-E that a prospective buyer should be made aware of ?

 

[thxdoug]

try reading the motherboard forum main page, there's 49 messages on 2 topics concerning this board. It doesn't look good, in fact makes me wonder about my 266 without the E.

thxdoug

 

[Andypickers]

yeh sure, there seem to be many people bemoaning the ASUS board, but their all Abit board owners. It seems to me that theres some kind of rivalry between ASUS owners and Abit owners. Do these 2 boards rule the KT266a roost.

 

[thxdoug]

Well, Andy, I guess there's always mixed opinions about boards, as there's not one that is perfect in all circumstances. Change OS or peripherals, and a good board can become nothing but a headache.

I can tell you my new Asus installed very smoothly, posted first time I powered it up. I installed W2K, and really haven't had time to mess with it since Sunday. So, I can't tell you much more than that. I have an IWILL system that is very good, a Tyan 2460S that set off my fire alarm Sunday and is in pieces right now awaiting a new Mobo. The system I installed the Asus in, had a KG??? Abit previously. The Abit would reboot randomly with a blue screen, and had permenant USB ejection problems. I once said on another board I wouldn't be happen until I ran over that board with my truck, lol. Well, the board is out, and waiting to see if I can get a replacement, at which time I will ebay the new board. If I can't get a new one, I will likely ebay it as is, where is, or run over it with my truck. I will not own another ABIT, period.

thxdoug

 

[CiNcRoN]

I suggest the noob read these threads & see for your self.

MAYBE asus a7v266-e SUCKS!
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=680493

Issue with ASUS A7V266-E and RAM
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=29&threadid=671255

 

[KGB1]

Well I must confess I have NEITHER the ASUS nor the ABIT board. But from what I read from reviews and with all the features of the boards. Id go for the ABIT KR7A, [NO bad integrated sound (less issues overall), 6 PCI slots all stable, 4 DIMM slots all stable, and really fast, AS fast as the ASUS] The Asus is filled with a useless ACR slot, useless sound and NO Raid... I wouldnt get it. Id get the Abit for only $145 with shipping (pricewatch). Unfortunately knowing VIA id rather wait for a KT333A chipset version.. ohh that would be so sweet.

 

[CiNcRoN]

Hey KGB the asus a7v266e has optional raid.
the sound card is decent and is not useless.
acr slot is useless yes.
only has 3 dimm slots for total of 3GB but do we really use that much?
but 6pci slots do we really use that many slots.
the only advantage the k47a raid has is uta 133 4 dimm slots 4GB total of ram.
Also downfall uis the abit kr7a raid is not optional.
where the asus a7v266e you can use it as a raid or just 2 extra uta100 ide ports.
the asus a7v266e is cheaper in price vs. the kr7a raid if any body is woried about that

 

[WhiteWizard]

If you look the AMD site, you'll find that the A7V266-E is an AMD recomended mobo, BUT IT READS CLEARLY REVISION 1.07.
So if I were you, I'll check that. In my partiticular case I have revision 1.02 and I experience the Infinite Loop some rare times, other than that, its a really fast mobo, but of course, I didn't test it with a XP chip, wicht is my next move. What I need is a fast and reliable mobo, with a 10% overclocking capability, don't need more, so I been trusting in ASUS from the last year, moved by coments in the Epox forum, wicht I used to visit regulary when I had my 7KXA slot A mobo. I had an A7V, A7V133 and A7V266-E, all of them were exelent mobos. They don't need monster PS nor expensive ultimate quality RAM as Epox ones.

A7V266-E (BIOS 1004b)
Athlon 1.2b @ 1301 (9.5x137Mhz)
Titan D5T cooler and 4 case coolers (just in case!)
512Mb DDR RAM (unbranded, 2x256Mb sticks)
Promise RAID 0 on 2 IBM Desktars 15Gb
CL Anihilator II (gForce 2 GTS 32Mb DDR)
CL Live! Platinium
Aopen Hq08 full tower case (300 What PS)
DVD and LITEON CDROM 52x on normal IDE channels
Win XP Pro OEM

 

[AA0]

I have heard the least amount of complaints about these two boards.

The 6 channel sound on the A7V266E is not useless, I almost decided not to get my Santa Cruz cause of it.

The only problems I've heard about the Asus board is some RAM problems, which 2 bios revisions have fixed, the lastest was released just days ago. Abit has a few issues around, but I suspect anyone that really knows what they are doing won't have a problem with either.

 

[Bug]

I have this board and a XP 1900 without problems. Whatever you do, make sure you ignore the part in the manual about having to short the Cmos jumper (or something like that). If you short it, and turn on the computer, there's a good chance you'll break it. This board has given me much less headaches than the K7M.

 

[bluesky]

I would get a cheaper m/b from other manufacturers.
There're new chipsets are right around corner, and this board is not standing over other boards for qulaity or performance.
By the way, I really hate the layout of this board.

 

[Viperbob]

Well I got a Asus A7V266-E and the Sound is ok I mean it's better than my SB live value that I have.

After the 1005 final bios I could even turn off the raid I wasn't using

BTW zero problems (Then again I paid to have zero problems)

And my xp 1700 is @ 1.64 with no problems for my Scsi devices

 

[boa]

Viperbob: Please help. How did you turn off the raid? I have been over and over and over the bios settings and I cannot find it

 

[Aenygma]

If you are at all considering another board, I would look into the Soyo Dragon+

It's gotten fantasic reviews, and has many features.

 

[AA0]

cheaper motherboards have problems and issues, thats why you pay more for quality. Most people in these forums don't seem to understand that.

 

[Bug]

Boa: you have to use the 1005 bios. This was the first to allow you to tell the board not to auto-detect drives on the Raid-ide ports on bootup.

 

[WhiteWizard]

I'm using the 1004b and RAID, never had a problem at all!

 

[Ionizer86]

I don't have the A7V266-E but someone else did. First off, it was quite overpriced.

I read a bit on it, and it seems to look quite "cheap" and shoddy. It looks just like those no-name mobos in that it has a fugly yellow PCB, only 5 PCI slots, a useless slot, etc. As other said, there seems to be some memory issues. I get the impression that Asus boards seem to be declining a bit in quality. They could have easily made the PCB prettier or added a PCI slot. I personally don't care about PCB color, but all the cheap companies use yellow along with Asus...and the impression is that....

The abit KR7A appears to be a better board overall, although I have an 8KHA+ so I can defend neither board through firsthand experience.

 

[AA0]

Asus was the first company that started using that colour, the cheaper companies copied them. It was pretty much green before. There are a few companies the sorta own their colours, gigabyte blue, asus yellow, ecs purple, msi red.

When you compare the price, the Asus is only a tiny bit more then Abit or Soyo, plus you get the quality, and a little more speed. They all pretty much have the same onboard stuff.

With all the problems that you see, Asus really seems to be having the fewest of them all. Abit doesn't have many either, but Soyo has its share, and all the other brands have more than enough.