Okay, so I need a new motherboard...

[Kipper]

After running stable for about six months on my 8k7a, it just gave way without warning and I got a large number of BSODs, random freezes and lockups. I figured it was time for a reformat so I formatted, no avail. I ended up losing all of my data after the drive gave out. Anyway, to make a long story short, I disassembled the computer in frustration and tried to put it back together.

I got the dreaded "FF" reading on the 8k7a's, with all the fans spinning, hard drives spinning up, and the CD-ROM trays opening and closing. Computer REFUSED to POST even after I RMA'd some RAM, ran off of the new memory, switched video cards, and processors. I tried reseating the above a half dozen times each, and have given up so far. I have yet to try the PSU, but since another one is not readily available I'm almost ready to conclude that the motherboard is at fault. I think the problem is when I tried to remove my PAL8045 HSF I chipped the bottom of the board with a pair of pliers and may have cut a few wires by accident. Chalk that up to genius.

This is my second 8k7a after the first one died and I had to buy another off of the forums here. That one which I bought just died, and frankly, I'm tired of the board's instability and seeming unreliability, although that may seem like sacrilege. I'm in the market for a new Socket A motherboard, and I need some recommendations here. I'm running the following:

Windows XP
512 MB (2x256 MB) Crucial PC2100 ECC Registered
1.33 GHz Athlon w/ Alpha PAL8045
Gainward Golden Sample Geforce 2 Pro/64
Linksys 10/100 NIC
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Lite-On 32x12x40 CD-RW
Lite-On 16x DVD
Seagate Barracuda IV 40 GB
IBM Deskstar 60GXP 40GB <---this is the one where I lost all of my data.

Does anybody have recommendations for a new motherboard? I'd like to stray away from EpoX if possible, but they seem to be reputable, so I'm willing to give them another chance. I do not plan to overclock this system, but I need a board with good performance and stability because there will be a LOT of data running through it. I usually crunch SETI all night, and there's a good amount of data being written to the hard disks almost constantly (I suspect my drives are dead, but that has nothing to do with the computer not POSTing). I also would prefer a board compatible with the Alpha although this isn't an absolute necessity.

Alpha Compatibility List

Any help which can be offered or recommendations will be incredibly appreciated.

 

[CrazySaint]

Oooh, you've got a Deathstar! 🙁 As for motherboard, the EPoX 8K5A[2|3]/+ boards seem to be excellent, otherwise, I'd recommend the Asus A7V333.

 

[Loman]

My Gigabyte GA-7VRX works great.

DDR PC 2700 support, usb 2.0, 5 pci's. Decent value too.

Get the GA-7VRXP if you want RAID support.

 

[Bovinicus]

I have an EPoX 8KHA+, and it runs like a charm. My system is overclocked pretty significantly, and I haven't run into any problems in the past 1-2 years. I love this board, and frankly it is a tweakers dream. Of course, you may as well get a board with 333MHz FSB/Memory support for upgrading purposes. The MSI KT3 Ultra2 is a good looking board. It has some nice tweaking options, even if you don't plan on overclocking. It is a very stable running board with a good number of additional featrues. Also, the Ultra2 is not on the compability list, but I do believe that it is the same layout as the Ultra with USB2.0 support.

 

[Kipper]

I was actually considering the 8KHA+ but I do want upgradability, as you've said, and since I'm getting new I might as well plan ahead for the next year or so and give myself some room to upgrade processor-wise and RAM-wise. Secondly, I'm thinking about trying another non-EpoX brand, and ASUS is definitely a name I can trust. Lastly, the A7V333 is compatible with the Alpha 8045, which raises its appeal a bit more.

Now the only question is...should I go for the RAID? 😉

Any other suggestions would be appreciated...as I mentioned, the more tweakable a board is, the better it is in my opinion. There's nothing going wrong with what overclockers LOVE to play with if you're NOT overclocking.

Lastly, any ideas on whether I should wait for KT400's relative to upgradability?

Edit: I'm buying these boards from NewEgg, everybody's favorite retailer, and the ASUS A7V8X is only another $3 over the AV7333. Both are 8045 compatible but the AV78X gives me extra upgradability to DDR400...we'll see, I guess.

 

[Kipper]

Bump for help!

 

[KF]

You're looking for different ideas? Some people think highly of this Chaintech mobo 7VJL. It has loads of OC tweaking options, unusual features and looks. It comes with rounded cables, a front panel box with USB and audio connectors, 4 channel headphones (?), an OC program, Linux. It should be fun.

Apogee/Zenith

There is supposed to a version with RAID named Zenith, but I haven't run across any.

Looking toward the future is difficult. Looks like AMD is going to try real hard to switch to Hammer in the next six months and de-emphasize the current style of Athlon mobo/socket. If that is a success, and I think it will be, AMD is unlikely to put out much higher performance Socket 462 processors, and this will become the second class processor, like the K6 became. DDR400 is unofficial. It is uncertain if DDR400 support is ever going to be of much use with an Athlon. OCing the buss and using fast memory that way seems better.

 

[Insane3D]

Epox 8K5A2+ is the current favorite. Don't base your whole experience with Epox on that one board. The 8K7A was a very early DDR board, and had a cheap bi-phase power design. I had a couple and they were problematic. Pretty much anything Epox has made since then has been stellar. Also, Epox just increased their warranty on all boards made after September 2002 to two full years. I have two of these boards along with two $50 1600+ XP's. One is running 166mhz FSB, 1.75ghz, default vcoore (1.75v) and the other is running 172mhz FSB, 1.8ghz, 1.80v... Excellent boards...

🙂

If you decide on an Epox, make sure to check Mwave as they seem to have the best prices of Epox boards... The 8K5A2+ is ~$95 there, and it comes with 6 USB 2.0 ports, the newest Via Southbridge, 5.1 sound, onboard LAN, and RAID, and it fully supports the upcoming 333mhz FSB Athlons. 🙂

 

[Kipper]

When deciding on a board, how careful should I be to make sure it's ECC registered-compatible? I haven't had problems sticking ECC into noncompatible boards in the past but I've heard horror stories that sometimes the RAM won't be recognized at all.

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: madcowdisease

Lastly, any ideas on whether I should wait for KT400's relative to upgradability?

No, KT400 offers nothing as far as upgradability is concerned that the KT333 doesn't, except AGP8X which is nothing and some of the boards support S-ATA, but you can always buy an add-on S-ATA card. Also, you should be aware that there is a KT400A coming...

 

[Insane3D]

some of the boards support S-ATA

Yes, but through a onboard controller on the PCI bus..so it's quite useless ATM. I've noticed quite a few people seem to think the KT400 supports S-ATA natively, which is false. ATM, there are no southbridges that support it. Personally, I will move to S-ATA when the southbridges support it natively, and it is no longer handicapped by the PCI bus.

Also, you should be aware that there is a KT400A coming...

I agree 100%. If Via has already made it known the KT400A is coming so soon after the release of the KT400, it makes me think the KT400 will be extremely short lived. I just don't see the KT400 being a good choice right now...IMO. There is a negligible performance increase, and only one new "feature" that is more of a marketing selling point than a performance enhancing technology (AGP8X).