poll: best mobo: 8kha+ or dragon or AK31A

[nuttervm]

thats it! i've had enough of this crappy unstable ecs k7s5a! i want to upgrade and these are my primary candidates. i chose them because of their reputation of stability and performance. my primary concern is stability! the other issues like onboard lan and raid are nice but not worth alot of extra $$ (so the dragon is lowest on my list). i might overclock my 1.4 tbird, but thats only gravy to me.

what's your fav for stability?

edit: i have a scsi subsystem, so that is one reason the raid setups don't mean much to me. i'd be lucky to use 2 ide devices, let alone 4 or more.

 

[SilentRunning]

EDIT: nice blank reply, huh

I have been looking over new motherboards, and at the moment I am leaning towards the Dragon+. I assume you mean the plus model. Although I am not interested in the raid feature I like that you can use the raid controller for additional Ultra IDE drives.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

if you dont want the raid get the epox

 

[Pabster]

Neither.

K7S5A is a better choice. But it's your money.

 

[ku]

aww man... how can the 8kha+ be winning? the dragon is better by FAR. FAR more stable and even has onboard raid. the only reason why it's not such a big hit is because of it's price. For the best price/performance balance, the 8kha+ is the winner. For the best budget, the ak31a takes it.

 

[nuttervm]

<< Neither.

K7S5A is a better choice. But it's your money. >>



no offense, but you have proven many times over that you have some sort of zealous need to protect that ecs board. i've seen you hype it and defend it time and time again for some reason. i have years of hardware experience, and am no newbie to building systems of my own. this board has been unpredictable and unreliable for some time now, and all the usual reasons (overheating, driver instability, etc) are not the case here. true, it could be a bad egg, but it seems to me that there have been quite a few bad eggs from the ECS roost recently. If you want to, i'll sell it to you, or its RMA replacement to you for below market value

 

[E3Art]

i have the Epox and i put it in the 2 systems i recently built, so far good board

 

[ShadowFox]

I can vouch for how stable the Dragon+ is, its great, but if you get it, dont plan on the onboard lan being so hot, mine's screwed up

 

[187]

epox = cheaper

 

[Pabster]

nuttervm wrote:

"no offense, but you have proven many times over that you have some sort of zealous need to protect that ecs board."

Yeah, you're right ... I mean, the Dragon K7V+ for a measly $100 more is a much better bargain. Give me a break. The RAID is a joke (just like all others with on-board RAID) partly because IDE RAID sucks, and partly because it's software controlled. Secondly, the audio isn't exactly world class. I much prefer Audigy. Thirdly, the KT266A offers zero real-world performance difference over SiS 735. Am I missing something here? I don't think so.

I'll be retiring my 5A's for 6A's in the very near future. But as it stands, nothing provides a better price/performance value (read: bang for your buck) than the ECS K7S5A.

 

[Budman]

Preach on Brother ECS K7S5A all the way & yes i too will be going K7S6A route too.

 

[nuttervm]

morning bump

 

[ToBeMe]

Where's "Npne of The Above"??????

 

[nuttervm]

its there whatchu talkin bout

looks like the epox board is in the lead as far as user sentiment goes. i'll wait a while longer before i make any decisions... i'm not sure the extra $$ is worth my while on the 8kha and dragon... make me believe people!

 

[Mem]

The Epox 8KHA+ is a great board on stability etc it really is easy to setup and as for problems what problems? Anyway it`s a very good choice and I can vouch for it being I own one .

 

[CraigRT]

If any, the Dragon+, I've had Soyos before and I like them.. I wouldn't buy the EpoX board..(booo) the MSI is best overall!

 

[Parser]

Well I'm pretty sure the 8kha+ will win this one because it is the one most people around the forums went out and bought. Your original question was about stability though so all I can tell you is that since I flashed to the new bios on the dragon+ I have never had the computer crash and in fact since I've installed this mobo I've never seen a BSOD. If you're really not interested in the raid or extra IDE connectors then I guess the extra cost wouldn't really be worth it as the onboard lan seems to be on the slow end and while I hear the sound is good(I don't use it cause I have a GTXP) the epox has the same one.

It all really depends on what you're looking for(the dragon is black if that helps).

 

[CoachClevenger]

I too am in the market for a kt266a board, as I already have an xp and ddr=won't fit my 815 boards very well. Here are some things I've noticed, if of any interest. Dragon+ and AK31 us 3 phase power regulator, Epox=2, along with MSI. I believe most kt266a boards us 4 layer pcb. Onboard chips suck, there is a reason for the 5/6 pci slots. problem hardware runs in batches, most kt266a boards are relatively stable and within a few percent in performance tests.
I ruled out all boards with a 2 phase power supply. I use uw/scsi so i could care less about any onboard IDE. Onboard sound is good for disabling, along with LAN, modem, speaker...everything except usb. The more PCI slots the better, even if they are not all bus-mastering. Extra DIMM are nice if using registered memory.
So i have shunned the MSI, Epox, Gigabyte boards. the dragon costs too much for features i wouldn't use...but I love the card reader and extra usb. the Shuttle has a lack of USB, thank goodness for 6 pci slots. The Abit board is enticing, although a little expensive. I use two Asus boards now(cuv4x, cusl2-c) but am not interested in their kt266a board.
I am leaning toward the Abit board (perhaps love for my ol' bh6-cel450a), but Shuttle has a good board with good features at a nice price.

 

[gump47371]

Doesn't matter where my vote goes, as long as it is AGAINST ECS. I have a K7VZA, and it SUCKS!!! Never have gotten any of the 4 USBs to work, and now I think I am having trouble with a HD because of it.

Gump

 

[Keego]

my roommate loves his newly installed 8kha+

 

[larciel]

dude.. dragon sucks.. dragon Plus is the bomb

 

[rpr]

I'm leaning towards purchasing the 8KHA+, but I haven't ordered it yet since Newegg amd Mwave are out of stock. But CoachClevenger caught my attention on an issue I never quite understood. Maybe the Coach or someone else can enlighten me. What are the pros/cons of 2-phase vs 3-phase power regulators on these boards???

I know the Epox 8KHA+ uses a 2-phase, but I thought that was a good thing since the 3-phase Epox 8k7a used a 3-phase and had severe issues with the +5V rail with some power supplies.

I guess I'll withold my vote, as well as my $120 on a new board, until I understand this issue better.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

You have listed three boards that satisfy different needs.

The Dragon is a feature rich board sporting high quality on-board sound, IDE RAID and LAN.

The Epox 8KHA+ has a solid history behind it as one built for speed. The manual is excellent, the overclocking features are superb, and in most reviews it usually leads by a nose in the KT266A crowd (albeit by a small nose).

The AK31 Rev. 3 has everything it needs to be a great overclocker. Has a well designed motherboard, and is only $80!


The question you should be asking yourself is, "what fits my needs best..."

 

[Daovonnaex]

I don't believe the KT266A chipset is the best. Hence, I believe in the Asus A7N266-E, which is also very fast and feature-laiden in its KT266A guise, the A7K266-E. If I absolutely had to choose a mobo for KT266A, I'd have to say the latest Soltek model or the Epox.