QUESTION ON MOTHERBOARDS ????????

[Dereck]

Hi everyone!

I have a predicament. I am about to purchase a new motherboard and i was wondering which kind i should get? I am purchasing a Athlon motherboard and was wondering if the KG7-Raid is any good? Some of my friends have them and they say they work great. So what do you guys recommend that is good motherboard or another one that is better than the one i'm looking at right now. Please get back to me soon.

 

[Dereck]

I am seeing no one is replying. I really need the information very soon i'm about to order tonite. Please respond!

 

[cleverhandle]

Well, you really need to give a lot more information if you want some responses. What's your budget? What are you doing with your computer? Do you overclock? If so, how much? Do you want onboard components? The list goes on...

Ask a general question, and you won't get much back. And, uh, you really need to wait more than 10 minutes, anyway.

 

[Dereck]

I'm sorry. I was looking for a reliable motherboard b/c my last one was a piece. I want something with great features such as the one i listed. I don't overclock (just not interested in overclocking). My budget is around $150. At pricewatch.com which is the more reliable companies to buy from also?

 

[yadda]

You probably should have posted in the motherboard section. Why make a decision like this in a such a hurry??? Take your time pour over this site, Tom's, the list goes on and on. Everyone has their favorite mboard.

Search these boards you will find plenty of discussions.

Good luck
Y

 

[tomrizzo]

The Abit is a really good board to get, and if you do ever feel like overclocking, no better board out there.

 

[Dereck]

Ok so i should take my time to find what is the best? I will but i would also like you guys to post your opinions on motherboards to get.

 

[HappyPuppy]

If you aren't going to overclock and would like to save about $90 you should consider the ECS K7S5A. Yeah, yeah there are a few people here who are going to have an apoplectic fit because I said that, but don't put too much stock in what they say. The board will accept any Duron or Athlon CPU, both DDR RAM and SDRAM and it has onboard NIC and sound, although with the money you save you will be able to afford a very good sound card.

 

[Dereck]

HappyPuppy do you know how much the KG7-RAID costs? If you save $90 then you will be buying that motherboard you listed for about $10. JK

-- is that motherboard any good?

 

[cleverhandle]

Well, since you asked, I like my Soyo Dragon Plus quite a bit. Just a little under $150, lots of features, good software bundle, rock stable in my experience, and a decent overclocker should you ever feel like dabbling. Oh, and purple PCI slots - that's most important, of course. But really you gotta take your time, do a lot of reading, and develop your own opinion on the matter.

 

[kgraeme]

If you haven't yet, you might try reading Anandtech's KT266A roundup.

The KG7 boards are based on the AMD 761 chipset which is considered fairly solid. Keep in mind though that it does have the 686B southbridge which can be a source of problems. Read about it here. I haven't personally used a 761 board, so I can't say from firsthand experience that it suffers from the 686B bug. Anecdotally, I have heard that it doesn't. But that southbridge is such a POS that I personally would be hard pressed to choose a board that uses it. Do your homework on this.

It's a question of how much VIA will you take. The 761 is an AMD board with one buggy VIA component, but it can be a very solid board. The KT266A is all VIA, but doesn't have the 686B.

With your budget, have you considered the nForce platform? The MSI K7N420 Pro ($145) has 5.1 audio, LAN, and GF2MX video on board. It's not the best video for gaming, but it will work and if it's not good enough just throw a better vid card in. If you don't want the built-in video, try the Asus A7N266-C ($111). These boards are comparable in speed to the KT266A and while they aren't as popular as VIA boards, there don't seem to be as many people having problems with them. The one thing to pay attention to with these boards is that you should really add ram in matched pairs to get a speed boost.

 

[HappyPuppy]

Oops. Didn't check the price on the KG7, just saw you wanted to stay under $150. And, yes it is a good motherboard. I recommended it because you said you weren't interested in overclocking.

 

[Dereck]

now i'm worried what kgraeme said. I want a very reliable board within my price range that has Raid and can handle Duron, Thunderbird, and XP. I want this board also to support DDRAM.

 

[LongCoolMother]

yes, kg7 is alright. anything using the kt266a would also be your best bet

 

[kgraeme]

<< now i'm worried what kgraeme said. I want a very reliable board within my price range that has Raid and can handle Duron, Thunderbird, and XP. I want this board also to support DDRAM. >>



Don't be worried, just look at it as a peice of information for further research. Like I said, I haven't used the 761 chipset boards, but have anecdotally heard that they don't suffer from the 686B bug like other boards do.

viahardware and amdmb.com are also good sources of information.

 

[snidy]

I agree with cleverhandle on the Soyo Dragon +, very stable and fast.

 

[kgraeme]

Since I'm always looking, I came across this thread about the Abit KR7A that will ensure I never buy that board. I know that Anand gave it high marks, but in my experience, the real-world and Anand don't always match up.

 

[foofoo]

i have had very good experiences with the shuttle ak31a and the soltek sl75drv4. both have been fast, stable and reliable.
for what it's worth, i would reccomend highly against the ecs board. i've had very bad experiences with them.
good luck in what you choose.

 

[XRdirtHead]

I always stick with ASUS...

 

[CraigRT]

Soltek man.. since I got mine I have not looked back.. SL75DRV4

came in at $155 Cdn funds, which is a HELL of a good deal, it's fast, super stable, overclocks well, runs just peachy.

I highly recommend this mobo... it honestly rocks.