Recommendation for Socket A Motherboard?

[2336]

Folks,
A friend of mine has a dead Asus A7V-E and I'm trying to help him find a replacement that can take ANY socket A CPU, including the XPs and has both SDRAM and DDR slots and a minimum of 4 PCI slots. The only other requirement is rock-solid reliability and stability. Overclocking is no concern whatsoever! Any recommendations from you folks would help me out a bunch. Thanks in advance!🙂

 

[aircooled]

If you've got a good power supply (300 watt or higher AMD approved) then the ECS K7S5A will handle all the socket A's (including the XP) and it's only $52 at newegg.

I've read both good and bad things about this board. And I've just installed mine last night so I've only had a chance to install all my stuff on it. But it was a breeze to install and configure, and everything works great. I love the integrated LAN.

 

[lsman]

too bad there are not much a choice if you are going to need both SDRAM and DDR Ram support... ECS K7S5A is a good/"price is right" choice by the way.
But be sure to read all the reviews before you make your move, good help from ocworkbench.com 's forum. Good FAQ there. a must read!

 

[2336]

I was leaning towards the K7S5A, because of the price but wanted to get a bit more input. I've read the customer reviews at NewEgg and it's sounds like a great piece of hardware. Thanks aircooled! Anyone else out there have any long-term experience with this MoBo? Any input, good or bad, would be appreciated. This friend of mine is not technically inclined. He just wants his rig to turn on when it's supposed to. 🙂😉 lsman, thanks for your input, too!🙂

 

[Buz2b]

<< Anyone else out there have any long-term experience with this MoBo? >>

In a word; Yes. I have built 6 systems with this board and to date, have not had any trouble except for those I created myself. 😱 Oops! Then once it took me a week to get the USB pinout info from their tech support but that was before they had it posted on their website and was during the first release of the board. Yes, I built a few with the very first versions of that board and am still alive to tell about it. Seriously, it is a good board, but as was already stated, you must use a good quality, AMD recommended PS that is rated for the cpu you install. As long as you do that and follow good procedures during the build then your friend should have no problems with the board. The FAQ (as stated, an EXCELLENT source of info) is located here. BTW, I would go with a minimum of a 350 watt PS also. I know there are some good quality 300 watt PS's out there but to me the Athlon almost needs a 350 watt PS. Just MHO.

 

[Athlon4all]

Really, you only have K7S5A as your choice if DDR and SDR slots is a requirement. The other option is Asus A7A266-E. Your call.

P.S. I can't vouch for K7S5A's stability and reliability.

 

[Buz2b]

While I love ASUS products normally, the A7A is ~ $80+ and I am not sure it will handle XP processors. I could be wrong about that though.

 

[CoDerEd]

Take K7S5A, it can take XP and even Thoroughbred (at least that what they said)
you can go wrong with the price neither $52 at Newegg.
You will need little bit tweaking I believe, some people say it's not an easy mobo,
you have to tweak it 'til you have it stable, some people also say that it's stable out from the box.
I guess take the chance, I believe lots of people here at Anandtech can help
you if you got any problems.

peace

 

[tenoc]

Two boards, no probs, using 300W and 350W ps.

 

[2336]

Thanks for the input folks. Yes I know there are other boards out there that offer DDR and SDRAM support but the price of the K7S5A really piqued my interest. This friend of mine is an active duty Marine Corps Sgt so he's not exactly rolling in the green stuff. I'm trying to get him the most bang for the buck.

 

[DKNG]

Have you looked into Asus A7A266-E. Its supports 3 sdr and 2 ddr. The chipset is based on the Ali Magik Rev. C which is almost as fast the kt266a.