SDR on via motherboard 266a

[Castles999]

I was wondering if a new DDR ram motherboard will also accept just regular SDRAM. The motherboards I question about are the new 266a motherboards from via. Would anyone give some input on this seemingly simple question?

 

[Boonesmi]

sdr and ddr slots are keyed different... meaning you cant put ddr in a sdr slot, and vice versa

the kt266a chipset does support sdr, the problem is very few (if any) motherboard makers who use that chipset choose to include sdr ram slots

if i remember right i saw a shuttle board with both ddr and sdr (kt266a)


the ecs k7sem will take both kinds of ram, but its based on the sis 735 chipset... also the asus a7a266-e (based on the ali magik chipset)

 

[Castles999]

What would be the best motherboard that supports XP processors and SDR? I have a lot of ram so that's why I need to keep my old ram.

 

[Boonesmi]

a7a266-e would be the best... but very hard to find (its based on the new revision of the ali magik chipset, it runs very comparable to the kt266a chipset)

the second choice would be the ecs k7s5a (much easier to find, and costs much less) although many will disagree with me, i really think ecs makes low quality boards and for my own pc i wouldnt use one. i have used a couple of the k7s5a boards in builds for other people and was not impressed at all


*** edit *** but i have to add... you are really limiting yourself by only getting a board that supports sdr
all of the best board only use ddr... not to mention that if you plan on using an athlonXP the extra bandwidth of the ddr will help performance (tbirds dont require as much memory bandwidth)

you might want to consider selling your pc133 ram in the forsale/trade forum and buying some ddr

 

[Peter]

ECS have three - K7S5A, K7AMA, K7VTA2. SiS 735, ALi Magik-1 C0 and VIA KT266A chipsets. Your choice.

The boards are all fast and stable (if you get an ADEQUATE power supply unit), the SiS and ALi boards
include LAN, all have sound. Nothing much to play with, no overclocking features, no toys.

regards, Peter