SDRAM Athlon Motherboards

[Citadel535]

Greetings everybody,

Everyone on the boards have always been helpful with all my questions no matter how stupid and I finally bit the bullet and began purchasing system components. So far all I have is an Antec SX1030B case, 3dfx Voodoo3 from my old system, SoundBlaster Live! MP3+, and a Intel Pro 100S NIC. Standard CD-ROM drive and a 17GB hard drive by Maxtor.

I am waiting on an AMD Athlon 1.2GHz but I am unable to decide on a motherboard. I have SDRAM that I want to continue using (128MB PC133) and I am trying to decide between the following boards:

MSI K7T Turbo w/RAID
Iwill KK266-R
Asus A7V

I want a nice system for games and to mess around with as a server in the house. Any recommendations/negatives for these boards? I would appreciate any help!

THANK YOU!

 

[kjwise]

asus k7v133 period.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

id personally recommend ddr, but that wasnt the question. i like the a7v, have had a couple of them and no problems. if you can, try to pair that stick up with another 128 megs for 256 total.

 

[pay]

If you want to have fun tweaking, then get the Iwill KK266.. it will get you high FSB's too

 

[ksallen]

I like the IWILL KK266-R. I've had no problems. Very stable. Jumperless overclocking is a breeze. Downsides, as stated in anandtech articles, is the socket is so close to the edge of the motherboard. Changing the processor after motherboard is installed is really hard. Couldn't get the heatsink/fan in. Had to take the whole thing out. Not a huge problem though. Also, IDE cables and such tend to crowd the SDRAM on this board, reducing air flow. Excellent board though.

 

[Andy22]

Honestly from what I have read on here, you have picked the three most popular Athlon TBird boards so I don't think you can go wrong with any of them.

With that being said, I am using an Asus A7V133 and love it so far

 

[JayZe]

i just bouught an Iwill KK266 for the sole purpuse of saving money on a sound card; as i hear the KK266 is equiped with great on-board sound, but since you have already have a good soundcard then i would have to go with the ASUS A7V133, if you look at http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1424&p=8 then you will see that the ASUS beats out the IWill by just a little bit in benchmarking, so ASUS would probably be your card if your into gaming...

 

[MustPost]

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1489

Read Anandtech KT133A roundup

 

[TheCrusher]

I've built a system with the IWill KK266, and everything worked fine, except for the Sound Blaster. Everything seemed to be OK with the SB install, but then I had problems with programs locking up the system during installs (AOE and Starcraft specifically). I took out the SB, and went with the onboard sound and everything is great. I'd recommend going without the SB card with any KT133 based board, based on all of the comments I've seen on the forums. I've seen several comments to the contrary, but going with a MB with onboard audio seems like a safe approach, and the IWill audio is probably the best onboard around.

 

[Insane3D]

The Iwill KK266-R is probably the best Socket A board out right now. The other's you mentioned are fine too, so whatever you choose you should be fine.


"asus k7v133 period."

Wow, such a definative statement...what kind of CPU does a "K7V133" take..an 133mhz Slot A chip? I think you mean the A7V133, the K7V was Asus' Slot A KX133 offering...

 

[MrHelpful]

LOL I was going to mention that until I saw you post it.