The Abit AT7 or ASUS A7V333

[Cloudchaser]

I'm looking to build me a new comp the following weeks and I'm somewhat in a motherboard bind. I've narrowed it down to the two conteders mentioned in the topic, Abit AT7 and ASUS A7V333. I'm asking for some input from people with first-hand experience with either one of these cards and eventual pros and cons, for example the jumper-setting problems some has experienced with the A7V333.

As an additional question, how do you think the nForce chip stacks up against the KT333? I've pretty much made up mind my, going for the KT333, but if someone has an avid urge to proclaim the cause of the nForce chip, please feel free to do so as I can still be swayed.

 

[DukeChestnut]

1st off, nforce =

concerning the at7 and a7v, if it were up to me i would go with the a7v b/c its been benched and proven fast and stable. i'm on the fence about the at7. its legacy free and thats a plus but its also the 1st iteration of the design which is kind of a scary/sketchy gamble of a choice. i would wait for at least the 2nd iteration of that design so they can address the bugs/flaws. i read some posts about some ppl having probs with the at7/it7 boards. if i were adventurous i would consider the at7.

good luck!

 

[NicColt]

GotApex just put out a comparison betwen the two.

I have to agree that I do like the Abit for the potential, but Asus was just more stable and faster. I'm just POd that asus didn't include an spdif out or lan

 

[onelin]

I'll just say this, I've had my A7V333-raid for a few days and I love the features...but the jumpers SUCK. I don't know who placed that firewire jumper inbetween two PCI slots and next to a transistor, but whoever did it was a complete moron. make SURE you don't have to change this one back and forth... I had to use my bios savior tweezer things to get it a few times.

1) make sure you have a more than adequate PSU especially if you plan on using all the usb/firewire (seems to kill 5V rails in a setup this high end w/ GF4 and 5 case fans HDD/2 CDROM) ...intellimouse wouldn't even work before an ANtec430W True in my setup.

2)I'd say steer clear of Nforce, it doesn't seem too impressive. I do wish this board had onboard LAN...but I Have a 3com NIC. I'd like dual NICs at some point however....but I'm on dialup atm (no options)

follow-up: Looks like for some reason my Corsair XMS PC2700 can't handle lowest timings even in and below spec (266) so I'm emailing Corsair. no real issues w/ this board

 

[jdd48]

I recently built a new computer with an Abit AT7, and I can say I am very happy with the overall performance of it. Some complaints by others are that the socket is badly placed and makes the heatsink hard to install, but I had no problems installing my heatsink. I'd recommend it to anyone. It only has 3 PCI slots, but with 8 USB slots and 2 firewire ports included, theres no need for many PCI slots.

 

[NicColt]

also according to this anandtech article it doesn't yet suppor the Tbread while the A7V333 does.

 

[SP33Demon]

I've been trying to decide upon this Abit or the Epox for my next Socket A KT333 board as well. I like the idea of having 8 HD's on RAID!!! As mentioned above, no support for Tbred but that will probably be fixed by a future BIOS update, no biggie. Anyone else have thoughts on this board?

EDIT: I checked on that article posted above, and found that the ABit Bios update is dated 4/22/02, where the new AT KT333 review says that they used an update from 6/7/02, correct me if I'm wrong. And, if anyone can confirm that this "newer" Bios update has support for the Tbred, that would be much appreciated!

 

[ViperZ]

I have always been a big Abit fan and havce always looked forward to their latest offering in the VIA chips. I almost bought a KR7-RAID, but then decided to wait for the KT333's

The first Abit offering was the AT7, though cool in forward thinking, I can't yet abandon serial ports as I use my PC to communincate with various pecies of equipment, thus I still need RS232.

Then the Asus A7V333-RAID came out and it had everything I needed. I snapped it up and I ahve to say I'm pretty happy with it thus far. It seems very stable though I have not really pushed it yet. Currently I'm running it at 140mhz FSB (mild OC) and will push it harder once I have more time.

You may possibly want to look at the Abit KX7 -333 as a more comparitive board to the Asus A7V333.

Sure the A7V has been said to be a busy looking board, but with a bit of work it can look very nice with clean looking wiring. The jumpers are overkill compare to most other boards.

Here is a picture of my new rig

Spec...

Asus A7V-333 RAID
AMD 2100+ XP @ 18.2 Ghz
Alpha PAL8045 / 5200 Y.S. Tech Fan
512MB Samsung 2700 DDR RAM
Hercules GF3 @ 490/220 (Gainward Ti 4600 GF4 ... soon)
2 x 40 GB Maxtor DL740 ATA 133 in RAID 0
1 x 40 GB Quantum FireBall ATA 100 Backup Drive
Pioneer 106s DVD drive
Plextor 24x10x40 CDR-W
Intel Pro 100 NIC
SB Live Platinum 5.1
Enermax 431W ps
Lian-Li PC 65 With Custom Drive Faces