Time To Upgrade: Abit KT7 or Asus A7V?

[Dan]

I'll be ordering parts for an upgrade next week. So far I've settled on a Duron 600MHz CPU and an Enlight 7233 mid-tower. For a motherboard, I'm trying to decide between the Abit KT7 and Asus A7V. Which one is best for overclocking?
Here are the system's other relevant components, which I'm keeping from my current system:

NEC 128MB CAS 2 PC-133 DIMM
Western Digital 20.5GB, ATA/66, 7200rpm
CL Graphics Blaster TNT2 Ultra, 32MB, 2x AGP
Shuttle 50X CD-ROM, IDE
Pine 4X-4X-24X CDRW, IDE
CL SoundBlaster Live, Value! Sound Card

Once the smoke clears from this, the next component to upgrade will be the video card.

 

[Primus]

I have almost the exact same setup as you before upgrading, only reason I picked up a A7V was because the KT7 wasn't available in Canada yet.

Anyway here are some problems I found straight off the bat with the A7V:
Filling up 4 PCI slot cause problems: IRQ conflict all over the place, in the end I had to disable my Parallel port to get my video card working (CL TNT2 Ultra). After installing the SB Liveware 3.0 my soundcard conflict with the onboard IDE controller, I had to take the soundcard out, swap it with my network card. That conflict went away. Another problem was the long boot up delay, the ATA100 controller kept searching for devices on the secondary channel, this problem went away when I plug my new Maxtor ATA100 drive into it.

Other than those annoying problems, it's a solid motherboard, no problem getting my Duron 600 to 800, it even boot up at 1GZ, but of course not stable enuf to run anything.

I have not use the KT7 so I can't say much.

 

[SmackdownHotel]

Want to overclock? Get the KT7.

 

[zuze]

kt7 will be a great choice. besides its a little cheaper because than a7v because a7v has that promise controller. it is much better than a7v. You don't have to go inside the case everytime you want to change the settings, but I guess its a matter of a preference.

 

[Dan]

Thanks for the input! I definitely want to overclock. I don't mind getting inside my case but it would be convenient to have software settings rather than changing jumpers. The latter isn't a big deal, I guess it's just a convenience issue.

 

[Technonut]

I have the KT7. (non-RAID) It is fast, overclocks well, and is very stable. I had no problems at all setting it up. I am quite impressed by it.

 

[Isaiah]

Asus A7V is a great board

Abit sucks read this Once again.... Abit is a major let down for me.


Isaiah

 

[jonnyGURU]

I wish the MSI had multiplier settings.

Because overall, both the Asus and Abit suck for reliability when compared to the MSI or Biostar (which have bus settings, but no multiplier).

 

[springdale]

I just built a Duron with the KT7. A happy camper here.
Just check out http://www.go.to/kt7faq before setting it up for an aggravating-free experience.

 

[Dan]

Thanks, springdale. That site is going to come in handy!

 

[han888]

abit and msi for amd cpu, i never trust asus for amd cpu, before that i have thunderbird 700 on asus a7v, and i sold already, because of too many problem and change to p3-700 with cuv4x and have no problem here