want to build pc---what motherboard?

[bulletbugs]

Hi,

I want to build my own system. Previously, I was going to buy a
Abit Raid MB. But, now that MB doesn't seem fast enough with the new chips around now.

First, I am interested only in a ATHLON MB.

What MB would you recommend that is stable. No use for overclocking.

I want to buy 1G or 1.2 Chip for the MB.

Anandtech was supposed to have a review for a DREAM SYSTEM. This was in an article sometime in May 2001. Haven't heard anything since then.

What MB do you recommend to get to use down the road?

Bulletbugs

 

[Athlon4all]

Best mobo for Athlon, first of all Abit's KT7A-RAID is a very good board except that it has no DDR, there is no reason not to go DDR so it would be DDR mobo. And best DDR mobo for not ocing, is MSI's K7 Master, but I've heard a lot of people praising Epox's 87KA (I think it's the model). Abit's KG7-RAID is also gonna be a great board, once it's price comes down. So any of those 3 would be great.

 

[rgf]

I was in the same boat you are in now. I would purchase an Iwill kk266-R motherboard and an Athlon 1.2 ghz/ 266mhz bus processor. You can get a good deal over at Newegg.com. Remmember, this board uses sdrm. Buy crucial or mushkin sdram. Go to mushkin.com and purchase 128 MB PC 133 rev 3 sdram. The Iwill kk266-R can hold up to three sdram modules. My 2 cents....

rgf

 

[Boonesmi]

ill cast a vote for the epox 8k7a if you want ddr, and asus a7v133 if you want pc133.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

I'll second cast the vote for the ASUS A7V133...I CAN NOT KILL THIS BOARD!!! Thought that I would be ruff on it and play a DVD, play a CD(using Media player 7.1 w/visual studio), have IE 5.5 running AND play a game of MotoCross Madness 2 ALL AT THE SAME TIME and I could not make this machine flinch or screw up...Needless to say I am impressed and would wholeheartedly recommend this board. Now if DDR is your bag, then that I cannot help you with (yet.

My .02

 

[Zuluwarrior]

Epox 8k7a hands down.....reasonably priced, stable, takes DDR which is cheap
and overclocks like a little biatch! Just add a good heatsink for optimum
performance....

 

[Ausm]

I put my vote in for the gigabyte GA7DXR mobo


Ausm

 

[JeffDogg1979]

Well I had an Abit Kt7-Raid for 3 days until I returned it.

Since this is your FIRST computer that you'll build, you want something easy to setup. The Abit I had was crap, when I returned it to the store they weren't going to refund my $$$ until they tried it out (I couldn't install win2k, win98 wouldn't boot all the time, etc.). I was there 3 hours...Every Abit Kt7-Raid they had(20 boards) were bad. After witnessing that, I tend to doubt the product.

I ended up with a DFI AK76-SN based on the AMD 761 chipset, a nice DDR Mobo that supports 266 FSB and 4x AGP. The board is nicely laid out, so you can always get to the dip switches for the Chip settings. I would highly recommend this board to anyone.

I would also like to note that the board has had only 3 BIOS updates since it's release(unlike the numerous Abit releases, I think I saw in excess of a dozen on viahardware.com). All the updates have been basically performace improvements.

Also, you won't have to wave voodoo bones over the case or install hardware 1 card at a time...just pop everything in and you're up and running!

 

[nycxandy]

Hrm...

For a motherboard supporting SDRAM: Asus A7V133
For a motherboard supporting DDR: Asus A7M266

*NOTE* These are my suggestions for people NOT overclocking.

And yes... I'm a bit bias. =P

 

[heffe734]

the epox 8k7a or the gigabyte 7dxr...

 

[broadwayblue]

i second (or third) the a7v133. it's the first motherboard i have installed myself and i've had it running for just over 3 months now. my pc hasn't hung or crashed once! it's unbelievable...my pc at work crashes like twice a day and this board won't crash once ever!!!

 

[dude53]

get any Asus you won't regret am telling you it's the best by far and try Iwll, gagybyte,epox that why they selling so many of them.

 

[dude53]

forgot to tell you I got my asus ATv133a running almost has fast as al those ddr board don't forgot all this benchmark are at the max of the cpu and boards look at my bechmark Memory System Int ALU/RAM Bandwidth 654 MB/s
Current Memory System Float FPU/RAM Bandwidth 747 MB/s so close to ddr.

 

[olds]

I have a 1GB Tbird on an ABIT KT7A RAID board. Stay away from this board! This is the first machine I built and all I have been doing is troubleshooting, installing patches/drivers and pulling my hair out. The VIA drivers conflict with everything and the USB has problems.