What are some advantages to the gigabyte 7dx(r) over the Epox 8k7a(+)?

[DaveNCheez]

I am looking very hard at the Epox,but some swear up and down that the Gigabyte is a superior board, and even with the newer bioses, the Epox still has catching up to do. Problem is I havent seen anyone state why or how the gigabyte is superior besides the extra dimm slot..


so what else besides the extra slot makes it better?

Dave

 

[roc]

It has awesome on board sound (sound blaster) and a better raid controller. A battle between the top 3 ddr boards including the ones you mention can be found at:
overclockers au - link to article

hope that helps,
roc

 

[DaveNCheez]

yeah wish I could skip online sound completely I got a SB LIVE
oh well

thanks for the review reading it now

Dave

 

[WhiteKnight]

Most of the opinions on this forum that I've seen seem to recommend the Epox over the Gigabyte. Why is this? This review would seem to indicate otherwise. Opinions?

 

[chainbolt]

<< Most of the opinions on this forum that I've seen seem to recommend the Epox over the Gigabyte. Why is this? This review would seem to indicate otherwise. Opinions? >>



That is simple to answer: the 7DXR is a bit newer than the 8K7A and more difficult to get. So, more peeps here have a 8K7A, and basically nobody here has at the moment a 7DXR. Go to the www.amdmb.com forum. In the Gigabyte forum thay have more posts about the 7DXR. from actual users.

Both boards are based on the same chipset and the same design. Differences in performance are
minimal and depend more on the specific board you get. The 7DXR has some features more and is more expensive, and comes only as RAID (the 7DX is a different board).

 

[MrCoyote]

They all have advantages/disadvantages from what I've read.

Epox: 2 phase power
RAID 0+1 ???
2DDR

Gig: 3 phase power
RAID controller is &quot;Lite&quot; meaning no RAID 0+1.
3DDR
Creative 4 channel sound

Personally, I've just ordered the 7DXR yesterday. I hope the company I ordered it from actually had it, or else I'm cancelling and going to wait *sigh* for the Abit KG7. I hate on-board sound and junk, and won't be using it. I have a SBLive to use. I just hope the on-board sound can actually be disabled good enough, so windows won't detect it and cause me problems.

 

[WhiteKnight]

No 0+1!? Darn, that sure throws a monkey wrench in the works... Argh, I can't wait for the KG7! I have to go back to school in mid-August, and I can't be still dealing with assembly then. This is the first computer I am putting together completely from scratch, though I've done several dozen from various stages of partial construction. Do you think that if I get a KG7 by say... the middle/end of July, that will leave me enough time for assembly and everything? I can do OCing and tweaking later, I just want the machine to be up and running by Aug 15th.

 

[MTDEW]

After reading the above &quot;linked&quot; review, I'm thinking several things.

Epox 8k7a+
Raid (I dont need it)
2 DDR (that sucks!)
Onboard Sound is poor (I'll disable it anyway)
2 phase pwr (no-one seems to think it matters)
$190.00 Edited (about that much)

Alot of people own one on this forum , so REAL help should be available if needed.

Gigabyte 7DXR
Raid (doesnt matter to me)
3 DDR (better than 2)
4 Channel onboard sound (still doesnt matter if youre disabling it)
3 Phase pwr
2 bios (thats insurance)
Windows bios flash upgrade (I'm using WinMe, so its a plus)
$220.00 (about that much, I cant find many places that carry it yet)

I never had much luck getting help from Gigabyte in the past, but I will admit the 686bx board I had was stable a heck &amp; is still running flawless to this day.

So for me it comes down to, Is a Windows flash utility,extra Dimm slot and backup Bios worth the higher cost?
Ive been trying to make this decision for a week!

MrCoyote,
Where did you order the Gigabyte from?
And If ya don't mind me asking, how much?

 

[MrCoyote]

I ordered it from TheNerds.net for $175 + ship. I'm just hoping I'll receive it next week, and they actually had it in stock. It said they had (7), but still said (7) after I ordered one. Today, it's not even listed on their site. I checked their site, and it said my order was still being processed. I'm going to call Monday, and if they didn't ship, I'm going to cancel. Someone said they don't have &quot;realtime&quot; inventory on their site, which is not good.

 

[roc]

I ordered mine on June 8th, and have yet to recieve it lol. They sent it out yesterday (via FedEx saver) and I hope to get it by monday -- its all I have left to get for my system. I ordered it so many times from other places I just went with PC Progress and stayed until they had stock. They didn't charge me until it shipped either so that is a definate +. Well I hope these boards are more readily available as from what I've heard and read are great. Chainbolt has been really helpful in providing information on my motherboard pick. Originally I was going to go with the EPoX but the Giga-Byte is such high quality (i.e - very nice RAID controller) which is very important to me. Also, both the Giga-Byte and the EPoX support the new Athlon4 or &quot;Palimino&quot; so there are no worries there. Anyhow, both are great boards but if you can get the 7DXR - certainly do so -

Best Regards,
roc

 

[Dan]

I've got the EPoX 8KTA3+. In general it's a good board but I can confirm one negative: the onboard sound sucks. I'm already committed to selling my Live! Value card to someone so it looks like I'm in the market for a new sound card.

 

[GundamF91]

8K7A+ for $130??? That's NOT right. That's the price for 8K7A, nonRAID version FYI.

 

[GundamF91]

forgot to mention I built my first system with Epox....no problem whatso ever. If you don't need RAID, then don't pay extra for that. I'm not convinced about Striping/RAID0's longterm stability, and RAID0 is just too expensive, so definitely no RAID for me, for now.

Epox has been rocksteady...u won't regret it.

 

[MTDEW]

Thanks for the correction GundamF91, I wasnt looking for raid so I overlooked the fact that the was a 8K7A &amp; a 8K7A+.



My bad.

 

[sliverback]

Gigabyte 7DXR
Raid (doesnt matter to me)
3 DDR (better than 2)

Yeah - I went thru a lot of the same thoughts about the boards and wanted to get the 7dxr for the extra dimm (and I liked the bios and sound install choices), but nobody could give me a close to immediate shipping date....so went with the Epox - one thing that might be worth consideration regarding the dimm is that the ram will need to be ecc I believe if you fill all three. It seems I read that all the three-dimm ddr boards are similar in that respect, while ALL the ddr boards will run 2 sticks unbuffered. Someone correct me here?

 

[MTDEW]

God, I hope thats not right!
I just clicked the order button for the Gigabyte at Pc Progress.

Cost: $218.00 2-day shipping.

 

[MTDEW]

Phew!
I'm juggling several windows here &amp; I wasnt at the last page of the order, so I dodged one there. (thank god for &quot;youve got mail!&quot

I'm gonna post another thread about that 3Dimms needing to be ECC &amp; see what it turns up &amp; maybe order a mobo tommorrow.(it wont ship til Monday anyway)

But Ive gotta do something soon, my new case &amp; cpu will be here by the middle of the week.

Dont be surprised if ya see the Epox 8K7A (non-raid) in my sig next week!

 

[chainbolt]

I luv this thread, to see all the thoughts behind the final decision. Good thing is, which of the 2 boards you buy, it's a good decision.

 

[dnguyen02]

This is my second post so be gentle... I just bought the epox 8k7a... I haven't touched it yet but I'll be sure to try a couple of days now... The thing that was the major deciding factor was that new egg sells the epox for 135 shipped which was an awesome price for that board. Now i am wondering how do i disable the sound? and also how do i upgrade the bios... or is that only with the gigabyte? thx a lot

 

[bevo]

The spec for the ddr ram is registered ram, not ecc when using 2+ sticks...

 

[pbehrens]

First when you use 3 or more sticks of DDR, it has to be *registered* (kinda like buffered, but not quite). Crucial sells 3 kinds of DDR: Plain, Registered, and Registered +ECC. The registred costs $5 per stick and runs *slightly* slowly than the plain. The Registered +ECC costs $10 more per stick and also is *slightly* slower than the plain.

Also, I just bought an EPOX 8K7A from newegg (great price!) and everything is working great with it. To disable the sound in BIOS just hit DEL and setup, choose Integrated Peripherals, and set AC97 to Disable.

One word of warning about the EPOX. Do *NOT* use a Netgear FA311 or FA312 network card with it, the NIC is incompatible with many (including Epox) AMD 761 chipsets. If you use a Netgear card, the computer will not power on and boot properly, or restart from windows.

My $0.02

 

[farand]

pbehrens, where did you hear that about the netgear nic? I have a FA311 that thinks its a FA312 on a epox 8k7a, and I was trying to figure out why it wouldn't restart. Is there any workaround? And are netgear cards the only ones with this problem? I guess I'll have to pick up a linksys nic next time theyre on sale at compusa...

 

[IdahoB]

Pbehrens, don't overstate the problem too much - from the way you put it the board sounds like a complete screw-up.

Owners of varios NICs sometimes have problems with the softoff feature, particularly when rebooting from the BIOS. The machine just refuses to reboot. Clicking the reset, or in extreme cases, switching off, seems to solve it. I'm almost certain it'll be solved in a BIOS update.

I own the 8K7A and I think it's fantastic. I've read very good reviews about both it and the 7DXR. Personally, there's so little to seperate them, I'd go with whichever is available and cheapest.

 

[bevo]

<< Do *NOT* use a Netgear FA311 or FA312 network card with it, the NIC is incompatible with many (including Epox) AMD 761 chipsets. >>

They are incompatable with any amd761 chipset...

 

[DaveNCheez]

Im all about the Epox now.... should be ordering one monday, or as soon as I can get a good pump to power this water cooler hehe

Dave