What high end AMD board should I buy??

xSlayx

Banned
Nov 30, 2001
13
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Hello,

Im looking for some suggestions on what should I buy. I want RAID onboard. I want it to be a fast and good overclocking board, and something with the KT266A chipset. I'm willing to spend the cash for a top of the line board, but want your suggestions before I fork it out. Will be using an Athlon XP 1800+ chip with the board. Overclocking is a BIG + for me :)
 

Ionizer86

Diamond Member
Jun 20, 2001
5,292
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76
Soyo Dragon + users sometimes have problems having to wait 30+ seconds for it to post. Go with EPoX 8KHA+ because it is THE performance board to have :)
 

hasu

Senior member
Apr 5, 2001
993
10
81
Looks like Soyo's Dragon Plus is the new King. I bought Epox 8k7a a few months back .. (pre 266A era). It is a good and very stable m/b. It never crashed or locked on me. But the CPU gets really very hot. It get as much as 54 deg centi-grade with good heat-sink, fan and thermal paste. Many folks reported much less heat than this for their CPU. It's very unlikely that CPUs will differ that much. I suspect the m/b power supply voltage levels for this elevated temperature. 8k7a does not have an option to reduce the CPU core voltage. Soyo Dragon seems to have this feature.
 

AA0

Golden Member
Sep 5, 2001
1,422
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the epox 8kha+ doesn't have raid, you might want the 8kha2 which is going to have raid, is it out? Haven't seen anything on it, but I haven't been looking either.

The A7V266-E is nice, I wouldn't trade it.
 

scoobydooby

Senior member
Dec 1, 2001
444
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There are lots of options out there, but from what I hear the epox is best for OCing. I suggest you check out the forums over at Amdmb
Scoob
 

Cancer12

Senior member
Nov 30, 2001
510
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Your going at it all wrong by thinking a change in motherboard will effect your temps drastically. And the last thing you want to is reduce the voltage levels. Try a different cpu fan or get more system flow. The 8k7a is a very good motherboard and a very good performer. The difference between that and the KT266A is not enough to warrant a new purchase. If you want Raid you can just go get a raid card.
 

Doomguy

Platinum Member
May 28, 2000
2,389
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The Dragon Plus is a really nice board but it's not an overclocker's board. It has v-core adjustments but no dimm voltage adjustments.
 

in2speed

Member
Dec 3, 2001
63
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I have read great reviews of the Soyo Dragon Plus, such as TomsHardware and AMDMB. Wish I could read Anand's review [hint, hint].

How much difference does adjusting the DIMM voltage make when overclocking? I am interested in getting a board that can do only modest overclock, since I don't plan to unlock my XP1700+.
 

Cybordolphin

Platinum Member
Oct 25, 1999
2,813
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Hmmmm...

I too am like THIS close to ordering the Dragon. Anyone contact the company and ask if a BIOS upgrade is coming that will fix the "slow" bootup?