What's the board to get if switching to AMD (no DDR)

[Dug]

I am switching to AMD from Intel (because 1.2g is cheap)and need advice on motherboard. I'm getting a little confused on this KT, KTA, KT133, A7, KT7, etc. stuff. I already have 384m ram so I don't want a DDR board, but I also want to beable to upgrade the processor later on past 1.2ghz. What to get?

 

[Dark4ng3l]

MSI k7t pro2-a

 

[Insane3D]

If you want to be able to upgrade to the Athlon/Palaminos when they go beyond 1.2ghz, your best bet would be the Abit KT7A or the KT7A-RAID. The reason is this, the new Palamino CPU's that AMD will be releasing later on down the line are supposedly going to require a high amperage draw. I don't think any of the KT133 boards will be able to upgrade to the newer AMD cpu's in their current state. The KT7A Raid is just hitting shelves now, with KT133A variants from MSI and Asus soon to follow. Epox also has a KT133A board out, the 8KTA3. I am not sure, but supposedly the KT7A/KT7A-RAID with their special "3 Phase" MOSFET power supply will be able to handle the new CPU's. I can not say for sure, but I believe the Epox and ASUS KT133A boards will not be able to handle those CPU's, at least for now. As far as MSI's upcoming KT133A board, the K7T-Turbo, I have no idea if it will have the ability for future CPU's. None of this is established fact right now, but from the info I have heard, your best bet is a KT133A board. This all may change down the line, but it looks like right now the Abit KT7A is the one board that seems to have the best chance of future compatibility. If anyone has anymore info on the Palamino comaptibility, please do tell...

 

[Insane3D]

This is a little quote from HardOCP's review of the KT7A that explains what I was talking about.

"This board also has standard 3-Phase Power for supporting CPUs above the 1.5GHz mark with the needed power they may require."

Also, this is what Abit has to say about it...

3-Phase Power Solution

The last thing you need in your system is excess heat, or the stability and CPU lifespan issues that go with it. On the KT7A-RAID, ABIT has gone a step further in preventing extra heat: A six MOSFET transistor set for a ?3-Phase Power Solution.? These six transistors dissipate heat more effectively than the four transistor (?2-Phase?) solution found on most other Socket A motherboards. Additionally, should future Thunderbirds require higher amperage, the KT7A-RAID will address power and heat issues better than boards with 2-phase solutions.

Like I said before, none of this is established fact yet, but this board is most likely the best chance at future upgradeability of available KT133A based boards. It will be interesting to see if MSI's new KT133A board will have a similar solution. I hope this helps..

 

[Flash]

When you look at the picture of MSI upcoming K7T Turbo-R there are eight Mosfets around cpu-socket. Thats promising. Maybe its a four phase solution.

 

[damocles]

Check out this board too

Soltek SL75KAV-X


The Board
Review

Nice, and cheap also

 

[Insane3D]

Thanks for the info Flash! That sounds very promising...

 

[Sir Fredrick]

If you want reliability, stick with ASUS or MSI boards, I believe the latest Athlon chipset is the KT133

 

[LXi]

I predict, the new champion of KT133A, will be MicroStar K7T Turbo-R. Dont kill me if my predictions dont land though.

 

[Insane3D]

I agree LXi, yes agree. If MSI does use a power solution similar to Abit's, I would imagine the crown would be theirs. Also, the memory scores on the MSI Pro2A lagged a bit beind the Abit, I think, and hopefully MSI will adress that to some extent, but regardless, it looks like a great board. I tend to be impatient and I ordered a KT7A RAID, if it is even slightly problematic, I will return it and wait for the MSI.

One other thing, I know MSI usually releases their boards later than the other motherboard manufacturers, and one could say the extra R&D time makes them more stable than most others, but this has got to start hurting them if they wait too long. A lot of people are licking their chops waiting for the KT133A that are just coming out, MSI shouldn't wait too long. Alot of people will buy the Abit or the Epox just because it's already out. When MSI comes out with a better board, most of those people will not get the MSI simply because it was out so much later and they already picked up the Abit or Epox. If MSI came out with the board at the same time as the others, it would allow them to capture more of the market I would think. Just my opinion...

 

[LXi]

Smart buyers tend to wait and stay alert before buying anything new. There is hardly any KT133A board being reviewed, much less than KT133 boards. So far we know very little about KT133A, personally I'd wait for more reviews and brave souls who'd beta test these boards. The interpretation of MSI being slow, is due to their late arrival to the top game. Their KT133 board, the original K7T Pro, is actually one of the first to arrive, of course without the goodies of K7T Pro2A. They're not a slow manufacturer, they're a careful manufacturer, not many companies have the resources to put into three revisions of the same board, MSI does, and their K7T Pro2A arrived at the right time with the right feature set for many late buyers. With experiences they gathered from KT133, they should have no problem assembling a top quality KT133A board quickly. Expect the K7T Turbo-R soon.

 

[Insane3D]

LXi, this is true, but what made me pick up the Abit was the two reviews of it that were just posted by Via Hardware, and Hard OCP. Kyle got his KT7A up to a 146mhz bus with a 1.2ghz Tbird with some very impressive memory scores. Via Hardware got their 1.2ghz Tbird up to a 150mhz bus with some even more impressive memory scores. Check them out here...

Via Hardware

Hard OCP

Check out those memory scores that Via Hardware got...579/663!

 

[LXi]

I read them, I actually got the link to the VH review before they posted it, cause I know Jasper personally. While I do agree, the Abit is nevertheless an excellent board, its a little too early to declare it the best KT133A, its premature in a way that not even a tenth of the KT133A boards arrived.

 

[Insane3D]

You are right, I would never say the Abit is the best KT133A board until all of the KT133A boards are out and extensive testing has been done. If anyone declares it the best KT133A board before most of them are even out, that is entirely premature. I am very patiently waiting to see some tests on the Epox and MSI offerings..

 

[LXi]

Epox looks very promising, however they always give me the impression of an Abit rip off, demostrated by the similarities between their KT133/133A offerings. Asus seem to be faded away in the VIA KT133/133A battle.

 

[Insane3D]

That's true, I am not too excited about the A7V-133, but maybe that will change. The troubles with the A7V have made me think twice about trying the new Asus KT133A offering. The one thing that I do not like about the Epox is how they packed all those capacitors so close to the socket. I do like the different layout they have like the IDE ports and where they locate the ATX connector is interesting...