Which KT333 MOBO?? Asus vs MSI vs others?

[kormaster]

No raid is needed.... but im confused!!! i dont know wchi mobo to buy. Im gonna be putting XP 2000+ chip in there...

Ok... MSI KT3 Ultra2(6380E-050) is cheap $85
But Asus VIA A7V333 KT333 Chipset ATX Motherboard is at $125

guys?? i still need to buy HS for my AMD... Im gonna be putting this in Antec SX1040

Everytying is from newegg.com

Help me... I also need about 1 gig of PC 2700.... which brand do i get??? should i really get 2700??? or stick with cheaper 2100... CRUCIAL vs Mushikin??
Thank you guys!

 

[Soulkeeper]

i like the asus board better than the msi one
a lot of the choice is personal preference
but asus has never done me wrong
a lot of people around here like the epox one

 

[kormaster]

anymore comments?? PLease help me spend that whopping $1000+ for a system... hehehe without the mobo.. i cant order it!!! BUMP

 

[JBT]

I just bought the MSI board should be arriving today around 5 pm w00t w00t it looked like a good deal all the features I needed plus a great price. I hope its better than this junk ECS board I have now lol. I already have some Crucial PC2100 DDR so im sticking with that for now. But i may opt for the 2700 just for the heck of it if I find some cash lying around.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Epox 8K5A2+ gets my vote. In stock@Mwave.com

 

[meDave]

I'm using the AOpen AK77-333 mobo. I've had it now almost 2 weeks so far very happy with it,
It runs really stable it uses the VIA Apollo KT333 chipset 5 PCI, USB 2.0, ATA 133, and Onboard 5.1.
Right now im using 1 stick of Crucial PC2100 and a XP1800+ @ 142 = 1633 (XP2000+ )
thats with vcore @ 1.8, with vcore @ 1.85 I can get it to 145 = 1668

I'm gonna put some faster ram in there pretty soon and then I'll see if I can push it some more

 

[Mem]

I like MSI but Epox 8K5A2 gets my vote(non-RAID version) as well.

 

[veryape]

What, no votes for the Gigabyte GA7VRXP? I just got mine and it seems like a VERY stable board so far, but I've only had it for two days and haven't pushed it too far yet. Soon, my son, soon. 1800XP+GA7VRXP=>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>, I hope at least. We'll see though.

John-Paul, aka veryape

 

[woodcomp]

I have built about 125 systems based on the KT333 chipset using all the various boards. I would say in my order of picks would be.

MSI - Best bang for the buck, really stable and is very forgiving of memory brands.

Epox - A good stripped board with excellent O/C capabilities.

Asus - Feature rich, but your wallet needs to be also to afford this board.

Gigabyte - Lots of good features, fair price, but is picky about the memory, and I absolutely hate the dual BIOS.

ECS - Not there best best board by far, but for the price if you are on a strict budget I would use it.

 

[Boonesmi]

another vote for the epox boards

i just love mine

 

[SladeZero]

Wood Says it all,

MSI is good for overclocking and very stable but have heard it can't hit the high
O'C like the ASUS can. Again MSI is the BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK.....
OH...do I hear something similiar "AHEM" AMD AMD .
I know MSI is good usually installs right out of the box

That's my thoughts
SladeZero

 

[PolPot]

My only experience with Epox has been bad. I bought an 8K7A mobo about a year ago and I had random lockups all the time and finally the motherboard stopped working completely a couple of months ago. The fan over the north bridge stopped working pretty early on. I wasn't impressed at all. I bought it because I heard they had a good reputation for quality and I liked the features, but I don't think I'll go with them again after that experience.

 

[Boonesmi]

sucks you had a bad experience with the epox (maybe it was just a bad board)

epox is right at the top of the list of quality manufactures

one thing i like about the 8k5a2 is that it has no fan on the northbridge... those fans always seem to go bad.... i really like how they chose to instead just use a high quality heatsink that doesnt need a fan

 

[Mem]

The fan over the north bridge stopped working pretty early on. I wasn't impressed at all. I bought it because I heard they had a good reputation for quality and I liked the features, but I don't think I'll go with them again after that experience.

I`m on my first Epox board and have to say it has been great & rock stable,my other MSI board is rock stable as well,it`s hard to judge a company on one board especially if you get problems but the first board of a new brand you`re trying does set the standard for your opinion,I had a faulty AMD cpu that gave me hell before I got it replaced last year,does it mean AMD are bad or make poor processors ? Of course not.

In general the wise way is to read lots of reviews and get feedback for friends and members that have the model you`re interested in,any motherboard brand can arrive faulty or become bad so it`s part pot luck but the percentage is small.


Epox IMHO are up there at the top now.

 

[BowlingNut]

well, i dont have any of the boards, but i am planning to buy a KT3-Ultra (dunno if i'm gonna get the 2 or opt for the ARU). i wanna stick a 1600 in there with some nice 2700 mem (i cant afford a gig tho )

 

[SladeZero]

Hey there BowlingNut,

I am there with you on that. I have the KT3 w/ XP 1600
Just make sure to stay away from the MUSKIN PC 2700. It
has probs with the AMI Bios as MEM and some others were gracious enough to
show me.
Unless you need the USB 2.0 and the RAID you are really better off with just
the KT3. I would think the ARU would be cheaper than the KT3 Ultra 2.
Bios updates would allow you to upgrade for later CPU's so it's just a matter
of how much you want to spend.

I have the ORIG KT3 and LOVE IT.

 

[jjjjayd13]

Just recieved MSI KT-333 Ultra.

After upgrading my video card (PCI), all is well!

 

[Insane3D]

Another vote for the Epox. The 8K5A series are probably the top KT333 chipset based boards right now.

 

[apriest]

Originally posted by: veryape
What, no votes for the Gigabyte GA7VRXP? I just got mine and it seems like a VERY stable board so far, but I've only had it for two days and haven't pushed it too far yet. Soon, my son, soon. 1800XP+GA7VRXP=>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>, I hope at least. We'll see though.

John-Paul, aka veryape

I vote for the GigaByte GA-7VRXP as well. I've sold 8 of them to customers, all who are EXTREMELY happy with the stability and performance. I've been using 512MB Corsair XMS PC2700 CAS 2 in them, CPUs ranging from Athlon 1800+ to 2200+, ATI Radeon 7500 or 8500, and the WD 8MB Cache or IBM 120GXP drives. Nutty performance. These are not gaming machines of course, strictly business machines, so no overclocking, Ti4600s, or Radeon 9700s. I don't know how well they OC, but they are fine stable board and that wins my vote!

 

[RandomFool]

I have the epox 8k3a+ and it's a great board but i've heard good things about the MSI too. As for Ram i'd go for Corsair it's pretty. I also definatly go fo the 2700.

 

[eplebnista]

IMO, I'd recommend the Soltek SL-75DRV5 and original Samsung PC2700.

My $.02,
eplebnista

 

[Goi]

If you want reliability and brand name, go with Asus/Abit/Gigabyte. If you want performance and features, the Epox is apparently unbeatable. If you wanna go cheap, then get the ECS K7VTA rev3.1