xp1700 - What m/b to buy that uses DDR but avoids via?

[FelixDeCat]

Ive had nothing but bad luck with via and would like to avoid them if I can. Whats the best board to buy?

edit: forgot to mention - I dont intend to overclock (although it would be nice to have the option)

 

[bigredelmo80]

Screw bad luck.
Get a kt266a and you won't be disappointed.
Get the soltek board.

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

IWill's XP333 is nice.. as long as you don't get scared off by the ALi name. Anyways, the board's known to be as fast at 266A and uses DDR. You could also go SiS and try an ECS K7S5A, which there's a lot of mixed feelings about, but for the most part, seems to be a decent board as well.

 

[Rand]

If your on a budget the ECS K7S5A is decent, though it's had a somewhat spotty reliability record from reports of previous buyers.
If you have more money the iWill XP333 is good for overclocking.

The ECS board uses the SiS735 chipset, the iWill board uses revision 'C' of the ALi Magik1 chipset.

 

[Pabster]

Go with SiS 735. I highly recommend the ECS K7S5A. Coupled with that CPU, there isn't a better price/performance ratio anywhere.

 

[FelixDeCat]

how about :

ASUS A7M266 AMD 761Chipset 266/200MHz FSB Motherboard- Retail 2 184pins DDR DIMM slots, 1 AGP PRO, 4 PCI, 1 AMR, C-Media® CMI-8738 PCI Audio, 4 Channel Speaker Mode, NO LAN , Jumper Free, STR, SFS, 4 USB Ports, Integrated Serial Infrared, 2MB Award Bios, ATX form for AMD

 

[tapir]

The Leadtek 7350KDA is an SiS735 based board that's basically faster than any other non-KT266A board out there. There are some issues with it, but I'm getting one tomorrow, so if mine works I'll let you know... all the customer reviews on Newegg are very positive, and it features overclocking and an onboard LAN connector as well as some other stuff. Like I said, I'll let you know how the board is after I put my new rig together.

 

[Evadman]

I would go with the K7S5A. I have had no problems with that board yet.

 

[Jen]

AMD 761 chipsets is what i like most of all.......epox 8k7a is what i use


Jen

 

[Cancer12]

Come on guys, he's trying to avoid Via, and you recommend an AMD760?

 

[bigbootydaddy]

<< AMD 761 chipsets is what i like most of all.......epox 8k7a is what i use


Jen >>



i second AMD 761...i got the epox 8K7A+.



<< Come on guys, he's trying to avoid Via, and you recommend an AMD760? >>



well...yeah...since its among the stablest available...as long as there is no (typical) user errors.

booty

 

[kmmatney]

I highly recommend the ECS K7S5A as well. I've built 4 systems with it so far, and all work great. You have the ability to overclock using cpufsb software. The SIS 735 chipset itself is rock solid, and their are now other MB companies besides ECS making SIS735 based boards. NewEgg sells SIS735 boards from LeadTek and ChainTech, as well as ECS.

Its very hard to beat the price/feature/performance of the ECS K7S5A.

 

[FelixDeCat]

As long as the north bridge is not VIA I shouldnt have any issues right?! My biggest problem is always the sound card and usb ports. I have a SB mp3 5.1.

 

[Morpheux]

I know you are trying to stay away from VIA but, I have a SB sound card and using 6 USB devices in my system. This MSI board is great! I had the AMD Gigabyte board before this and it was also very nice, but not as nice as the Pro2-RU.

Water cooled XP1600+ @ 1.628Ghz+ (155fsb) @ 32C
MSI K7T266 Pro2-RU | 512MB Crucial DDR2100
Gainward CARDEXpert GF3 PowerPack Golden Sample
Creative Labs Audigy X-Gamer
Kenwood True 72x, Pioneer Slot DVD, Plextor 16/12/40
Maxtor 2x40GB RAID0 & 30GB (7200 ATA-100/66 )
Samsung SyncMaster 955DF
Mod'ed Antec SX1030B (2x92mm exhaust & 120mm, 92mm, 80mm intake) Enermax 351P

USB devices:
Fugifilm Finepix2300
HP PhotoSmart 1115 Printer
HP Scanjet 4470c
Iomega ZIP100
APC Back-UPS CS 350VA
Logitech MouseMan Optical