Which best motherboard?

[Dr Mordrid]

The KT7a is the way to go. It has ATA100 and 266 mhz FSB support for the new AMD processors. Big advantages over the original KT7. Here's the press release;

http://www.abit-usa.com/english/press/2000/press225.htm

I would not, however, go with the onboard RAID controller. It's by HighPoint and my experience with their hard/software is not good. Don't even ask.....

Instead get the "bare" KT7a and get a Promise Fasttrak100 to go with it. This works very nicely, especially with the new Maxtor and IBM 7,200 rpm ATA100 drives.

Dr. Mordrid

[Merv Wilson]

Which best motherboard?

Jan 17 '01

As I do a lot of video-editing using MSPro6, I want to upgrade my system, mainly the CPU & motherboard. Currently my set-up (which has worked well over the past year) is as follows:

CPU: AMD K6-2 333Mhz. AT power/supply. Asus P5A-B Socket7 M/Board.
Matrox Marvel G200 AGP VidCap/Graphics card 16Mb SDRAM.
192Mb of system SDRAM. 17in iiyama Vision Master Pro 410 - Diamondtron NF tube.
10.1Gb system/boot Hard disk IBM Deskstar. 16.8Gb Video Hard disk IBM Deskstar.
Win98SE. Iomega 100Mb Zip Drive. Plexwriter CD-RW 12x10x32A.
MediaStudioPro 6.0 Video Editing Software.
Digital Camcorder: Panasonic DX1E - 3x CCD, analogue in/out. (no DV out!)
VCR: JVC HR-S7000 (S-VHS). Separate 5in JVC Monitor.

As prices have dropped considerably lately the Socket A Athlon 900Mhz seems a good deal as does a matching motherboard, Abit KT7 RAID VIA KT133 Socket A 6P 1I AGP 3DIMM ATX Or is the Asus or Gigabyte board a better bet for this particular chip.
I am quite content with my Matrox Marvel G-200, the combined VidCap/Graphics card, so am keeping this as well as the two IBM Deskstars. I shall also acquire a midi tower with an ATX 250 or 300W PSU.
Would be grateful for any advice from you experts out there. Many thanks.

Merv Wilson

[IM_Riktar]

I will second the Doc's suggestion on avoiding ANY mobo with onboard RAID. My personal experience was with an Iwill VD133 Pro with a Highpoint raid controller built into the Mobo. While I must say the board is still in service as my server using the raid for mirroring my main drives it stunk as a video solution since some genius engineer hardwired the board so that the IRQ was shared between the AGP card (Marvel G400) and the onboard raid. This provided for some long hair pulling sessions trying to figure out why I couldn't capture without constantly dropping frames. Maybe Abit doesn't force a shared IRQ with their setup but if they do you will not be happy.

My 2 cents

[Merv Wilson]

Thanks fellas for your prompt replies - I'll take that info onboard.

Merv

[Merv Wilson]

Thanks fellas for your prompt replies - I'll take that info onboard.

Merv