Which Motherboard for AMD???

[monocrom]

I am thinking of building a computer with AMD Thunderbird.

Price of the CPU is very tempting, but I am not feeling safe due to the chipset problems people are complaining about...

What will be the best motherboard with maximum stability?

I will put:

G550
Soundblaster Live!
Pioneer DVD
Plextor 16X10X40
Generic Network Adaptor

I heard about imcompatibility issue with VIA and SBLive!, and some people are saying about "Southbridge" issue, which will be problematic with IDE CD-ROM/DVD-ROM/CD-RW.

Can anyone explain these things more in detail?

TIA

[[GDI]Raptor]

ASUS A7V266 based on VIA KT266 chipset

This is a very good AMD motherboard. I use it in my computer home, and it's stable! If you would like an SDRAM solution, go for the

ASUS A7V133 based on VIA KT133A chipset

[Indiana]

I can vote for the KT266, too - stability-wise it might be the best VIA has ever produced. And the lacking performance (not really lacking but not quite what you'd expect from DDR, either) is cured with the KT266A.

So just be sure you get a mainboard with the A revision and you'll have a damn fast AND stable computer. Even NVidia with their double-channel DDR will have some trouble to reach the numbers the KT266A gets.

[KvHagedorn]

Why would anyone buy VIA crap when now they can get a Tyan TigerMP dual board with AMD chipset in the North and South bridges for around $200???

With the dirt cheap prices of AMD CPUs, you might as well get a dual system..

Motherboard $210
2-1.2GHz Athlon MP $330
512MB DDR PC2100 $100 or less

Gimme a break.. why is ANYONE suggesting VIA anymore when this level of stability and performance is available at such a ridiculously low price?? Yeah, it's a little bit more, but still dirt cheap for what you're getting. Gotta be the best Athlon board available ever. It even has 64bit PCI slots! (Yes, you can use them for regular 32 bit as well).

[Indiana]

Maybe because not everyone wants to go through all the hassles such a DualCPU system can bring with? Especially when he's asking for stability. Besides the DualCPU system is nowhere near double single CPU speed in MOST cases.

And he wants to get a Creative soundcard. I guess that excludes SMP - at least according to Gurms comments.

[Maggi]

but if you're on a budget, you could slap in two Durons and get one helluva rig with a really interesting option to upgrade like 2x 2GHz Athlon MP ...

[Dr Mordrid]

Why not look for a board with the SiS 735?

All the reviews so far say it blows VIA out of the water and gives the AMD 760 all the competiton it can handle at a much cheaper price point.

Read this;

http://www.anandtech.com/chipsets/showdoc.html?i=1520

Dr. Mordrid

[LAMFDTK]

I never liked Tyan. Thats just me though.

Asus A7M266 I know 5 people who have them (includung myself) and they are rock stable. I never think about the motherboard when using this system. It is just like a P2B a rock. Get one.

[Wombat]

I'm looking to build a new system too, but I've decided to wait. I want to see the SiS735 out in bulk, and see how the KT266a chips are running (hey, maybe they'll be with a new 686B stepping), and even then I still might get an all-AMD MB. And AMD is supposed to have some interesting prices as the Palomino's come out over the next month or two.

I think I'll placate myself by buying some of the other components, like 60GB 60GXPs, and/or video cards, that I can use in my new system. I wish I could take my work machine home, it would be fun to play with (and have the nice monitor that it has).

[Dr Mordrid]

Careful with the IBM 60 and 75GXP's. Mine work fine, but they were built when the drives first came out.

The forums at StorageReview and other hardware sites are producing some very disturbing information hinting that things may have changed considerably.

Since last fall there have been some MAJOR production problems with an inordinate number of bad drives being shipped. Some say the bulk of bad drives are from Hungary and some from either the Phillipines or Taiwan.

What's apparent is that a lot of these drives are being returned and that many of the replacement drives are also failing in short order.

Dr. Mordrid

[KvHagedorn]

Pass over the TigerMP because of a soundcard? That's like turning down a $10,000 Ferrari because you don't care for the rims.. I dunno why people put up with the soundblasters for all the monkey wrenches they toss into things and poor sound quality anyhow..

I've got 2 Tyan boards and love them. They are the only ones out there with a 3yr warranty and a real tech support line. They aren't overclocker's boards, but they are extremely stable. Who needs to OC a dual 1.2 system anyhow?

The Asus board would probably be my choice if I could stomach a VIA chipset.

[thecurse]

me and my friend got ecs k7vza rev 3. it uses pc 100 or pc 133 memory. only minor 1 time complaint i have against this mobo is the closeness of resistors to the socketa. makes for a tight fit to get the super mini orb by thermaltake on.

we also went with this because of wanting to use all of our existing pc133 memory.

my system:

ecs k7vza rev 3
amd 1.4 ghz tbird
3 x 256 meg micron pc133
60 gig ibm/75 gig ibm
creative dvd/sony 104e cdrw
creative sb live platinum
geforce2
3com 10/100


my friends:

ecs k7vza rev 3
amd 1.33c tbird
2 x 256 meg micron pc133
45 gig ibm/60 gig maxtor
creative dvd/sony 104e cdrw
creative sb live platinum 5.1
geforce3
3com 10/100


both of our systems have been 100% rock solid stable

[monocrom]

Thanks for all the replies.

If I can't use SBLive! with dual processor, which sound card should I get?

This Tyan Tiger MB seems to be a pretty nice deal, almost the same price range as Asus A7V266.

I might just use 1 processor at this time, but being able to use 2 processors... might not hurt...

BTW, can anyone elaborate on the problems with VIA chipset? or direct me to an insightful site about the problems?

Thank you,

[[GDI]Raptor]

There is no problems on VIA KT266, not as far as i know, The south brige is not 868b either, and there is no problems with SB Live! cards, not on ASUS A7V266, ASUS A7M266 is an good option, AMD chipset....

I never liked Tyan motherboards........

[KvHagedorn]

Would any of these people who say they "never liked Tyan motherboards" (Raptor and LAMFDTK) please give some sort of reasoning there? Maybe you just don't like green.. You're yellow mobo people, right?

Sorry, but I hate when people just assume that what seems to be a vague impressionistic opinion should suffice as an argument. It makes you look extremely arrogant that without further explanation you somehow expect us to take this as holy writ.

No, the Tyan board doesn't have much in the way of overclocking features. The question is, are you going to overclock, or do you just want stability? Check the features out for yourself, to see if it's the board for you. Having actually used Tyan boards, I can tell you I have been extremely satisfied with their stability, build quality, and features, and their support is by far the best I have encountered. That being said, I am not an overclocker, so those type of features aren't that important to me. If you really want to seriously overclock, though, you should be investing in a few additional things to make it as stable as possible.. larger power supply, massive heatsinks and fans, and maybe even some more exotic gear like peltiers and water jackets (don't do this unless you are prepared to spend lots of time and money and run the possibility of damaging something.. it's for hobbyists only)

And the VIA chipsets have had a range of problems. There are some people here who could enumerate them from personal experience. Rags, for one has actually tinkered with them. Whichever board you pick, best of luck, monocrom.

edit: I shoulda checked out Maggi's thread first, with the article on Dual Athlon Overclocking