Low Budget DDR Socket A Mobos : Opinions Needed

[TiG]

I'm helping a friend choose some bits for an upgrade. Has anyone here used the following motherboards ?
Asus A7v333
MSI k7t 266a Pro2a
MSI 745 Ultra
MSI Kt3 Ultra

Personally I'm tossing up between the k7t 266a and 745 ultra.
The Sis chipset is the only thing I'm not sure about, but I hear they are much improved these days.
I've had a good experience with my k7t turbo le, particularly LiveUpdate, so we'll probably get one of the MSI's.

Thanks for your help

[Dr Mordrid]

Avoid the VIA chipsets and go for the SiS 745 based boards.

The SiS's are much more stable and don't have the bandwidth problems so inherent in VIA's offerings. They also have a high-speed bus between the north & south bridges that aids multimedia by quite a bit. SiS has come a LONG way of late.

In high performance modes of operation, such as with the new Matrox RT.X100 realtime video editing board, VIA chipped systems cannot make the cut for the "recommended list" while SiS chipped boards for both the P4 and Athlon are all over it.

My choices:

ECS K7S6A (fewer features than the others)
MSI 745 Ultra
ASUS A7S333

Big advantage to all three: all are prices at only about $80...or less in the case of the K7S6A's $60.

Damned cheap for a high performance Athlon board.

Dr. Mordrid

[TiG]

Thanks for the super- prompt reply Doc!

The SiS chipset does sound alot more stable than the VIA. I haven't heard anything much about bandwidth probs, but then again I haven't looked that hard. Also with the SiS he may not have to spend all his time installing 4in1 drivers, like I seem to be doing lately.

I can remember all the problems people had with SiS based boards when I was a tech a few years back. Good to see they've turned it around. And started leading the push to bring DX8 graphic features to those of us still paddling along in the mainstream

Thanks again

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup....the SiS's are pretty darned good. I have a few systems running them now and they work just great, even with finicky hardware like the RT-2000.

It still kills me that they can run hardware like the RT.X100 so well while the Gigabyte GA-7VRX (VIA KT333) couldn't even come close while costing twice as much (or more)

PS: I'm only running the GA-7DX+ until I can get my hands on one of the new ECS K7S7A's, which have yet to hit the shelves. It uses the new SiS 746 and *might* also have their new 1 GB/s southbridge bus

Dr. Mordrid

[TiG]

If I read much more about these boards I might just spring for one myself! Might wait for the NForce2 to surface first though.

Additionally : Do you know of any problems I might have running a AthlonXp 1800 (or thereabouts) in my KT133 based K7T LE? I'm confused about DDR ; lot's of folk carry on like you NEED it to use an XP. But surely if the bios supports the CPU it will work?

[Dr Mordrid]

You really should use DDR memory with an AthlonXP.

If, for example, you were to use an AthlonXP 1800 with PC-1xx memory this would force you to run a slower FSB and thereby deliver a lower than normal clock from the CPU.

This isn't too big a deal since you can get 512 megs of DDR333 for about $125. Nice place to use the $$ you save on the SiS mainboard

Dr. Mordrid

[TiG]

Ahhaa. Thanks for clearing that up. Guess I've just been out of the hardware loop for too long

Unfortunatley it's not quite as cheap here in Australia, 256 MB Kingmax DDR 333 is $199 AUD. But that's till a lot cheaper than RAM has been in the past. Looks like I might as well hold off on the XP idea until I can afford a good mobo and ddr as well. It's only going to get cheaper anyway

[az]

Ehhh, sorry doc, but he won't be using a lower FSB with PC133 than he would with PC266 - the difference is that his RAM bandwidth is halved with PC133, which is an issue because Athlons use a Double-pumped 133 MHz FSB, thus they can - unlike P3s - use the additional bandwidth of PC266.

Despite that, take his advice. You will be able to run with SDRAM, but you'll cripple your athlon with it, so go for DDR if you can

AZ

[TiG]

Ok, thanks az. That actually makes sense
Has anyone actually compared the difference between Athlons on DDR and SDR? If it's not much I might get the Athlon now and the new board and ram later.

[az]

Well, you could always get the athlon and an ECS K7S5A (SiS 735 chipset, integrated LAN and crappy audio, VERY cheap), and continue to use SDRAM, then get some DDR, rip out the SDR, and use the new RAM with this board, as it supports both DDR and SDR, but not at the same time

AZ

[TiG]

Good suggestion az. I think I've seen that board around the online stores here in AUS. What's the 735 chipset like tho?

[az]

It's the 745 without support for DDR333. Which is obsolete anyway, because running FSB and RAM asynchronous is slower on the SiS chipsets than running both at 133 MHz (or 266, if you prefer to use "virtual" clock speeds).

The K7S5A has NO overclocking features, btw, but there is an app for changing the FSB and RAM speeds (it changes hidden settings in the BIOS).

I have this board myself, and for the price, it's great.

AZ

[RhinoZ]

Hey,
I have a chance to pick up an ASUS A7S333 board (used), but I was waiting to pick up the K7S6A board that you people have been saying good things about . Is there a big difference in these two boards?

[103er-Fan]

Originally posted by RhinoZ
Hey,
I have a chance to pick up an ASUS A7S333 board (used), but I was waiting to pick up the K7S6A board that you people have been saying good things about . Is there a big difference in these two boards?

No, there won't be a big difference. There are some people here using that Asus A7S333 and I think it works ok for them. I think the Asus has even a few more options in the BIOS to play around with.

[Wombat]

I really like my board. It's been stable and fast. It cost me about 1/2 of what a Via board would, but performs better.