Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Best Athlon Board

Collapse
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 1
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous template Next
  • #1

    Best Athlon Board

    For all of you athlon users out there... Which board is the most stable for the athlon? I've heard that the VIA chipset isn't all that good. Is the AMD chipset better? I'm thinking about building a new system and I just want some feedback.

    ------------------
    Abit BM6
    Celeron 366@578(105fsb x 5.5)
    128mb SDRAM
    WD 7200rpm 18.1gb
    G400 32mb SH
    SB live value
    HP 8100i CD-RW


    Abit BM6
    Celeron 366@578 1.85V
    128mb SDRAM
    WD 7200rpm 18.1gb
    G400 32mb SH
    SB live value
    HP 8100i CD-RW
    Tags: None
  • #2
    This s a seriously opinionated question you are asking I hope you realize.
    But thats ok, cause almost everyone on this board is highly opinionated.

    So, here's my opinion. You are right that so far the Via KX133 chipset hasn't really been performing any better than the AMD 750. However, if you want AGP4x, UDMA 66, and true PC133 support(as well as CPU/RAM bus speed async) then you don't really have much of a choice. To date the only KX133 board that is readily available is the Epox 7KXA; Asus, AOpen, Tyan, and Abit have all officially anounced their respective boards and they supposedly will be shipping within a week or two.
    It is also true that the AMD 750 boards have had time to mature some and several are quite good. Most of the reviews I've read seem to be in favor of the MSI boards, the 6195 K7Pro, and the older 6167. Reviews of the Asus K7M seem to imply that it's a pretty good board, but probably isn't the best bet. The same can be said of the Biostar board.
    I've read little that has anything good to say about the Fic SD11. I can't recall right now whats been said about the Gigabyte board.

    I've read a few reviews of pre-release boards for some of the upcoming KX133 boards. The Asus K7V sounds like it should be the best of the crop this time around. The AOpen AK72 didn't do so great, and I haven't read anything about the Tyan board yet.

    So, to sum all that ranting up. If you don't want to chance a KX133 board or don't feel like spending the extra cash for the features that it brings, then get the MSI 6195 K7Pro. If you want those spiffy feature or somethign that will have more upgradeability, then I would recomend holding off for a month or so and see how the AOpen AK72, Tyan S2380, Abit KA7, and Asus K7V do against one another and the 7KXA.

    Or you can be impatient like me and preorder one of the new boards and then bitch when the ship date keeps getting pushed back.

    That should give you plenty to ponder for a little bit.

    Ian

    ------------------
    System Specs
    K6-2 350 @ 400
    Asus P5A
    256 MB PC133 SDRAM
    Matrox Mill G200 AGP PD 5.41/5.30 hybrid
    SBLive value LiveWare 3.0
    13.6 GB 7200RPM UDMA33 IBM HD
    8.4 GB 5400RPM UDMA33 WD HD (Dead, still trying to rescusitate)
    45X Acer CD-ROM
    Win98 se
    Red Hat 6.1
    Win2000 (to be added soon)
    Soon to be
    Athlon 650 (got it! YEA!!)
    128 mb PC133 SDRAM (got it! YEA!!)
    Tyan S3280 (pre ordered, ETA, 3/28 It keeps getting delayed damnit!!)

    "Any sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic." --Arthur C. Clarke




    [This message has been edited by HedsSpaz (edited 24 March 2000).]
    Primary System:
    MSI 745 Ultra, AMD 2400+ XP, 1024 MB Crucial PC2100 DDR SDRAM, Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro, 3Com 3c905C NIC,
    120GB Seagate UDMA 100 HD, 60 GB Seagate UDMA 100 HD, Pioneer DVD 105S, BenQ 12x24x40 CDRW, SB Audigy OEM,
    Win XP, MS Intellimouse Optical, 17" Mag 720v2
    Seccondary System:
    Epox 7KXA BIOS 5/22, Athlon 650, 512 MB Crucial 7E PC133 SDRAM, Hercules Prophet 4500 Kyro II, SBLive Value,
    3Com 3c905B-TX NIC, 40 GB IBM UDMA 100 HD, 45X Acer CD-ROM,
    Win XP, MS Wheel Mouse Optical, 15" POS Monitor
    Tertiary system
    Offbrand PII Mobo, PII 350, 256MB PC100 SDRAM, 15GB UDMA66 7200RPM Maxtor HD, USRobotics 10/100 NIC, RedHat Linux 8.0
    Camera: Canon 10D DSLR, Canon 100-400L f4.5-5.6 IS USM, Canon 100 Macro USM Canon 28-135 f3.5-5.6 IS USM, Canon Speedlite 200E, tripod, bag, etc.

    "Any sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic." --Arthur C. Clarke

    Comment

    • #3
      no crashes in 3 months (except for the 2 weeks i tryed win98se.) once i switched back to win98 no se the few random crashes i was getting disapered again.
      msi 6167 mobo k7 500 wk41 now at 650. 256 meg ram ,addtronics case w 250watt sp power supply, matrox g400, maxtor diammax 2500+ 10gig hd,10x aopen slot dvd, 3com 10/100 nic, sb live xgamer sound card, efecent networks dsl modem, dlink 701i dsl router/firewall, lots of controlers (joystick throttle rudder raceing wheel), 19in ctx monitor, logitech mouseman wheel usb, and klipsch promedia v2-400 speakers. win98 oem and win2k pro dual boot.

      noel
      it's times like this that make me think of my fathers last words....

      Don't son that gun is loaded.

      Comment

      • #4
        opps for got the sig.

        ------------------
        msi 6167 mobo k7 500 wk41 now at 650. 256 meg ram ,addtronics case w 250watt sp power supply, matrox g400, maxtor diammax 2500+ 10gig hd,10x aopen slot dvd, 3com 10/100 nic and 56k ext modem, sb live xgamer sound card, lots of controlers (joystick throttle rudder raceing wheel), 19in ctx monitor, microsoft inteli mouse explorer(5 buttons, and klipsch promedia v2-400 speakers.

        noel
        Don't son that gun is loaded.

        msi 6167 mobo k7 500 wk41 now at 650. 256 meg ram ,addtronics case w 250watt sp power supply, matrox g400, maxtor diammax 2500+ 10gig hd,10x aopen slot dvd, 3com 10/100 nic, sb live xgamer sound card, efecent networks dsl modem, dlink 701i dsl router/firewall, lots of controlers (joystick throttle rudder raceing wheel), 19in ctx monitor, logitech mouseman wheel usb, and klipsch promedia v2-400 speakers. win98 oem and win2k pro dual boot.

        noel
        it's times like this that make me think of my fathers last words....

        Don't son that gun is loaded.

        Comment

        • #5
          On paper the best of the new boards is the Abit KA7 as it has 4 DIMM slots plus loads of tweaking options in the BIOS. The reviews of the Asus K7V have been favourable too.

          In addition to the Epox 7KXA there is another board shipping which uses the VIA KX133 chipset, it's called the SL-77KV and it's from Soltek! Check out the www.overclockers.co.uk message board for users comments.

          As HedsSpaz says it's probably best to wait a couple of weeks and see how well they do in the reviews.
          When you own your own business you only have to work half a day. You can do anything you want with the other twelve hours.

          Comment

          • #6
            I really don't like what Asus is doing with their VIA KX-133 chipset board. If I'm not mistaken, they give the Audio Modem Riser (AMR) slot its own IRQ, but pci slots #4 and #5 have NO IRQ, not even a shared one.

            I've got an Asus K7M. It does OK. I'm still running with the old 1209 beta bios. It has been the best one for me so far. I'm not too keen on the idea of getting another Asus board, though. With my K7M, I had to use the registry hack to force agp2x on my G400 to prevent a cold bootup plaid death. Whenever the phone rings, I see the flashing lights on my external USR Courier V.everything, and there is a huge hiccup in win98 (not se). Other than that, no problems.

            I'd take a hard look at the new Abit board. I'm already drooling.

            Has anybody actually used an AMR slot? IMHO, it seems like a huge waste. It is a neat idea, just completely useless for my computing needs.

            [This message has been edited by Thundrchez (edited 25 March 2000).]

            Comment

            • #7
              My first Athlon motherboard was an Asus K7M. It had a faulty Slot A connector. So I bought an EPoX 7KXA because I wanted support for AGP and PC133 RAM. It works very well. You just have to install the AGP miniport after installing the video drivers and DirectX. I have none of the issues mentioned with Win98SE. I'll attempt to install Win2K shortly, though it appears I'll have to hack the Registry to enable AGP support (Again!?! I had to do this with the K7M and Win9x). The Abit board sounds very good! But I have the feeling that I should wait for a board which supports DDR memory before buying another.

              Oh, Thundrchez, I don't use the AMR but its' placement on my EP-7KXA is "kinda" handy. At least now I can install a large heatsink and fan on the MAX without loosing a PCI slot. Or I could install one of those Super-Slot coolers there and not have less resources. Truthfully, though, I wish I had one of the Tyan boards that has 6 PCI and 1 ISA! I'll never use the AMR.
              <a href="http://www.gaijindesign.com/lawriemalen/jedi" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.gaijindesign.com/lawriemalen/jedi/yoda.jpg" width="285" height="123" border="0"><br>:: how jedi are you? ::</a>

              Comment

              • #8
                ABIT KA7 should be released any day now.. http://www.abit.com.tw/


                ------------------
                Pentium® II 300 MHz, Intel® AL440LX, 128 MB SDRAM, Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead, SB Live! Platinum, Toshiba SD-M1212, Seagate Medalist 6,5 GB, etc.
                There's no place like 127.0.0.1

                Comment

                Previous template Next
                Working...
                X