Which motherboard?

[jessed]

OK I am planning on building an Athlon based system and have some questions concerning which motherboard to use. Could someone please elaborate on the differences between the following motherboards? All are similarly priced (~$110) and I cannot tell much difference ...

SOYO K7VTA-B
ABIT KT7 (and what does RAID mean?)
EPOX EP-8KTA+
GIGABYTE GA-7ZX-1
MSI K7T PRO-2A
TYAN TRINITY KT S2390
FIC AZ11E

alright thanks in advance.

[bailey]

you could go to the web page for each one and read all the information on each board then compare them, and then ask any questions that might arise.

[LawyerRon]

I would cross the FIC off the list. I've read quite a bit of negative about the FC11, and haven't heard anyone running the AZ. The Abit, Epox, and MSI seem to be the favorites. Epox seems to be winning people over in a big way. I like Soyo's Intel chipset boards but I don't see anyone using their AMD boards which makes me wonder why, since Soyo is known for very high quality.

Gigabyte and Tyan are both good names but I don't see them being used a lot around here.


Also, do you plan to overclock?

[jessed]

Well, if it isnt already obvious I am completely new to the self-assembly scene. What I meant by saying that they looked quite similar to me was that all had roughly the same number of PCI slots, DIMM slots, an AGP slot, etc. From other sources I have read that I should be looking for a board with the VIA KT133, which I believe all of these have. So I am looking for criteria by which to judge beyond those I have listed.

I did notice something reading about the Gigabyte board ... it says that the FSB is 200 but that it supports PC133 SDRAM. Does supports mean "takes full advantage of?" I thought that a FSB of 200 meant it really ran at 100 and therefore could not fully utilize PC133.

Overclocking is something that I think I would like to do, though I have never done it before. What should I be looking for to determine how overclocking friendly a board is?

I hope this helps clarify my question(s). thanks again

[Jenni]

Been looking at building a Duron/Athlon system myself. The newer (and more expensive) KT133A boards fully support 133MHz RAM (meaning 133, DDR 266). RAID means that the MB can copy your hard drive onto an identical drive at the same time, which means you would always have a working backup. There are a lot of ways it can be set up, but you need 2 identical hard drives for it to work. Good feature if what you are doing is critical, and not bad for the price difference, but I couldn't afford 2 identical hard drives anyway...lol Most people are recommending the Asus A7V. This is an excellent article, if you want to do a little more research: http://www4.tomshardware.com/mainboa...122/index.html

[Alfie]

The main difference between the Asus,Abit raid board and shall we say the Epox board is the Asus and Abit Raid boards can use up to 8 ide devices as they have 4 ide slots.
The Epox board has 2(4ide devices)
The Epox 8kta2 would be the Epox board of choice.
All the kt133 boards support 133 memory and due to their asychronous design,can run the memory at 133,while running the fsb at 100mhz.
These boards also have multipliers on board so if the cpu is unlocked,overclocking is quite possible.
The new kt133a boards offer the same things,but also support a 133 fsb(266mhz)This added feature brings tears of joy to the overclocking community.
Not only can you adjust the multipliers,but can boost the fsb,the options multiply.
The new boards are designed with the newer 266 cpus from AMD in mind,but they're backward compatible with the previous cpus,as long as they're unlocked.
Boards with the AMD chipset are designed for the ddr ram,but are quite expensive,the ones with the Ali chipset also support ddr,but the Ali chipset,so far,is the bottom of the heap.
You would simply adjust the multiplier to compensate for the faster fsb.
You'll find the Epox boards are sold at a lower price than the others.

I'm using the Epox 8kta2,and am well pleased with it's stability.
Current system:
Duron 700@1,000mhz
PNY(192megs)pc100(Infineonchips)@133 cas2
Matrox g400 4x

[jessed]

Thank you much Jenni and Alfie - both of you have helped me considerably. I just figured out that FSB and memory bus are different things and can therefore be at different speeds.

thanks again.

[padawan]

I've got three KT133 boards, the KT7-RAID, the AOpen AK73 Pro, and the AOpen MK33. All three are extremely stable, and like the others have said, it comes down to what features you want.

The KT7-RAID (or the new KT7A), are aimed squarely at the overclocker, if you aren't planning on tweaking the board, you can get a cheaper board. I'd like to add more info to the RAID controller on the KT7, since I've played with it and a full hardware RAID on our server at work. The KT7 supports three different types of RAID, mirror, striping, and striping with a mirror. A mirror RAID is just that, two identical drives are in the system, and all data is written to both drives. It offers a back up, but there is a little overhead from writing to both drives at the same time. Striping is geared for speed rather than security. Two drives are seen as one large drive, with data sent to each drive alternately. Imagine data needs to be written to the disk. It is broken down into pieces we'll call A, B, C, D. The RAID will send data A to drive one, B to drive two, C to drive one, and D to drive two. When data needs to be read, as you can imagine, it is very fast, since both drives are sending data in sequence. The problem with this is if one drive dies, all the data is lost, since 50% of the data is on each drive. Striping with a mirror is just a striped set that is mirrored. Talk about a lot of wasted drive space. The KT7-RAID does offer the ability to run up to 8 IDE devices, though, even if you choose not to use the RAID.

The AK73 Pro was just reviewed over at Maximum3D, very solid board, bullet proof, but it still has some overclocking features and a really cool talking BIOS. The MK33 is a basic board that does not overclock, but it is cheap and very stable.

I would get one of the KT133A boards, though, if you are buying one now. I've read a lot of good press about those boards, and they have a good record for overclocking and performance when compared to the newer DDR boards.

[jessed]

Thanks for the additional info padawan. At this point I dont see myself ever having the money (or need, really) for two hard drives so I will not be shelling out the extra money for RAID. Thanks again.

*edit* Just realized that if I go with the Epox EP-8KTA3 mobo it has onboard sound ... is this sound as good as I would get with a $32 SoundBlaster card? If it is I wont waste my money on a sound card. Here is the sound card I was going to buy:
http://direct.mwave.com/mwave/doc/a01778.html

thanks

[Edited by jessed on 02-13-2001 at 05:24 AM]

[jessed]

damn ... edited post didnt go to top ... please see the edit part of my previous post.

[glc]

That card is better than the onboard sound - the onboard is a Soundblaster 64 equivalent. Try the onboard - if it's not good enough for your liking you can buy a card later.