PCA Forums

As most of you know, I don't use AMD so I'm a little in the dark here.

I'm looking at the Epox 8KHA or 8KHA+ (what's the difference between the two other than $35? Specs look the same). I'm told this is a good board. I'm not interested in onboard RAID.

Looking to buy a Retail (not interested in overclocking) AMD 1700 or 1800 XP Athlon.

Will the XP Athlon work on this mobo okay?

Any pitfalls (other than the joys of installing the latest VIA 4-in-1 drivers) to worry about? It's going to be running Win2K Pro.

Thanks.

The 8KHA has the older KT266 chipset where as the 8KHA+ has the newer KT266A. Supposedly with the benchies I've seen, the newer KT266A is faster than it's predecessor.

Yes, the XP CPU works good with those boards. I know for a fact it works with the 8kHA+ (my friend has it) and it works with my 8K7A+. I've had no problems with my board nor have heard of any from my friend. A cool thing about it is instead of beep codes, there is a display in the bottom right hand corner that displays, say "FF" which will mean your floppy isnt responding, or something similar.

8KHA+ for $98 on newegg (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.a ... 318&DEPA=1) or you can spend $3 and get the board I have which has onboard raid and a chipset slightly older (AMD761)

[edit]
ooh, here's a deal (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.a ... =Refurbish) My board for $69 (refurb).

Get the one with the KT266A chipset...(+ version)

That is a very good board...I have installed 4 in the past month without a problem. one of them in my personal computer
They will run the XP cpus and are meant to
if your installing WinXP there is really no need to install the 4-in-1 drivers. the ones that come with XP are really good, although there are newer ones....the fixes in the newer ones really shouldnt effect you. therefore if it aint broke, dont fix it. (sometimes a good moto to live by)

Like HT said the + version has the newer chipset and I think they stopped making the 8kha. I had an 8kha and it did darn well. Very easy layout to work with. For some reason though the 8kha I had would not be stable with xp, with win 2k pro it was like a rock. If you get either I would get the + version for sure.

check the reviews at anands, too

the shuittle ak series is also good and quite cheap - now that the ak35 is out the ak31 rev 2 kt266a boards are ~80 or less


i've bought cpus from newegg with no problem and they have good prices adn reas shipping

Get the 8kha+ if the best isn't needed i highly recommend the 8k7a. Or get the 8khaL. Its the same as the 8kha+ has the kt266a chipset... All voltage and mult. adjustments are via dipswitches instead of in the bios like its big brother... And it don't have the LED readouts on teh board... I used one of those for a system for my dad and its a damn nice board. and 20 less than its big brother. Newegg has some awesome deals on XPs right now... Retail 1800+ is less than the OEM Ver. which i find odd... I just picked up a Retail 1700+ for 132 from there last night can't wait till it gets here.