Been looking at DDR mobo's, need opinions

Kakarot · Post by **Kakarot** » Tue May 22, 2001 2:17 pm

I'm looking at only the AMD 760 chipset ones(not too keen on the ALI chipset and the AMD one seems to be faster than the VIA one). so here are all the ones I found and their respective cheapest(shipped) price on pricewatch:

ASUS A7M266 $182
Biostar M7MIA $136
Epox EP-8K7A $135
FIC AD11 $119
Gigabyte GA-7DX $141
Gigabyte GA-7DXR $205
MSI K7-Master(MS-6341)$163
MSI K7-Master-S(MS-6341-u160 scsi)$230

Whats everyone's opinion on these? there aren't too many reviews out there yet on these. I've seen a couple but nothing too comprehensive. I also read that the biostar one has a built in highpoint raid controller on it.. not bad considering it only costs $136. I like the K7-Master-S cause it has built on U160 scsi... Just LMK what ya'll think.

VidmanII · Post by **VidmanII** » Tue May 22, 2001 4:59 pm

By all means get the Asus ....NOT ! :lol

Kakarot · Post by **Kakarot** » Tue May 22, 2001 5:08 pm

Actually, the asus is one of the better performers of the group. But I figure if I'm gonna spend that much on a mobo I may as well spend the extra $50 and get the onboard u160 controller of the msi. Don't see Iwill in that list eh? thats cause the use that shitty Ali chipset on their only DDR solution.

VidmanII · Post by **VidmanII** » Wed May 23, 2001 8:00 am

such language.

hammer01 · Post by **hammer01** » Wed May 23, 2001 8:05 am

Kak's been hanging out with nexus again and Greg has been a bad influence on him.

nutxo · Post by **nutxo** » Sat Jun 02, 2001 3:06 pm

I have the asus and its the most stable board Ive had since I started running socket A, more stable than my kt7, kt7-raid or kt7a-raid or a7v.

blackhawk · Post by **blackhawk** » Sat Jun 02, 2001 8:58 pm

Just set it up yesterday when my crucial 2100 arrived. First epox and ddr board and I'm very impressed. No issues during the setup with the SBlive, network card or modem. Its running my duron 600 fine at 6.5 x 160 and I thought this wasn't an overclocker cpu when I had my MSI 6330! The temps are 36-40c and its very stable. Takes a bit of research on the net to figure out some of the bios settings and lots of jumpers and some multiplier dips but okay with a bit of practice. Sure makes a difference with my C2 at 900mz.

VidmanII · Post by **VidmanII** » Sun Jun 03, 2001 9:26 pm

Iwill's coming out with an AMD 761 board. Might want to wait and see what's up with that.

Kakarot · Post by **Kakarot** » Tue Jun 05, 2001 3:27 pm

Yea, I find myself playing the waiting game here(never really done that b4). But I'm not in a big hurry as my p3 933 runs everything ok for now... I have like $170 in my paypal acct and a $150 MO sitting in my dresser at home waiting to be used for this upgrade. I just need to sell a couple more small things to get all the up front cash I'm gonna need to buy my stuff(whatever it is when I decide). But, when I do I'll have an ASUS CUSL2(full version with onboard video) and a P3 700@933 1.65v and 2-128mb dimms for sale

Kakarot · Post by **Kakarot** » Thu Jun 07, 2001 11:54 am

Ok, after some major searching around for reviews and articals on these mobo's and some other DDR mobo's I finally made my decision. I'm getting the Epox 8K7A. In the end it came down to three mobo's. One was actually an Ali chipset one cause it performed almost as well as the AMD 760 one's from all the tests I saw. The three were:

Epox 8K7A -$132 shipped
Gigabyte GA-7DX -$135 shipped
Asus A7A266(Ali) -$130-$140 shipped

The rest were thrown out of the running for either being too expensive or not having a personal requirement of mine: ability to adjust the multiplier and voltage for the CPU!. I was suprised how many of them didn't allow this. So my decision stands on the Epox.

I decided on it because it had pretty much the same features as the Gigabyte but was slightly faster and had a slighty better layout. Only drawback is that you can only adj the multiplier and voltage via dipswitch or jumper. But at least you can adj them. The Asus Ali board was quite impressive for the fact that it has an Ali chipset, but I opted for the AMD760 chipset instead. The FIC was pretty good considering it was so cheap($118 shipped)... but I wanted more features and settings. I'll have 384mb's of Crucial PC2100 ram ready for it when it gets here. Now I just need to find a good tbird for it(thinkin 1.4, not sure tho).

cak · Post by **cak** » Thu Jun 07, 2001 11:27 pm

The epox is probably the best all round right now, the biostar is a good performer and stable but lacks any overclocking features. I own/have owned both. Played with the FIC also.

NascarFool · Post by **NascarFool** » Fri Jun 08, 2001 11:37 pm

I just got an Asus A7A266 but I am using SDRAM. It has two DDR slots and three SDRAM slots. It also gives you the option to set dipswitches for over clocking or overclock in the bios. I have two Crucial 128megPC100 and a Texas Instrument 128megPC133 clocked at 150MHz. 90 minutes without one single problem. I put an Athlon 1.33GHz 266 FSB proc on it and it's O/C'd to 1.5GHz.

cak · Post by **cak** » Sat Jun 09, 2001 2:27 am

Here is my epox at 133/pc2100. Few more adjustments and 900 FPU and 700 ALU will be possible at a 133.

Kakarot · Post by **Kakarot** » Thu Jun 14, 2001 9:18 am

Alright... the Epox mobo should be here today or tomorrow. I already have all the ram(1-128mb and 1-256mb pc2100 crucial)... and I ordered the CPU yesterday from Access micro($187+shipping for a 1.4gigger) and had it shipped next day. So if I'm lucky it will all show up by tomorrow so I can work on it this weekend. But that prob won't happen because my luck sucks ass!

chottoED · Post by **chottoED** » Sun Jun 17, 2001 4:39 am

so what ever happened w/ that epox?
i'm waiting on your experience before i decide between that and the msi....

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Been looking at DDR mobo's, need opinions

I just got the Epox