VIA KT133A Mother Board Suggestions

[Village00idiot]

I know that I want an AMD processor and a KT133A chipset on my mother board. The leading candidate right now is the MSI K7T Turbo. There is also the ABIT KT7A-RAID, AOpen AK73 ProA, ASUS A7V133, EPoX EP-8KTA3, FIC AZ11EA, Gigabyte GA-7ZXR (2.2), Iwill KK266-R, Soltek SL-75KAV-X, Soyo K7TVA and probably more. A lot of these boards including the MSI also feature a RAID controller. I don't know much at all about this. What does this feature do for me? What is the difference between RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1, and RAID 5. How can you get 4 more IDE slots out of your RAID (I read this some where but the explanation was vague) controller if you wanted to and which cards offer this? I am simply in the dark about which of these cards really is a step above the rest when it comes to performance and reliability as well as overclocking capabilities.

[nimnorf2]

Hey Village,
First, I'm the idiot on this forum, I got here before you. lol.
Sounds to me like you've already done a lot of your homework. I think the AMD processors and the chipset you've chosen are the best bang for the buck right now. The only motherboard manufacturer that I would steer away from are ones that come from PC Chips AKA: Amptron etc. And even they are seeming to be doing better. If you do an internet search in Google and type in RAID. You'll get a bunch of info. There is another search you can do at a site called whatis.com. It'll probably give you good info. too
eg. RAID (redundant array of independent disks; originally redundant array of inexpensive disks) is a way of storing the same data in different places (thus, redundantly) on multiple hard disks. By placing data on multiple disks, I/O operations can overlap in a balanced way, improving performance. Since multiple disks increases the mean time between failure (MTBF), storing data redundantly also increases fault-tolerance.
A RAID appears to the operating system to be a single logical hard disk. RAID employs the technique of striping, which involves partitioning each drive's storage space into units ranging from a sector (512 bytes) up to several megabytes. The stripes of all the disks are interleaved and addressed in order.

In a single-user system where large records, such as medical or other scientific images, are stored, the stripes are typically set up to be small (perhaps 512 bytes) so that a single record spans all disks and can be accessed quickly by reading all disks at the same time.

In a multi-user system, better performance requires establishing a stripe wide enough to hold the typical or maximum size record. This allows overlapped disk I/O across drives.

There are at least nine types of RAID plus a non-redundant array (RAID-0):

blah blah blah, not something that I need at all, maybe you do.
Peace, hope this is helpful.

[ranchdog]

V.I. ---- Live by the KISS rule......Ya can't go wrong. Keep it simple...... Good Luck on your venture.

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"Lemmee Fix That Thing......."

[Village00idiot]

Thanks a bunch guys

[Randy_tx]

Before you run out and buy a KT133A chipset........read what this expert has to say about the SIS 735 chipset for the Athalon http://www.tomshardware.com/mainboard/01q2/010611/index.html

It's A Fact: The SiS 735 - Faster And Cheaper Than AMD & Co

The performance results are enough to convince one that the SiS 735 is faster than the much more expensive AMD 760 chipset. Nor can the VIA Apollo KT266, the VIA Apollo KT133A and the ALi Magik 1 compete with the 735 in terms of performance. Our comprehensive tests on both reference boards have clearly proved this. SiS also gives itself a technological advantage: While the competition continues to work with two chips, this manufacturer has integrated all the functions into one module.

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Will XP save Me ?

[This message has been edited by Randy_tx (edited 07-11-2001).]

[bassvax]

Hey Randy...I was about to cry over the recommendation of a SiS chipset, BUT after the link you provided, and a few others, I can see what you're referring to.

I thought I was going looney because all my experiences thus far have been negative with boards carrying the SiS chipset...as the Tom's Hardware article makes note of for us. I like my ASUS A7V133 carrying the KT133A, but I might start recommending those particular SiS boards http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

Thanks for keeping us up to date on industry changes http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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Flush 'N' Forget
FE Stokes WWTP (http://www2.apex.net/users/hwuswtp)

[Steve_RI]

The Iwill board is awesome. I've used the Abit and MSI boards as well (KT133 boards). The Iwill is the first KT133a board I've used, and I have to say it's very good.

I would stay away from SIS since they have had a terrible track record producing what they say on paper. Just my .02.

[Village00idiot]

Even though I am a firm disbeliever is DDR RAM (mostly because of the wallet lightening effect it seems to have) I too am going to look further into the SiS possibility. For right now I still plan on getting a KT133A. The two best boards right now in my mind are in fact the Asus A7V-133 and the Iwill KKD266. As far as the Asus is concerned I have heard people say that it does not handle the higher end Athlons as well as it should and problems have come up because of this. Bassvax I was just wondering what processor you were using with your Asus, and if there is any truth to this? On the Iwill one concern that I have is the lack of a full HSF unit on the northbridge. I plan to overclock and it is scary with only heatsink. Am I over reacting or is this a valid point to be made for the Iwill? Also there is a jumper for the 100MHz/133MHz setting which I have heard (from anandtech) is a pain. I sure hope you guys can help me out and any feedback will be appreciated.

[bassvax]

Right now I am using the original BIOS 1001c I believe...not sure what revision of the board it is (Not the 266 FSB though). I put in a 1.0GHz T-Bird and I have had no problems from that combo. I do not OC and really dont have any intentions to, but a bud of mine with the same board OC's to 1.4 (or something like that...casual conversation) with no probs...I didn't ask his precise CPU model or how he does it. The errata concerning this board that I have personally experienced is you have to find the right PCI slot for the SoundBlaster Live 5.1 Platinum..second try...and the BIOS will incorrectly detect CAS 2 RAM as CAS 3 so you will have to set it manually...something to do with the SPD function.

Search the newsgroups for AMD or ASUS motherboards...there is a heavily populated one discussing these issues and other ones concerning ASUS boards.

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Flush 'N' Forget
FE Stokes WWTP (http://www2.apex.net/users/hwuswtp)

[Steve_RI]

hmmm...I've read some pretty good stuff on that SIS chipset, but I'd like to see some solid motherboard reviews first.