motherboard comparison

[Jumby]

Ok, I've gotta make up my mind about a motherboard. The two I'm debating on are Asus A7V266 and Abit KG7. What are anyone's thoughts, suggestions, ideas, choices?

[Whyzman]

Hello Jumby,

Might help to get a peek at the reasoning behind your zeroing in on these two boards? What peripherals are you eventually looking at?

------------------
May all your dealings in life be win/win!

Whyzman

[Jumby]

I would just be rebuilding my computer. I really don't do a lot of stuff, a few games...nothing much, business apps. -- Quickbooks, and other stuff. I just want something good, upgradable, reliable. Like anything else, I don't need the most expensive and I don't want cheap either. I have a zip drive, I use a digital camera, I'l be getting a TDK CD/RW for Christmas (I hope). I really just like messing with computers. My wife wonders what I do all the time I spend up here. I really don't know. And I have a cheap computer in the basement for testing stuff.

[Whyzman]

Are you planning on being able to use the same RAM? But again, why these two boards? Something specific, other than price, that is steering you their way?

------------------
May all your dealings in life be win/win!

Whyzman

[Jumby]

No. I'm getting new PC2100 DDR. (Actually my wife just bought it the other day for me for Christmas...I'll pretend to be suprised.) I just liked the boards and what they have to offer. Do you have different suggestions? I've had Intel and I just wanted to try AMD.

[Whyzman]

Well, I have an ASUS A7V133 and although my system is running smoothly now, it was not always so. ASUS boards are not real "User Friendly" and this is a quote directly from ASUS Tech-Support...which was later corroborated by a second tech during a later conversation. I also had to flash my BIOS 3 times working bugs out of previous versions.

I've kinda been watching iisbob's board of choice the ECS K7S5A which does support DDR RAM. Price seems reasonable and he speaks quite highly of it. Hate to throw more fuel on the fire! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

------------------
May all your dealings in life be win/win!

Whyzman

[This message has been edited by Whyzman (edited 12-17-2001).]

[iisbob]

Only word of warning i have with the K7S5A is that i had to update the BIOS straight outta the box-had some intermittent bugs on first boot-but once i did that and installed the latest chipset drivers-she's ran smoothly.

I use a good 400w power supply and memory { crucial-owned by Micron by the way }. haven't had any problems other than normal board twitches you'll get with any other brand.

Now i've seen this board slammed { and alternately praised } on the AMD forums-and in other sites. All i can say is it seems to depend on the skill of the individual and their expectations of the manufacturer-i've never had any major problems with PC Chips or ECS-though ASUS has proven more than once to be a bear!!

My usual choice of mobo's is either ABIT or EPOX, both of which i have a system built on that has survived for several years during various " tweakings ".

I'll have to say i'm quite pleased with the ECS K7S5A-but others may/will disagree; but for the price-can't be beat!! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

------------------
iisbob
""I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know."
Mark Twain

[fixrupr]

Jumby,
Paul’s unofficial Abit page has lots of info that you might find interesting.
From my perspective the KR7A looks to be the best of Abit, but they just hit the streets.
PAULS (http://www.viahardware.com/faq/kg7kr7/kg7kr7faq.htm)