Asus A7A266 or A7M266

[RonB]

Here is my question. I have an Abit K7-RAID (Great OC'ing Board) an MSI K7T Turbo-R (Stable as a Rock). Now I recently purchased a 1.2GHz/FSB266 CPU and WOW, what power. I was using my Blue Core 750, running at 1100 MHz, but I can see the difference the 1.2 does. Now am considering a DDR board. Read an article about the Asus A7M266, sounds like a pretty cool board. But as I was checking around I notice ads saying that the A7A266 is the most recent. I really don't know much about Asus except that I know from reading reviews, that they make a damn good board.

So perhaps someone will tell me just which Asus board is better. The A7M or the A7A. I figure that since I already have the 1.2/FSB266 chip, that a board and some ram won't kill me. What will be killing me is not having it. Unless it is just not really worth it.

TIA

 

[OpIvy]

From what I understand, there are two main differences:
1) The M has two DDR DIMM slots only, whereas the A has 2DDR + 3DIMM (I assume they cannot be used simultaneously-- imagine how much @ss that would kick!)
2) The M uses the AMD760 Northbridge, whereas the A uses the Ali Magik. From what I have read, the AMD chip is actually a bit faster, but this may change with BIOS revisions, who knows?

So basically, if you want to hold off several months and buy your DDR sticks when the prices come down, I'd go with the A. But if you're gonna go ahead and buy the DDR now anyway, you might as well go with the M-- it's significantly cheaper (at pricewatch).

BTW, I noticed your other 2 boards are RAID. You know that neither of these is, right? The only option for RAID right now with AMD+DDR is the Iwill KA266-- which is what I'm gonna buy cuz I have to buy right away.

 

[RonB]

Thanks for the info. I called about the A7M, and was told that it wasn't in stock til the end of the week. Cool, gives me more time to look around. On the other hand, boy, the price of the RAM for those things is kind of steep. Wouldn't mind getting 256 MBs, but for that price, wow.

I also read over at Hard(ocp) that there might be a problem with the A7M model. Who knows, but in the mean time I will do more checking and perhaps find out a little more about what else is available. The IWill sounds OK, but I am not sure about any of them really. I know that Asus is a great m/b producer, but perhaps a little more input is necessary.

Thanks Again.