ATHLON DDR Motherboard Woes =(

[aLpHaEv7]

im currently planning to get a DDR Motherboard w/ a 1.33g type C thunderbird, but realised the market is unsure of which motherboard is good for DDR. hope u guys can help me out with this. im thinking of getting the MSI KT266-R(VIA DDR Chipset) or the ASUS A7M266 (AMD 760 chipset). heard reviews that the VIA KT266 chipset is underperforming. should i wait for newer chipsets to come out (SIS 735) or just go ahead with one of them? help...

 

[DaveNCheez]

I would personally go with either

The Epox 8k7a(+)
or the gigabyte 7dx(r)

Amd 761/ VIA 686B mobos

 

[tjdavis1138]

Another vote for the Epox 8k7a, great board.

 

[Insane3D]

8K7A....best performing DDR board out right now.

 

[frankroh]

I've a A7M and I have to give thumbs up for it. It has the AMD 671 Northbridge. AMD's chipset is by far superior to any others out there currently (VIA, ALi, etc.)

IMO, DDR mobo is in its infancy and you'll see aggresive improvement in the chipset industy (see article about nVidia's nForce chipset story.) If you can, I would wait 6 months and reevaluate DDR mobos then.

Chicken or the egg....

 

[Noriaki]

You definately want the AMD761 north bridge.

Alot of people are very happy with their Epox 8K7As and at that price I definately recommend that board. I use an MSi K7 Master myself. But you definately want the AMD761 north.

 

[aLpHaEv7]

right..
thanx for all the advices u guys gave in this thread. think i'll settle with the EPOX mobo then since the ABIT KG7 and the MSI K7 Master is not available in Singapore yet. once agian. thanx guys =)

 

[DongTran]

I've had both the Asus A7m266 and the K7 master. I sold the a7m at a VERY good price (supply/demand) and got the k7 master for a really good deal from a fellow ATer. Both AMD 761, both run great. can't tell the difference...

 

[Serpico74]

Does the Epox board allow multiplier adjustment?

 

[Insane3D]

"Does the Epox board allow multiplier adjustment? "

Yes, it does.

 

[morriswindgate]

Yes the Epox board does. It is a really well laid out board with lots of room around the CPU socket for Heatsink installation.
The only problem I had with my installation was that I load everything into Windows 98 before upgrading the operating system to ME. As such when I loaded the AMD 760 Miniport driver it could not find the file sucatreg.exe. To remedy this I copy/paste from a Window SE disk to the Windows folder.

 

[DieselMan]

I am happy with my DFI AK76-SN DDR motherboard.

Very stable and fast, and also lots of headrooms to mount any heatsink! The major drawback is that the multiplier adjustment (and voltage as well) are done via dipswitches and not within the bios. It's a pain the 1st few days while you optimize your system, but once you're all set, it's not a problem. Also, it has 6 PCI slots (but IRQ's cannot be manually assigned)!