best ddr mobo?

[BaDNaN0TH0N]

im in the market for a ddr motherboard, and i want to know which is the best one to get right now. and i need it right away (1-2 weeks)
should i go with the ali magik chipset? or kt266 or the amd760?
and which brand?
cheaper is also better
im thinking maybe the asus a7a266
any ideas?

 

[Boonesmi]

as far as chipsets go the ali magik is probably the worst ddr chipset you can get. the amd 760 is probably the best (notice i said probably some will disagree with me for sure)

but without a doubt if i was buying a ddr board today it would be based on the amd 760
i like the epox 8k7a, ive also heard good things about the gigabyte 7dxr and the abit kg7.

 

[Digobick]

Boonesmi, all three of those are very good boards. I looked very closely at all three and finally decided on the Gigabyte GA-7DXR (which should be coming in a couple days or so). Personally, I don't think you can go wrong with any of those three boards.

 

[Ausm]

I agree the Gigabyte GA-7DXR is a superior DDR mobo in my book.


Ausm

 

[hairygit]

Hey,
I'm glad that I wasn't the only ape having problems choosing a DDR mobo.
After 1 month of eyes glued to anandtech, tomshardware, and quite a few others, the fastest, stablest, and most o/c'able is the IWILL ka266.

I've got mine coming any day now, so I don't want to hear that there are better ones on the market - please.
You don't know the struggle I went through, and when I finally settled on that choice (God's own mobo), Could I get it anywhere? NOPE - NO WAY.
Had to email Iwill, and they put me through to a supplier within 12 hours.
Pretty slick.

Good luck

 

[valele]

Hi

I personally own FIC AD11 based on AMD 760 chipset.
The selection of a motherboard highly depends on whether one will do serious overclock or not.

For no overclocking I recommend going with AMD 761 chipset + reliable mobo like:
Asus A7M266, Gigabyte GA-7DXR, FIC AD11, MSI's AMD761 mobo ....

For serious overclock all that matters is FSB flexibility, clock multiplier, stability at high clocks.
So the bottom line is that while at regular clocks AMD 761 is king, at overclocked frequencies that
advantage is of no great value . All that matters is:

what platform will allow you to go higher.

And from my experience much more valuable overclocking is the FSB overclocking as it delivers both:
1) higher memory bandwidth
2) higher CPU clock

while relying on multiplier-only OC delivers only higher CPU clock.
Of course combining both will give the max results.

As far as FSB overclocking goes, the king here is Iwill KA266.

Also check whether you need RAID configurations and some other added features you will need.


Cheers

 

[Bingo13]

No trouble here getting into the high 150's, low 160's if I need to with the Epox 8K7A+. Also no problems in the mid 150's with the Gigabyte 7DXR and 7VTX. While I agree the Ali based motherboards offer good performance and stability I would not consider them to be better than the AMD761 boards or the newer KT266 boards in overall performance. The last time I played around with a KA266 it did not like anything above a 150fsb, of course that was in early May so myabe they have improved but I doubt it.

 

[Micronaut]

I agree Bingo. I've been readin' and readin' and the AMD761 always tore up the ALi boards.

Every review site I've seen (that has reviewed it) is crowning the EPoX 8K7A the king of the OC boards. I haven't seen a site yet that flaunts the ALI over the AMD chipset. But I'd certainly be willing to give it a look.

 

[chainbolt]

Bingo: it's not such a matter of the board how high you can go: it's more a matter of the memory you have. I can go as high as FSB 170 on my 7DXR with NANYA 2.0

And I agree with most posts: all of the new AMD 760 boards (7DXR and 8K7A) perform similar and the KG7 will be no expection to this. So, the decision is a matter of taste, avaliabilty, features and price.

My recommendation is the 7DdXR.

 

[bevo]

MSI k7Master....

 

[Bingo13]

Chainbolt,

I can go higher with the Corsair PC2400, in fact around 175 but I really cannot do anything with the system but show a few benchmark results. The bigger issue is how high can you take the fsb and still have a very very stable system. I have found with the Gigabyte boards around 150~153 is my preferred settings and around 155~158 with the Epox without affecting overall system stability too much. I wish I could get the Gigabyte boards to 166 to take advantage of the 1/4 multiplier on the PCI side but so far they will not do it. The post got off subject anyway with the talk about the KA266 being king of the fsb settings, never saw it on the board I had, now the KK266 was a different story.