Need a motherboard, fed up with the junk out there

[smokey7722]

I need a good motherboard that is stable. At this point, I don't care too much about the extra features. All I need is at least 4 usb ports, agp 4x of course, support for my Athlon XP 1800+, support for my 512mb Crucial PC2100, and ATA100. I don't care about USB2, Raid, onboard sound and video. I could care less what chipset, or what it looks like. All I need is a stable motherboard.

I am now running on my 6th!, (yeah, 6) motherboard in 4 months. I have had 3 MSI K7T 266Pro motherboards (two RU's and one regular), and 3 other boards, including a Shuttle, an Asus and some no name brand. I am right now running the last MSI, non RU. The machine when running in Windows XP (or any OS actually), after I'd say anywhere from 10 minutes to 3 hours will just stop sending video and when rebooting the motherboard thinks it has a bad cpu. I know there is this problem with this motherboard, I have been on the MSI forums. I also know that my machine when it does run, feels like its a 486 SX speed wise. Not even a DX running Windows 3.1, but an SX. It is so utterly slow, and has been it is absolutely ridiculous. I have tested all of the hardware from this machine in another and all is ok, no problems.

I am a system builder from a local store and a member of a radio show in Philly which deals with tech support, and technology. I'm not bragging, I am just stating that I am not a beginner. I keep pumping money into this POS and it is getting me no where. Slowly, as I buy more and more hardware, I just see a pile in my room that gets larger by the day, of hardware, and there's nothing wrong with any piece of it. Once this all gets resolved, I'll be hitting the Sale/Trade forum and unloading but until then....

Price has no bearing on me. I could care less. At this point, price is something I will pay for stability. I won't go Intel, but throughout this entire ordeal, I have had to fall back on my PII 400mhz laptop to work on because I need a machine here to go day by day. I'm not relying on this thing anymore. I am now set on a mission to get this piece of junk working reliably. If it means, selling all the DDR ram and buying SDRAM again, then so be it. I'll do what I have to do to get stability. I will sacrifice certain details to achieve my goal. I appreciate any help here, I want to get this thing resolved.

 

[osage]

If you have a good psu approved by AMD for Athlon XP1800, then I would say ECS K7S5A, it can be had with the header for 2 additional USB ports for a total of 4..

I'm sure others will be along shortly to contribute...........

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

I am now running on my 6th!, (yeah, 6) motherboard in 4 months. I have had 3 MSI K7T 266Pro motherboards (two RU's and one regular), and 3 other boards, including a Shuttle, an Asus and some no name brand. Jeez..Are these boards just dying, or are you beating them to death? I haven't had a board die or bug out in the last 4 years and have only ever had one DOA. Especially ASUS boards of all flavors, never a problem.



I am a system builder from a local store and a member of a radio show in Philly which deals with tech support, ..Then shouldn't you know what is good and what is bad by seeing what dies or not on a daily basis?

I personally would recommend ASUS boards for the best quality and stability with TYAN right on their heels.

I won't go Intel. Umm, why not? My AMD boxes have been great to me I will admit, But they do end up being a little finikier than my intel boxes at times. My wifes P4 that I put together for her has been an absolute rock-stable machine for her since day one w/ WinXP. Since absolute stability is what you need (and sounds like you need a warranty also), "Dude, you should be gettin' a Dell"

 

[Mem]

<< need a good motherboard that is stable. At this point, I don't care too much about the extra features. All I need is at least 4 usb ports, agp 4x of course, support for my Athlon XP 1800+, support for my 512mb Crucial PC2100, and ATA100. I don't care about USB2, Raid, onboard sound and video. I could care less what chipset, or what it looks like. All I need is a stable motherboard. >>




The Epox 8KHA+ is rock stable both my friend and I have no problems it`s also very easy to setup.

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

I'll put in a vote for the ECS K7S5A or the IWill XP333-R. Seems your luck might just be down on Via boards. Both boards are stable, and both are within percentage points speed wise of 266A. I'm using an XP333-R and it's stable, fast, and full of fun tweaking options.

And on second thought, if ya wanna be sure, you could try an AMD761 based mobo. It's a little old but I'm pretty sure it's stable. Or if ya wanna splurge, the Tyan SMP mobos are supposed to be rock solid.

 

[Pabster]

Another vote for K7S5A. You won't find a speedier, stable, more full-featured board for anywhere near the price.

 

[rogue1979]

My vote goes for the Epox 8K7A, the AMD 761 chipset is very stable and while the performance is slightly behind the 266A chipset this board loves a high fsb.

 

[Slapstick]

I have an ECS K7S5A that has been a very stable and fast performer. Currently it has a 1.4 TB, 512MB of Crucial PC2100, a 20 and 60 GB Maxtor HDD?s, HP CDRW and Liteon DVD, SB Live 5.1 and ATI AIW Radeon running Win2k. It is my main entertainment PC, games, movies, TV, MP3?s etc. It stays on 24/7 and so far the only time I need to reboot is when adding something or updating drivers. There have been a lot of complaints about the K7S5A but I?ve got this one loaded and it hasn?t caused me any problems. I figured for the $55 I paid for it if it didn?t work out I?d just throw it away.

The other board I?ve play with recently that impressed me was the Soyo Dragon+. I put one together for a friend and after updating the 4in1?s to resolve the Geforce3 issue it was very fast and stable. I had it for about 2 weeks before Christmas running Win98 and after resolving the video problem it never locked up. That one had 1600 XP, 256 MB Generic PC2100, IBM GXP 60, 60 GB HDD, Leadtek Geforce 3 TI 200, and an Liteon CDRW running Win98Se. I was surprised at how stable it was in Win98. I asked yesterday how it was running and he stated they only managed to lock it twice, both times he was trying to transfer lager amounts of data to it/off of it over his home network while his kids were playing some FPS, other than that he?s no problems with it.

My experience with both of those boards have been good and I?d recommend either one, it just depends on how much you want to spend and what features you want.

 

[smokey7722]

If needed I would purchase a new power supply. Right now I'm running an AMD approved 300w

 

[smokey7722]

Ok, so the majority of you guys recommend me towards the ECS K7S5A. Any recc's for the K7S6A? Should i even consider it?

 

[SlapAss]

ASUS A7V266-E (Via KT266A) Or ASUS A7M266 (AMD 760) Best DDR Boards on the market hands down. You have own one to appreciate all the little perks of these boards. I own an A7M266, Rock solid stable for 7 months. NewEgg.com! Nuff said!

 

[smokey7722]

GonzoDaGr8, the boards are not dying, except one MSI coming in DOA, they have all had issues. This MSI and the last MSI, have had the same issue, which is the shutting off. The others had either stability issues, or erratic problems. I have had no luck whatsoever in the past with Asus boards, starting with the A7V.

Yes, I am a system builder for ONE store. I do not know everything, and obviously I don't claim to know everything. I see what comes into my store and with friends but I don't see what happens outside of that. If I did, then I wouldn't be posting this message. My store mainly deals with Intel machines, not AMD. I personally don't like Intel, never have and never will. I don't like how they conduct business, how their products are, and how they think their crap doesn't stink, thinking they can completely force the market to go one way, which by recent events proves they can't anymore.

 

[smokey7722]

I am only down on the new via boards. I had an MSI K7T Turbo, then the Turbo Limited Edition and on three rigs here, I still use the Limited. It was a rock solid setup. But it doesn't support DDR Ram, although now it doesn't matter if I have DDR or SDRAM.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

GonzoDaGr8, the boards are not dying, except one MSI coming in DOA, they have all had issues. This MSI and the last MSI, have had the same issue, which is the shutting off. The others had either stability issues, or erratic problems. I have had no luck whatsoever in the past with Asus boards, starting with the A7V.

Ok, thanx for clearing that up...I assumed by your post that they were dying on ya, not just giving "issues". My A7V also had some issues, as it would not go above 900mhz without becoming a crash-o-matic machine, But my A7V133 that I am using right now has been an absolute joy from the beginning. What has me worried about your post the most is that I just put together a new machine for myself using the MSI K7T 266 Pro this weekend and the fact that you have gone through 3 of them has me bugged about this boards longevity although I have had good luck with MSI in the past. K7T set up with no isuues and gave me my highest benchies ever, so we'll have to see how long it lasts..

 

[DIRTsquirt]

have you ran memtest. could be flaky memory or funked up processor? running memtest cost you nothing..

 

[billyjak]

I recomend you get at least a 400w power supply for that processor. A 300w is pushing it for that 1800 you have.
I had a 300w on my Abit KR7A aid board, it ran with issues, put a 450w in and rock stable now.
I only buy PC Power Turbo Cool Power supplies, and yes I can oc/at least 100mz higher with theirs.

 

[RossGr]

LOL, With the luck you have had stay away, a long way away, from the ECS boards. I think your power supply is the problem. AMD aproved, but for what processor. Check their web page and see if your suppy is apporved for an XP 1800, I'll bet its not.

Good luck

 

[smokey7722]

Ok, so how would the Enermax Whisper 431w PS be? I have a friend who can get a good deal on one. If not, throw some specific recs out for a power supply. I need something quiet. I don't want to open it up to replace the fan again with a Panaflo but if I have to, then oh well.

 

[smokey7722]

I ran DocMemory from www.simmtester.com, for 6 hours straight. Ran 20 loops in that time and passed them all.

 

[smokey7722]

My last question before I purchase the power supply for this thing is should I go with something like the Antec PP403X (400w) or the Enermax Whisper 431w? Or should I look for a 450w or 500w? I also didn't see any power supplies higher than a 400w on AMD's recommended list.

If this should be moved to another forum, please let me know, don't want to upset the mods, now that I have sidetracked the topic a little.

 

[Regalk]

It looks like you are doing something wrong. I fail to see how someone can run thru 6 motherboards (I am guessing that 5 of them were VIA based) and have so many problems. ACtually the MSI KT266 boards should not be part of this equation since they were a disaster.
Could be a Bios setting, Driver problem/VIA 4 in 1 not updated, PCI slot setup/IRQ sharing, Windows not updated or a combination.
I have the new EPOX and MSI boards (KT266A), Iwill Kk266, MSI K7T turbo-R, Abit KT7E and Abit ST6 and they all run like champs (and that would be 6 MBs) - can't be beat. So I say you are deifnitely doing something wrong. Heat could also be a factor since overheating can cause reboots and system slow down and instability.
As for the ECS K75SA - with your current luck/setups - don't even try.

 

[SpeedTester]

<< My last question before I purchase the power supply for this thing is should I go with something like the Antec PP403X (400w) or the Enermax Whisper 431w? Or should I look for a 450w or 500w? I also didn't see any power supplies higher than a 400w on AMD's recommended list >>



I have the Antec 400w PS and havent had a problem with it. You cant go wrong with either of the two choices you listed.
If you want a quiter PS go with the Enermax, But I still recommend the Antec. There isnt really a need to go with the
450w or the 500w, you shouldnt need that much power with your config. I'm running the MSI 266a-RU and love it
as much as my MSI K7T-Turbo-R. Check out my Rig for all the stuff I have packed into the tower.

 

[smokey7722]

<< It looks like you are doing something wrong. I fail to see how someone can run thru 6 motherboards (I am guessing that 5 of them were VIA based) and have so many problems. ACtually the MSI KT266 boards should not be part of this equation since they were a disaster.
Could be a Bios setting, Driver problem/VIA 4 in 1 not updated, PCI slot setup/IRQ sharing, Windows not updated or a combination.
I have the new EPOX and MSI boards (KT266A), Iwill Kk266, MSI K7T turbo-R, Abit KT7E and Abit ST6 and they all run like champs (and that would be 6 MBs) - can't be beat. So I say you are deifnitely doing something wrong. Heat could also be a factor since overheating can cause reboots and system slow down and instability.
As for the ECS K75SA - with your current luck/setups - don't even try. >>




It isn't that its rebooting here, the machine just stops sending video. Then when I force it off and turn it on again, it beeps with a bad processor signal, and I've read about it a lot in the MSI forums. I am hopeing its a Bios thing that will be resolved in the next revision, but I doubt it. Each one had its on issues. So far, they were all Via KT266A chipsets. 4in1's are newest and no sharing is going on, literally, this happens with no hardware in teh machine but the vid card. I have an MSI K7T 266 Pro, the original KT266 running like a champ downstairs powering my file server and a K7T Turbo Limited in my ZBox on my TV.

It is definitely a hardware thing with this shutting down problem, it happens on XP and 2000 and multiple installs. The video card has been replaced a few times, and doesn't seem to make a difference what is there. The RAM has been tested and even replaced to see if it mattered. The CPU I have not replaced, the motherboard with this problem and the power supply.

 

[smokey7722]

I put in the new Enermax Whisper 431w Power Supply, and the machine is rock solid now. I am still using one of the MSI k7t 266 pro2 mobo's, now I have to keep 400w or 350w power supplies in stock for these machines we sell in the store.

Thanks for hte help guys....