Need STABLE Kt266A board

[Willoughbyva]

Hi, my sister in-law wants me to build them a new computer. I am going to go with a KT266A board because of the performance price points. Plus I always go with AMD.

The thing is it needs to be rock solid or they will complain and bug the heck out of me. Usually i just give them my old computers, but the one they had died and I just gave my older computer to my dad. So they want me to build them a new one.

I usually deal with ASUS and MSI, but I am not so certain that they are the best ones for the KT266A. Any ideas or reviews around I can take a look at? I don't need to over-clock or anything special, just ROCK SOLID. There are three kids from 11 to 17 living there and I want them to have a good experience. = no phone calls asking me to come up and look at the computer.

Thanks a lot.

Willoughbyva

 

[Bucksnort]

Some like the other boards because they cost less, Asus is superior for stability and its a top rated board.
A7V266-E
Review

Review

 

[Poontos]

You can gets a stable motherboard, per say, but it's all relative to your other hardware and software installed.

My Epox 8KHA+ is rock solid. Asus V7700 Video card, Crucial RAM, IBM HD, Netgear NIC, Santa Cruz sound card, etc. Tri-boot: Win98SE, Win2K Pro, WinXP Pro. One of the most important components, is the power supply. I have the Antec SX1040, which comes with a lovely 400W power supply. Not only will I not have to replace my case and power supply for at least a couple of years, but also, I have the juice to power a ridiculous amount of hardware.

Runs great in all three OS'es, BTW.

Personally, I have always used Asus motherboards, without a single problem. But, this is my first Epox motherboard, and will definitely will not be my last.

Do a SEARCH and read all the treads in here. I could have copied and pasted this response, from 4-5 other similar posts.

Good luck!

 

[Rahminator]

Shuttle AK31A is freakin' rock stable for me. Besides crashes due to my hefty overclocking efforts, it's all good.

 

[Assimilator1]

My Asus A7V 266-E seems perfectly stable to me ,even with the CL2.5 RAM set to CAS2 & cpu overclocked to 1.45GHz

 

[CStroman]

I haven't had a problem with my 8KHA+. I've never had bad experiences with EPoX.

 

[NimX]

I second Assimilator1's comments on the A7V266-E, as far as installation goes this board has so far been the easiest I have ever set up. I just hooked it all up, installed XP, installed the latest NVIDIA, and TB Santa Cruz drivers and its running perfect, not an issue at all so far.

 

[rondeemc]

My msi k7t266 has not had a single issue in four weeks. Running with the optimum settings with a 1.4. Seemed like newegg had it for $104. Love the Live Bios and Live Driver features. Made if very easy to update them to the current versions. Like the fact that they now have the troubleshooting leds outside of the box. and give you a total of 4 usb ports out of the six available.

 

[Insane3D]

I would venture to say they are all equally stable if setup correctly. I highly doubt that if you ran the Asus, MSI, Epox, or Shuttle with similar components, either one would be any more or less stable. There are still those Asus bandwagon people out here that tell you there is no board that rivals the super stability of the their boards, but that is just pure myth in my opinion. Almost all of the mainstream DDR boards are stable and work great. I personally would pick the board that best fits the needs of how the system will be used by your relative, and what features you need and are willing to pay for. For instance, if you don't need onboard RAID and want six PCI slots, it doesn't make much sense to pay the extra for the Asus, MSI etc.

 

[Mem]

<< There are still those Asus bandwagon people out here that tell you there is no board that rivals the super stability of the their boards, but that is just pure myth in my opinion >>



I agree Insane 3D I think because they are paying up to 50% more they need to find a reason for the extra cost over other brands so hype it up ,anyway board wise on KT266A stability I would look at MSI,EPOX,Shuttle & Asus (if price is no object) and decide what features you need and what`s in your price range then pick one,I can vouch for the Epox since I own one it`s super stable .

 

[Athlon4all]

I too agree with Insane3D and Mem. Modern Asus Athlon boards are overpriced, offer nothing feature wise over competeing boards (i.e. Abit, EPoX, MSi), and aren't any more stable then those others.

 

[pay]

Just get the Shuttle, its 1/3 the price of the Asus!

 

[WyteWatt]

Is the Asus A7V266-E, Epox 8KHA+, and other mobos stable with all 2 or 3 dimms filled up ?
I know that has been something that sometimes gives stabilty issues

I think you should get the Abit KR7A raid mobo.

 

[Insane3D]

"Is the Asus A7V266-E, Epox 8KHA+, and other mobos stable with all 2 or 3 dimms filled up ?"

Well, my Epox 8KHA+ has three regular 256mb Crucial sticks filling all three slots and it runs like a champ @ 160mhz+ FSB With the most aggressive timings...

 

[Maki]

With the updated bios from their web site the Soyo Dragon+ has been a wonderfully stable motherboard for me. (Not so much with the bios it shipped with.)

I'd recommend the Soyo to anyone.

 

[themadmonk]

My MSI has given me no problems whatsoever. Sometimes I cannot believe that it is a VIA chipset based motherboard.

 

[Loba]

Epox have released a low cost version of the 8KHA+

http://www.amdworld.co.uk/8khal.htm

looks promising to me should give the ECS boards a run for the money..

 

[novon]

Soyo Dragon + all the way

 

[SOHCC]

Epox 8KHA+ has been rock solid for me. This is my first AMD system, I was worried about stability at first, but now I am sold. Stick to brand names stuff and you'll be OK. Get a good power supply.

 

[Workin']

I've built 10 Shuttle AK31A's so far and have had ZERO problems. Using just about every possible combination of parts and OS'es, everything's just worked (except a Gainward GF3 until I uninstalled their utility program, then it was fine).

It's a pretty decent board for $80.

 

[DARTHSINDER]

I have to with the Soyo, a lot of feature with this one.

 

[NelsonMuntz]

I just put a system together this weekend based on the Shuttle AK31A and it is running rock stable. It was easy to put together and get running. they did skimp on some of the extras (only one IDE, but I have a million of those and no USB riser cards) but for $80 you can't beat it. The clients (my folks) really seem to like it so far as well.

 

[Erasmus-X]

My EPoX EP-8KHA+ is a pretty solid KT266A board. I had some troubles in the beginning with random lockups, but it has since been fixed with the latest beta BIOS. Highly recommended. If you don't need special features like RAID, grab this one; most places sell it for a little over $100.

 

[DCFife]

I picked up the Shuttle AK31A from Newegg and I love it. I've owned MSI, Abit and Iwill motherboards in the past (and present) and I haven't had any problems with them either (pre-KT266A). I think that for a measly $80 the AK31A can't be beat.

 

[ChrisADuffy]

Go with the Epox or Shuttle board.