Soyo Dragon Plus or...?

[Essate]

Greetings!

I am new to this board, and could use some advice. I'm about ready to do a major upgrade from a P233MMX on a Tyan Trinity 100AT mobo to something cool like an Athlon XP 1700+. My big question here, of course, is which mobo do I want? I've been looking around the net, places like Tom's Hardware, and what I like so far is either the Soyo Dragon Plus board or the Abit KR7A-133RAID board. But I've read some complaints about the Soyo, things like IRQ conflicts with the onboard sound. I have no intention of using onboard sound, so I'm hoping that's moot.

I am wide open to any suggestions, though, including other boards than the two I mentioned. I do want a 266A chipset board, and I do like having the eight ATA100 channels, probably will even use the RAID controller eventually. I guess I'll be using it if I use over four EIDE channels anyway. What I don't find on any of the 266A boards is an ISA slot, which I sure could use for my modem. But since 56K PCI modems aren't a fortune, and I may upgrade to cable or DSL pretty soon anyways, the ISA slot isn't critical.

So, what should I do, folks? I'd greatly appreciate any advice given me. My new tower arrived today, and I was going to mount a freebie Magellen E6BX/Pentium II 400 in it, but after looking at prices for a bit, I realized I can come up with something far more fun than a P400. I've never even seen anything faster than this P233 running, it should be quite a shock.

Much thanks,
~Essate~

 

[SuperT]

i love my dragon, check out my sys specs in my siggy. also, check out the post in "hot deals" TCWO.com has a nice soyo/athlon xp combo for $259. good luck!

 

[KGB1]

I'd opt for the Abit KR7A-133 Raid since you wont use onboard sound, get a motherboard that does even come with sound. It is truly a reliable board. THG really liked it, after they updated the article. The Soyo Dragon is a good board too, its a toughy to choose between the two, but since I owned a couple Abit boards they are worth it. It uses ALL 4 DIMM slots filled to the brim, has the BEST overclocking features (even if you dont o/c its good to know you have options) Just get a really good Power Supply and dotn forget... keep around that 233MMX for future Rugrats who want to play games if and when they come over.. NEVER let 'em touch the good stuff

 

[Boonesmi]

i really like the dragon+ in the last couple months ive built several systems around that board. they are all great fast/stable/easy to setup, plus the dragon+ has all kinds of features you dont find on most boards

 

[CoDerEd]

ABIT all the way...............

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1578&p=1

peace

 

[SuperSix]

<< ABIT all the way...............

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.html?i=1578&p=1

peace >>



HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HEEHEEHEEHEEHEE

Thanks for the laugh..

 

[Essate]

Okay, so it's two votes for the Soyo, two for the Abit, and one guy rolling in the aisles laffing at the Abit.

You guys are just trying to confuse me, eh?

But nobody's suggested any other board, nor commented on IRQ conflicts, so maybe I just don't worry about any of that?

I read that multi-board review, at least the parts regarding the Abit, the Soyo, and an Asus or two, as I've heard good about them too. But there was no convincing argument to avoid the Soyo for the Abit. I believe the Abit is more capable of overclocking, but that's not a concern of mine, nor the extra DIMM slot. I also learned that all but two of those boards have onboard sound, so trying to avoid that is probably a waste of concern. I'm leaning toward the Soyo, but still will wait and see if anyone else has anything to add.

While I'm here (wrong forum, probably), anybody got a recommendation for a CPU cooler? One of the Soyo's somewhat negative features is the tightness around the CPU socket. I know Athlons are quite heat-sensitive, and I want to do this right.

Again, my thanks to all.
~Essate~

 

[Boonesmi]

i think he was laughing cause abit has "historically" been known for extreemly high failure rate with there boards... for me personally i stay away from abit,

but.... that being said from everything ive seen/read they do seem to be making better products lately

 

[GiLtY]

Essate: Get a heatsink/fan from Thermaltake, they are good at reducing the temperature. Then apply some thermal grease and you'll be set!

 

[SuperSix]

Have you considered Gigabyte? Amazing quality and features at a killer price. Microstar has some nice boards out now too..

Cooling fan? Check out Coolermaster's HCC-001, 60mmx60mm, a bit loud, but compares right next to a Swiftech @ over 1/2 the cost.

 

[DoubleL]

Since you want raid later you can't go wrong with either board, Have built them and I put a Dragon+ back for me and I don't use any of the on board it is just a good stable board so far, I also stuck a Epox back it is hard to beat but you would have to use a pci card with that one, Heatsniks I would stick with the Alpha or the Swiftech, To much heatsnik to clip to the tabs and once you use the Alpha or Swiftech you won't got back to a clip on

 

[harbinger52]

My MSI Pro266 RU Is a great board. Never had a issue.

 

[AA0]

I'll mention Asus, pricey but well worth it. Love mine and every Asus board I've ever used.

 

[Jman13]

I've got an XP 1700+ on a Dragon Plus (see sig for full specs), and it's been the most stable system I've ever had. It runs for weeks without a reboot or crash, with very heavy use. I don't use the onboard sound either (SB Live), and I've got a ton of stuff in there...no IRQ conflicts for me. I'm sure any of these boards will be fine for you though.

 

[DaviDaVinci]

what about Iwill XP333-R? It's about $100

 

[drchickenman]

If you're not going to overclock or use the on-board sound, why not get the MSI board? It's cheaper, stable, fewer problems, and looks good with the red pcb