Motherboard Recommendations

[themonkeyman]

I want a new motherboard to replace my Gigabyte 7ZX, which i have not liked at all. I am looking for support from the Athlon XP processor, and maybe DDR Ram. I have seen the Soyo K7V Dragon, how much do they cost. I have seen also the I-Will K266-R,how much are they. Which if any of these motherboards are better, or has any got a suggestion of their own?

[snowmunky]

I suggest getting the ECS K7S5A or the ECS K7S6A. I just bought an ECS K7S5A and an Athlon XP 1800+ processor, and I'm lovin' it. The K7S5A supports Athlon XP's up to 2000+ and supports SDRAM and DDR SDRAM. It has 2 slots for each (2 for SDRAM, and 2 for DDR). It also has 5 PCI and 1 4x AGP. The K7S6A varies a little bit in that it does not support SDRAM, only DDR (3 slots for DDR), but still has 5 PCI and 1 4x AGP. One more difference is that the K7S6A does not have the integrated LAN like the K7S5A does. Both boards have integrated sound, however.

Hope this helps your choice.

[Ian]

I've heard a lot of good things about the ECS boards. They are VERY inexpensive. However, if you're looking for a lot of tweaks, the ECS boards might not be for you.

I've got the Soyo Dragon Plus and I love it. Its a lot more stable than the last bew Abits I have used. I'm considering picking up one of their Dragon P4 boards soon.

[xboxjunky]

I am personally running the Iwill xp-333r, and love it, very overclockable.

[Dartman]

I've been very happy with my MSI k3 ultra aru. Very stable, will run at least the XP 2600, maybe higher, very good updates and support, onboard diagnostics, simple ata 133 raid support, lots of usb ports and usb 2.0 onboard.
A friend builds em and these are one of the brands he has the least problems with so I got one.
They make newer versions now but I'm not sure if they're more stable or not, some of them trade one feature for another. The KT4 does DDR 400 ram but it isn't as fast as it should be yet.
There are a lot of good boards these days, hit a few news groups and check out reviews.

[Alexandrus]

Maybe you should consider an nForce2 mobo if you want top performance.
I know that the EPoX 8RDA+ has a rather good price and the performance and features are very good. Not to mention overclocking, if you're into such things

[BuddhaTB]

I'm personally running the Asus A7V333 with my Athlon XP 1800+ and have really enjoyed this motherboard. Very stable with some nice features.

Check out this web-site for more motherboard info and specs
www.motherboards.org

[yamawho]

ECS boards I was looking at had power supply issues.
After doing some reading and asking at my local computer store I went with a Gigabyte 7VAXP.

This store has alot of ECS in stock but they admitted that they have many returns when they built a system using ECS with AMD.

The Gigabyte has it all 8X AGP, Firewire, USB 2, Raid ...
A friend came by over xmas and plugged his Sony camcorder in the firewire port and it worked :D

It's only been 3 weeks but I'm very happy with this board.

[ccb056]

I have Shuttle's AK31a and AK37GT, both work beautifully. Both can be found under 100 USD. The AK37GT has the KT400 chipset w/ supports AMD's XP's and DDR400. It has 5 PCI slots, 4 DIMMs for up to 4GB of RAM. IMO the AK37GT is the best mobo.

[blakerwry]

I would suggest you get an nForce2 based board.

Whether you're looking for performance, compatibility, stability, or value the nForce2 seem to be the best deal out at the moment.

My personal nForce2 picks would be the ASUS A7N8X ($125) or the EPOX EP-8RDA ($95) Both support all models of the AMD athlon/Duron processors, DDR RAM, USB2, ATA133, and onboard audio. Check out mwave.com for more information http://direct.mwave.com/mwave/doSearch. ... &Back=&n=1

If you are looking for a good cheap motherboard, I can personally say that my AK32L (and now the AK32A) are great boards that run at a rock bottom price of $60. Both currently support Thoroughbred AthlonXP's upto 2600+ and come with onboard sound.


I would stay away from the k7v dragon/dragon+ board because it does NOT support above Athlon XP 2100+ CPU's.. and even then, you have to be picky about which cpu's you buy that are between 1600+ and 2100+ speeds http://www.soyousa.com/kb/kbdesc.php?id=91

[blakerwry]

I should have said all socketed versions of the athlon and duron....


BTW, I have heard alot of bad things about ECS.

www.AMDMB.com has a good forum if you're into motherboards... they have a seperate forum for every name brand motherboard manufacturer... some are "represented" and have techs from the company answer forum questions.

Forums:
http://www.amdforums.com/index.php?s=f6 ... 99ae1141a6

represented mobo makers:
http://www.amdforums.com/forumdisplay.p ... forumid=45

Athlon mobo makers:
http://www.amdforums.com/forumdisplay.p ... forumid=21

[casper]

i have the gigabyte and the soyo kt400 platinum, both are great boards. The gigabyte overclocks a little better, both are great as far as stability goes.