Which Board?

[blinky]

I'm looking for input on which KT133A Chipset board will be my best choise for stability and overclocking an Athalon XP 1700+ CPU. Right now I'm looking at a ABIT KT7A board and an ASUS A7V133-C both do not have Raid controlers because this feature is of no use to me. Any suggestion would be great and if you have a better suggestion of a different board I have not listed I'm not stuck on only these boards only just looking for a good stable board.

[SteveI]

For a 1700+, I would not recommend a KT133a chipset. Unless you have SDR SDRAM lying around, you should think about DDR.

If you're not planning on overclocking or you're on a budget, an ECS K7S5A is a good choice. You can't find a less expensive board, their rock stable, and excellent memory performance.

The main complaint of this board is the lack of dials and buttons to tweak with... but for stability, I go weeks at a time without rebooting, and I AM oc'ing my 1600+ to 1542mhz. The board takes either SDR or DDR, so its also a good step up board. When the K7S6A comes out, that might be a good choice too with better overclocking capabilities.

Edit: sorry, I missed the part about overclocking....
[gilda radner]
nevermind.
[/gilda radner]

[blinky]

The reason I wanted a KT133A board is I purchased 3 256mb PC133 sticks when the prices were low so I would like to reuse them.

[SteveI]

Originally posted by blinky
The reason I wanted a KT133A board is I purchased 3 256mb PC133 sticks when the prices were low so I would like to reuse them.

Dang, now why didn't I think of that?!!
The K7S5A only has 2 slots for SDR.. OK. I'll shut up now.

[blinky]

I was looking at an EPOX 8KTA3 PRO board. Don't know anybody with this board. Any comments on this board compared to the other two I listed in the first thread.

[martin]

I would hate to think that anyone would limit their upgrade options cause they wanted to use selected components in their system. The KT133A was great last year but now the KT266A is the way to go. The mobo that Steve mentioned the ECS K7S5A is a wonderful board which happens to be very cheap. Forget the sdr ram.

[Holst]

Originally posted by martin
I would hate to think that anyone would limit their upgrade options cause they wanted to use selected components in their system. The KT133A was great last year but now the KT266A is the way to go. The mobo that Steve mentioned the ECS K7S5A is a wonderful board which happens to be very cheap. Forget the sdr ram.

Agreed.
As the k7s5a is avalable and very cheap there is no need to buy a KT133A boad.
If you can get hold of a stick of DDR ram you will be able to try it and see if its worth upgrading over the SDRAM.

[cloasters]

If you're happy not to OC your Athlon XP, it's hard to beat the ECS K7S5A. With un-official BIOS from OCWorkbench.com, one does get a few more FSB choices, but Core Voltage and Multiplier adjustment remain a "hack the CPU or nothin'" proposition.

There are two slots for SDR RAM, as well as two slots for DDR RAM, so two of your 256 Mb SDR DIMM's won't go to waste.
The boost in performance that I got when I replaced half a Gig of PC-133 with the same amount of PC-2100 DDR was a whopping 4%. I still don't understand all the details of the K7S5A's BIOS, so your mileage may vary.

Caveats about the K7S5A:

Personally, I find the AMI bios too damn weird to update. I guess you get spoiled with Award's BIOS's. This means that my own K7S5A will never host a Morgan-cored Duron or an Athlon XP. Boohoo, the ECS K7S6A is looking like a fine upgrade. No Via chipset for me. That is a great relief!

This mainboard does not suffer cheap-Charlie chump PS's gladly. From what I understand, a high quality PS is a must. I've used a PC Power&Cooling Turbo-Cool 300 and a Sparkle 350W with no probs.

And.... heck, wait for the ECS K7S6A. If it's $75, buy it instead. Dang, the ECS K7S6A is DDR only. SBT.