KT266A, RAID Mobos

[fleury]

Hi there!
Have been searching for a nice mobo for my new Athlon XP machine...

Thought of 3:
Soyo K7V Dragon Plus
Abit KR7A-RAID
EPoX EP-8KHA2 RAID

What would you get? What about EZ of setup, speed, stability?

What do I need to buy besides the Dragon model in order to use onboard LAN and Audio? Does it come with the nescessary conectors / daughter boards?

Thx!!
Fleury

[cRock]

I'd go for the Soyo. It has earned a good reputation as KT266A boards go. You might also check out the Asus A7V266E if you're going to go KT266A.

If I had to buy an Athlon board right now, I'd be looking at AMD 761 or Sis 735 based models. The Via PCI issues are the final straw IMHO.

[Damage]

The Asus board was slow for me in my testing. I would have to recommend the Soyo over the Asus, FWIW.

[Dissonance]

The Abit board has been great for me in testing, but it doesn't have features like on board LAN or Sound. ATA133 RAID is good, though.

If you've already got sound and network cards, and want something really robust for overclocking, the KR7A-RAID is worth a look.

[fleury]

Thanks guys for the advice!
Do you think that the PCI issue can take away KT266A's crown as the fastest chipset for Athlon XP solutions?

[Ryu Connor]

Thanks guys for the advice!
Do you think that the PCI issue can take away KT266A's crown as the fastest chipset for Athlon XP solutions?

The KT266A is not <I>the</I> fastest anymore. It is merely one fast choice out of a pool of several equally competitive options.

The PCI with the VIA chipset is not <i>just</i> about bandwidth. It's also about proper arbitration. Any PCI device that requires quick sustained access to the bus for longer than 24 blocks of data will have difficulty. This makes the board picky and your success with it hit or miss. If you already have a VIA chipset board with no diffculties then your current PCI cards will carry over without difficulty assuming no third party BIOS bus.

If this is your first VIA chipset it behooves you to find out if the PCI cards you own work in other people's systems.

Personally, I wouldn't touch any VIA board until the KT333A comes out. VIA boards are cheap right now and it seems their price correlates with their quality.

[ExcessOrder]

I'd say it probably depends on how you are going to use that RAID. If you just want to have RAID for the hell of it, or because you want slightly snappier loading in games and stuff, I think the VIA bug won't bite you very hard. If you want RAID because you plan to do vid capture and editing, showshifting, and that kind of stuff (like I did until a few days ago) than get the Abit KR7 or some other AMD based design.

Going with VIA means you have to ask yourself <DirtyHarry> "Do you feel lucky, punk?"

EO

[civet]

Would someone enlighten me and or tell me where I can find info concerning the PCI and RAID issues with the Via chipset(s) and XP processors. I want to construct a machine and have been considering the EPOX & MSI mobo's with the KT266A. I am not an OC'er but would like a strong, buildable and most importantly, reliable platform. Any suggestions? All info is appreciated.

[Bruce]

civet, a fellow after my own heart - if you want a reliable platform I'd suggest AMD 761 or Intel 845D (ducks, runs for cover for committing the felony of mentioning the 'I' word in an AMD thread).

As for your question re: PCI problems with Via, why look further than good old TR for the answers? Try these for starters:

http://www.tech-report.com/onearticle.x/3244
http://www.tech-report.com/onearticle.x/3280
http://www.tech-report.com/onearticle.x/3303
http://www.tech-report.com/onearticle.x/3316

Bruce

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Bruce on 2002-01-27 10:40 ]</font>

[Forge]

You can, however, dodge the Via PCI issues with just a little bit of luck. I've had numerous Via boards, and the only problems I've had revolve around SBLives. Those were small issues, at that.

My new CMI-8738 based $30 Hercules Muse XL is running flawlessly on my KT7A. Finally a sound card that does the job...

[civet]

Thanks Bruce & Forge. Bruce I will research the other boards. The more I dig the more ignorant I feel. The quest for the perfect motherboard is a constant and amorphous endeavor for manufacturers and consumers. Long live technology.

[Bruce]

Ah, the quest for the perfect motherboard. Good luck. I rather fancy the look of this one, but it's P4 not AMD.

Bruce

[Dposcorp]

My VP6 with a GTXP souncard works great and stable. I had a Radeon AIW that i used for video capture and it worked fine. I prefer duallies when doing video capture, and they also work great for Tivo type TV capture.

Just my .02

[Prelude]

With all the Bad Karma surrounding the VIA chipsets at the moment, where would you (being anyone in this thread) recomend someone go for a motherboard in terms of chipset. The 760 is reported to be stable, but you lose some performance with it. The nForce is only currently available in fairly expencive, integrated boards that lack onboard raid. The Sis735 seems to be religated to highly integrated boards also lacking onboard raid. Note, for me onboard raid is not a nessisity, but it would be a plus. Suggestions?

*Missing the days when a 300a@450 on an Abit BH6 was the only way to go....it was so simple*

Peace,
Will