A7V or A7M???

[Seuss]

Leaving RAM prices aside, which board is better in terms of performance and stability?? About to make a new purchase and I'm just curious.

[SanTropez1971]

A7M266. I have not found any article that doesn't speak highly of this board. My buddie and I both bought it and love it. The AMD 761 chipset is super sweet plus with the DDR SDRAM it makes a great combo.

Here is a review of the A7M266
http://www4.tomshardware.com/mainboard/01q1/010314/index.html

Also. I would get Corsair PC2400 RAM. It is a little more $ over PC2100 but it has CAS latency of 2 (not 2.5 like most) and it id great for overclocking. You can get prices on the PC2400 at www.pricewatch.com

Here is a note on the PC2400 RAM.
http://www.corsairmicro.com/main/PR_xms2400.html

ICQ me with questions.

[Dutch]

ah..DDR vs SDRAM, the problem...Sdram is SOSOSOSO matured, and proven, and right now, DDR is in its' "young" stage, it isnt mature enough yet, DDR is NOT much faster than sdram, but none the less it is faster, and you can easily and cheaply build a SDRAM system that kicks some serious Ass,

[Nagorak]

Neither one...

A7V and A7V133 are based on Via chipsets. After my experience with these boards, I can't recommend them. Granted some work just fine (maybe 90% even), but some are just junk and are extremely unstable. It's like playing Russian Roulette when you buy one of these boards.

A7M266 has very good performance. BUT it has no multiplier adjustments. For overclocking Athlons the A7M266 just isn't going to give you much to work with. If you do get an A7M266 you'd better be sure you have a 100 MHz FSB chip (higher multiplier), because you only have up to about 150 MHz to work with (166 MHz if you're LUCKY and I really doubt you'd get that high).

If you're dead-set on an Asus board, I'd suggest going with the A7A266. The Ali Majik 1 chipset got buried in reviews, but I'm really not sure why. I guess it was because it didn't perform up to par with the AMD 761 chipset. Although, I notice now that the KT266 chipset has bombed, all of the reviewers are suddenly very quiet on that topic.

http://www.tomshardware.com/mainboard/01q2/010509/index.html

If you check this review you will see that the A7A266 does benefit from DDR memory (as it is faster than the KT133 chipset), even if it isn't quite as fast as the AMD760. And because you can adjust the multiplier with the A7A, you're going to get a whole lot more out of your system overall. Also, note that the A7A accepts standard SDRAM memory too! And when it has SDRAM the A7A266 is JUST as fast as the A7V133 (but it hopefully doesn't have all the bugs and problems).

Anyway if you aren't totally dead-set on Asus I'd suggest getting the EPoX 8KTA+ (I think that's it). It's based on the AMD 760 chipset and supposedly it is very stable and fast. I really hope it is, because I just ordered one to replace my flaky A7V133... I generally stick with only Asus motherboards myself (since they are generally the best IMO, as reflected in almost all benchmarks), But at the moment they just don't have anything to suit my needs.

[Daniel R]

Nagorak, you almost had it right. The Epox 8K7A is based on the AMD761+VIA686B chipsets. The Asus A7M266 is very expensive ($200) due to its very limited quantities, while the Epox is available at Mwave for $132. Both of these boards have the same performance. The Epox allows for multiplier manipulation, while the Asus does not. I have both of these motherboards, and I would take the Epox over the A7M in a heart beat.

[Killyin]

okay so i have heard lots of good stuff about the ASUS A7M266 and the AMD 760 Northbridge...
the only problem is that when overclocking you can only use FSB adjustments to raise the CPU speed...therefore raising the operating frequencies of all your other devices too... (AGP, PCI, RAM)

The addition of DDR to the field makes for a tantalizing tidbit to up performance for PCs...but the fact is that the performance gains in memory are around 10%-15% when using DDR SDram. It doesnt seem like a HUGE difference in performance, but it will result in overall better system speeds and benchmarking results...

okay back to multiplier adjustment. The abscence of multiplier adjustment on the A7M266 is a serious damper on overclocking! my suggestion is that if you want to get a nice DDR board.....go with this one

MSI's K7-Master S (MS-6341). (A.K.A Microstar)

AMD760 North Bridge
VIA VT82c686B South Bridge with ATA100-Support
Four DDR-SDRAM DIMM Slots, supporting up to 4 GB of memory
1 AGP Pro Slot
5 PCI Slots
1 CNR Slot (in case anyone cares)
Onboard Adaptec AIC-7899 Dual-Channel SCSI-160 Adapter

4GB of DDR RAM....an Ultra160 SCSI controller....AND the AMD 760 Northbridge...WOW! It even supports multiplier adjustments!!!!!!!!
Mua ahahahaha im in heaven.

if you are looking into picking up this sweet DDR board....then head on over to

Canadians:
http://www.dealsdirect.ca/catalog/mall.cfm?CATEGORY=81

Americans:
http://www.dealsdirect.com/catalog/mall.cfm?CATEGORY=81

if you still want to be a die hard ASUS supporter...and are looking to overclock like mad i suggest the A7V just because it is cheaper, and allows more overclocking ability than the A7M266...
just crank up the FSB on the A7V and you will have RAM performance that will almost equal that of DDR memory. Just remember to get good quality RAM...PC166 @ CAS2-2-2 (183MHz @ CAS3) is about as good as SDRAM gets right now...

http://www.bigfootcomputers.com/ sells some good stuff.

all in all.....A7V is a good board....A7M is getting good reviews...its up to you in the end.

oh btw...SiS 735 DDR chipset(?) is getting better performance reviews than the mighty 760...just FYI

[!!tio!!]

FULLY SUPPORT MSI! MSI K7MASTER!!!!

[!-=sky=-!]

i think you should get the epox 8kha or 8k7a

they are kickass boards and i think it beats the asus boards