KX7-333R compared to a Epox 8k3a+?

[Carmine_Paterno]

My a7a266 died and im looking for a replacement so i cant have my duron 1.2ghz rig up again. The duron will be replaced soon with a XP 2200+.

How does the kx7-333R compare to the 8k3a+? I dont know which one to pick.

Thanx

 

[Sonny]

The KX7333R is a good example of the KT333 chipset but ABIT has not come up with a proper BIOS to support the TBred. There is a workaround which you may or may not want to do, joining the 5th L3 bridge & is also the way to unlock it. It doesnt have a wide choice of voltage adjustments but at least you have full controll of its BIOS unlike the Epox.

 

[Silver]

I believe that the Abit has more potential if you are going to go for max bandwidth. Question might be are you into making vmods? Also, how experienced are you? Sonny is right on the bios and were I to do it again I would consider the Abit. On the flip side, the Epox does get good bandwidth unmodified and does give 3.2 ddr voltage as well as 2.2vcore without any mods. Again, unless you are looking to go extreme then I would get the Epox which is a very good board and more than acceptable. Take Care.

 

[Carmine_Paterno]

Yes, i would say i am experienced. Ive been around the overclocking scene for a while now. I voltage modded my ASUS A7A266 with a potentiameter and could take the voltage up to about 2.8v LoL. I also did the DDR voltage mod to about 3.05v.

Now voltage is very important to me, because i usually like to get the max out of my chips. I usually dont go above 2.05v. Are there any mods for the KX7-333R? And if so, are they fairly easy?

The thing that makes me want to go more towards the KX7 is the Raid feature. I plan to buy another IBM Deskstar 30gb UDMA100 hd and set them up in a stripe set.

Also another thing that comes to mind, is the room around the socket on the motherboard. I currently have a Volcano V6CU+ heatsink and its farely large. Is there enough clearance for the larger heatsinks? I plan to buy a AX7 heatsink (i saw a review here at overclockers on heatsinks and watercoolers and the ax7 beat out everything)

I want to run the FSB the highest i can. Which one of these motherboards has the fastest chipset?

Thanx again! Youve been alot of help. Sorry for all the questions LoL

 

[Arkaine23]

motherboards

8K3A+ and KX7333r both have raid.

The volt mod for the Abit is the same as the volt mod for the AK31. Use the search feature for volt mods and you should find threads about it.

As to which is faster and/or more stable at high speeds, you'll have to hear from people that oewn these boards.

 

[Emericana]

i personally have owned BOTH of these boards. i am currently using the KX7 and have to admit it is about 100times better than the epox in every way possible.

the 8k3a is the most unstable board i have ever used. epox has failed to fix many a problems and that is why there are still plenty of random beta bioses floating around. the probs still have not been fixed. the board relaxes your settings when you push for high fsbs. dont even try running the board with a geforce 3 either unless you want to run with relaxed ram timings. the ONLY and i will repeat again the ONLY advantage the 8k3a has is that it allows more voltages to be selected. but if you do a vmod you can overcome that problem.

the kx7 has more options to tweak and is incredibly stable.

the only thing is that if you wanna use a tbred with this board you need to unlock it... but you were gonna do that anyways right

 

[Carmine_Paterno]

WOW! thanx alot for all that info. I think youve definetly made up my mind for me ! LoL Im definlety getting the Abit board. Now to save up some money. THANX AGAIN!