Abit KT7 vs. Asus A7V

[Knight]

Hello. I have recently been talked into getting 2 Athlon T-bird systems instead of 2 PIIIs. Jim Roseberry at www.ProRec.com seemed to know his stuff...he's the guy who benchmarked the Athlon against the PIII, so he convinced me it will be cheaper...and even better!
I had done some research on the motherboard and chip for the PIII...but now I find that I'm really new to the world of Athlon. I'd really appreciate a little bit of help here.
I read most of the articles in this section and I found them very helpful. It seems the 2 main motherboards in use are the KT& and the A7V.
I went to PriceWatch to get some price ideas and I found some differences within the KT7 and the A7V specs...they don't all seem to the the same.
First of all, I suppose that SOCKET A boards are more common (cheaper also?) than SLOT A? Is SOCKET A the type I should go for?
The Abit KT7 also has a RAID version. Which is best?--I won't be using RAID.
I noticed both the Abit and Asus board have UDMA 66. Previously I was looking at boards (like the Abit BX133) with UDMA 100 IDE controllers...but I'm not sure if any HDs actually reach that speed. Please let me know if UDMA66 will be fast enough for my IBM DeskStar HDs.
I also found an Asus A7V PRO which says that the only difference is that it doesn't have DMA100 making it possible to OC 1MHz more.--This threw me off a bit.
Is the KT133 the best chipset for Athlon T-birds?
Lastly, when going to PriceWatch for bothe the Asus and Abit boards, they start off with some RAM ads. Do you need to buy a certain type of RAM for Athlon boards using T-bird chips? I know CAS2 is the best...but it's also the most expensive and since I'll need to buy a total of 512MB (between both computers), it will run me dry!

Thanks so much for your help and answers.

Best Regards,
NTL

 

[Deviant]

I have used both the A7V and the KT7, but slightly prefer my A7V. The new A7V rev 1.04 has the multiplier adjustments as dip switches and Soft FSB settings.
Yes definately faster and better than a PIII.
Socket A is a newer standard than Slot A, which is being phased out, so get socket A.
UDMA66 is fast enough, as ATA100 is only marginaly faster than UDMA66. But in the future Harddrives will be able to take more advantage of the extra bandwidth the ATA100 has. For this reason get the A7V as you can have 4xIDE drives & 4xATA100 drives. You can even put IDE drives in the ATA100 slots to have 8 IDE.
Both motherboards take PC100 or PC133 RAM, Cas 2 or 3. Pay extra for Cas 2 if it's cheap, but it doesn't matter alot at the end of the day. Don't go above 512MB RAM on any one machine unless running NT4 or Win2K.
Have fun, you'll never look back after buying a T-Bird.

 

[hooziewhatsit]

I have the kt7 raid, and love it, but i've also heard good things about the a7v. I think no matter which one you get, you will like it ;-) I would recommend getting a mobo with ata100 support, just for future upgradeability...

If possible, you might want to wait about a month, or a little longer until the kt133A chipset starts coming out. It will support a 266 ddr fsb instead of the 200 ddr fsb these mobo's have right now.

just my $.02

 

[Knight]

Thank you for the good answers...very much appreciated!
How do I get the new rev. 1.04 board? I haven't seen that specified. Is it a whole new board than the original A7V?
Is the Abit KA7 any good?
I can probably wait only 3-4 more weeks before needing to buy the board and all...do you think the new KT133a chipset will be out by then? Do both the KT7 and the A7V have KT133 chipsets?
What about CPUs? Will a T-bird 800MHz OC to 1GHz? Is there a special brand or plant that I should look at for the CPU?--Or are they all the same? Should I OC? The 800MHz chip is about $100 while the 1GHz is about $171, so because I'm buying 2, it will make a difference and I could really use the saved money...if OC'ing is a good solution.

TX,

NTL

 

[moleman]

Knight (Dec 31, 2000 07:38 a.m.):
Thank you for the good answers...very much appreciated!
How do I get the new rev. 1.04 board? I haven't seen that specified. Is it a whole new board than the original A7V?
Is the Abit KA7 any good?
I can probably wait only 3-4 more weeks before needing to buy the board and all...do you think the new KT133a chipset will be out by then? Do both the KT7 and the A7V have KT133 chipsets?
What about CPUs? Will a T-bird 800MHz OC to 1GHz? Is there a special brand or plant that I should look at for the CPU?--Or are they all the same? Should I OC? The 800MHz chip is about $100 while the 1GHz is about $171, so because I'm buying 2, it will make a difference and I could really use the saved money...if OC'ing is a good solution.

TX,

NTL

i think he is talking about the bios version. so go with the a7v and update to the newer bios that as multiplier control in the bios.

 

[Ericsson]

Knight (Dec 31, 2000 07:38 a.m.):
Thank you for the good answers...very much appreciated!
How do I get the new rev. 1.04 board? I haven't seen that specified. Is it a whole new board than the original A7V?
Is the Abit KA7 any good?
I can probably wait only 3-4 more weeks before needing to buy the board and all...do you think the new KT133a chipset will be out by then? Do both the KT7 and the A7V have KT133 chipsets?
What about CPUs? Will a T-bird 800MHz OC to 1GHz? Is there a special brand or plant that I should look at for the CPU?--Or are they all the same? Should I OC? The 800MHz chip is about $100 while the 1GHz is about $171, so because I'm buying 2, it will make a difference and I could really use the saved money...if OC'ing is a good solution.

TX,

NTL

the KA7-100 is a slot A board that runs the KX133 chipset.

i suppose the KT133A boards will be out by the first quarter of 2001(this year) but i don't have an idea when...

both the A7V and KT7 run KT133. there's no guarantee with a board that you'll hit 1GHz with your processor. even if you buy an athlon 800 with the best motherboard, there's still no guarantee that you'll be able to hit your target.

please take note that not all chips overclock the same. the motherboard doesn't spell the overclocking potential of your chip but it does help specially if it's a top-caliber high-performance board.

i would suggest the MSI K7T Pro2/K7T Pro2A board as well...more stable than both and also very tweakable just as long as you get the latest bios but i do prefer abit over the rest...i just love them.

 

[brint]

Okay boys and girls, the only thing I can say is that the Kt7 is a very very good and stable mobo, I have the Kt7-raid with my 900T-bird and it wound run above 1030Mhz. Then it boots with reg errors and all that ****, but still I would go for the Abit over the Asus, because some of my friends had problems with their A7V right from the start. The only problem you can get with the Kt7 is if you don't tweak the bios and install the latest 4in1 drivers from via.com
After that is done you can do what ever you want to do and it will still be running stable.
That’s just my call, you have to make the choice.

 

[Ericsson]

i myself would go for abit...

i had 2 abit boards and they both worked great for me...

my bro built 2 systems on the KT7 and i had my time playing with it...very much fun with tweaking!

i haven't tried the A7V/A7Pro but i hear it's also good.

 

[Deviant]

I was definately talking about rev1.04 A7V.
Apparently, from reading other forums, the 1005a bios detects the revision motherboard. If it's 1.02 then soft multiplier setting is hidden. If rev1.04, then it's works, but I have never seen any one post with the newer revision motherboard to confirm this.

 

[Mike]

I build about 5 systems a week. Abit KT7 is a good board. Not as good as Asus A7V. Especially if you don't even want the RAID option! NO other Socket A Mobo is as stable as either (sorry to offend MSi fans) but I can't honestly say otherwise from my experience.
The only reason I let the Abit board into my house is because my High Speed ISP requires an ISA slot, which the Asus does not have
But, I guess that isn't such a bad thing, since ISA SUCKS, and is being outdated for a reason. Anyhow, just my 2 cents.
Choose that which will best fit your needs. If you want FAST, and don't want to have to read a MILLION "help me" Forums, then you DON'T want the Abit KT7. The Asus A7V is simple to set up, and is every bit as fast. Trust me, I have one of each, sitting side by side.
Whatever you choose, you will be happy as long as you study first