ASUS A7A266 versus A7M266

[The Jet Coaster]

Which should I get. I hear that 761 is faster than ALi's...

Any opinions?

 

[Bubba]

The A7M is a DDR board and the A7A uses pc100/133 or DDR.Also I believe the A7A is a better overclocker as you cannot change the multiplier on the A7M.I think you can change the multiplier using the dip-switches on the board on the A7A but I'm not 100% on that .

 

[Blue Jester_2112]

As far as I know, the 761 is slightly faster than the Ali but that's something you'd only see in benchmarks. The A7A is a better bet for overclocking with it's adjustable multiplier. Just make sure you get the one with 10 dipswitches, no tthe one with 4. If you want the 761 chipset I believe the Epox 8K7a has it. It' also supports changing the multiplier and seems to be the current favorite around here. Considering how finicky overclockers can be, it must be a good board.

 

[Amedeo602]

I have the A7A. Yes, you can change the multipliers with the switches, but make sure you get the board with 10 switches or you need to solder to get the multiplier option in the BIOS. Other than the memory, multiplier and the chipset, the boards are nearly identical. The A7A is about $40 less as well...

The only thing I'd like to see on this board is a PCI divider (and maybe another PCI slot to replace the AMR).

 

[bdf24]

I've been running the A7A for about 3 weeks or so now. I'm pretty satisfied so far. Very stable and fast too. Still learning how to tweak it more yet. But IMO it's a good board. Only thing I would like is to see more voltage adjustments. Can only go to 1.85. Would like it to go higher.

 

[Bobby Manus]

Only thing I dont like about the a7a is that it has 3 sdram slots and 2 ddr, id much rather see it with 3 or 4 ddr slots...

 

[bdf24]

In my opinion unless your running a server (which I would'nt really use this board for) you don't even need more then one DDR or SDram slot. Once again this is my opinion. From my experiences, I have had a lot more success with overclocking while running only one stick of ram compared to two sticks of ram.

 

[Stormwind]

I personally think A7A266 is better cause SD ram would sooner or later be outdated. You could start using SD ram now but later change!

The chipset isn't that bad although it is slightly slower then the 761 as blue jester said earlier.

The cost is the only problem here!

 

[UNiVERSE ELECTRiC]

I have the A7A, its a pretty sweet board except there is one major downside to it: you cant pump up both FSB and multiplier at the same time. I'd love to combine FSB and Multiplier OC'ing, but for me iths either one or the other. If I set to Jumper-Free setting (the JEN jumper), i can increase FSB AND tweak voltage but the multiplier is locked no matter what I do. If I opt for jumpers (well, dip switches in this case), I can no longer change FSB higher than 133 (there is no for any higher on the dipswitches, as opposed to bios where you can go significantly up in 1mhz increments) PLUS in jumper-mode I can't change voltage from the default 1.75 (unless there are hidden jumpers for it somewhere - manual says nothing on the subject, and all the dip switches are taken by fsb/multi/ram control).

Other than that, it's fast and has a nice convenient layout. A warning though - if you use Swiftech 472 HSF unmodded, it might bump into one of the capacitors so you need to saw off a corner or get the modded version.

UNiVERSE ELECTRiC

Asus A7A266 mobo
1.2g T-Bird Axia running at 1.4G (I could get higher speeds but it becomes unstable with high loads) w/ Swiftech 370-0A+papst fan
512M Micron DDR
Asus v7700 Geforce2 GTS 32M
SBLive 5.1
30g Quantum KA 7200rpm
40G DiamondMax+ 7200rpm
Pioneer 10x DVD
Yamaha 8x CDRW
Mutilated 350w MaxTower w/6 fans

 

[bdf24]

Thats weird! I can set mine to Jumper Free mode and adjust my FSB in bios and the multiplier by the jumpers at the same time. As well as the Vcore voltage too. Only thing I don't like about the board is I cant adjust the I\O Voltage at all.

 

[GuNRocK]

UNiVERSE ELECTRiC.......u can do both ....i have Asus A7V and inorder to chnage multiplier the Dipswitch 5&6 must be turned ON in order to change multiplyer from the defualt thats sent by cpu then u should crank up the FSB VIA bios dont bother witht the dip swithces for thats its soo much easyier with bios...

 

[killem1x1]

I have the A7A266 w/ 10 dips, and I was given some very good information right here 2 days ago. I am still "tweaking, but...
* I flashed the BIOS to 1005
* I put it in JUMPER-MODE
* I turned 1,2,3,5,7 OFF (BTW dip 5 is for SDRAM or DDR)

I booted my 1.4 @ 1600 w/ no problem. Now, in the other post it stated you could go back to "JUMPER-FREE" to adjust the FSB higher, but when I changed just that one jumper the system would not boot, so I cleared the CMOS, repeated the above steps, and am running @ 1600 right now.
I will post a reply when I can figure out how to get back to changing the FSB in the BIOS, while the mult is @ 12x. My voltage is still at 1.75
If anyone else can tell me please do!

PS I would like to thank the Overclockers forums for helping me get this far, without you guys, I'd still be unstable @ 1600, because I could ONLY Overclock using the FSB settings

 

[killem1x1]

Please excuse the ignorance of my last post. I CAN change the FSB in the BIOS at this point. I just bumped it slightly, and am now at 1626 / my FSB @ 135/34 and changed the vcore to 1.8 for good measure.
I will post the highest OC I can reach shortly.
BTW I do have two 256MB sticks of DDR here, as well as 2 512, and 1 256 PC133, which is my best bet for the highest Oclcok?, and what should I change the BIOS setings to in relation to the RAM?