Best AMD overclocking board

[wuzzapiman]

my computer got smoked and I need to replace everything including the mobo.
I am looking for a board that would work well with high overclocking (watercooling) XP 2400+ and still stable.
What do you guys reccomend or should i stay w/ a KT3 Ultra2
i was looking at this one:
http://www.accessmicro.com/productinfo.php3?ProductId=MTBGASA7VAX

 

[Deathknight]

I like my MSI board but I wouldn't say it is the best for overclocking. Most people consider epox as having the best ocing boards.

 

[Emericana]

Abit KX7-333 (w/ vmod for higher vcores if you want. very easy to do) HANDS DOWN. not a single board is better. fastest benches in everything best bios.

 

[wuzzapiman]

o ya i have an ulimited price on this mobo maybe i should go KT400?

 

[Maximus Nickus]

In my experience Epox have incredible Stability and unrivalled overclocking abilities.

IMO anyway,
M_N

 

[SafirXP]

The best OC board would be...
A board that has features like:

• Usual memory, fsb, multiplier adjusment
• Core, memory & AGP voltage adjustment
• PCI divider adjustment
• Supports newer 166MHz FSB

That's what I'd look for!

EDIT: Epox or Abit, take your pick!

 

[rogerdugans]

I have not yet messed with any KT333 mobos, much less KT400....
but from past experience, and all I've read recently, the 333 boards are as good as the 400s, and maybe a bit better as they have been around a bit longer (fewer bugs left to fix).

All around I have to give the nod to Epox: fast, stable, dependable and the seem to be in more of the top overclocked machines than any other brand.

My Epox KT266a boards still keep up with, or surpass, the best of the 333 and 400 boards- I call that a pretty good testimonial

 

[ib69nu]

the kx7-333 is really great. I have my 1600 at 1.73 right now and it is (so far) stable. I am gonna keep going higher on this. right now it is 192 x 9. hoping to hit 200x9.5. my vote is for the kx7

 

[Lord Moreira]

MSI for me

MSI overall is the best choice.
I understand u wanna clock it till it smokes but don't forget ur also going to use it under those conditions
Therefor i say MSI
(only my opinion)
Epox is a good runner up but MSI has all the other goods like frequent bios updates that go really smooth with their website , support (hardly ever needed ) is great and it comes with all those extra features like bluethooth and USB's etc....
U might never use them but it's still a full package

 

[Lord Moreira]

Almost forgot!

Overclocking features are all there and very stable with the apropriate cooling

 

[wuzzapiman]

The Abit AT7-MAX2 is what i think im going w/--it has serial+parrelel ATA, 6 RAID channels (2 parrel, 2 seriall, 2 normal133). APG 8x and all that other good stuff--rumors are that it can overclock pretty well--2.35 volts w/o mod

 

[none1]

THE ANSWER IS ......

Go to the CPU database on the home page of overclockers.com. Go look at the highest overclocks achieved. SEE the motherboards that have gotten the best overclocks most often.

That will tell you which brand to target. THEN, go pick a motherboard with the features you want, e.g. do you want onboard lan, firewire, etc. etc..

With unlimited funding, I usually recomend a motherboard with the fewest features. This way, if you LAN won't OC well, just replace it with a card that will. Integrated motherboards in general are great at saving cost, and usually OC well, but for the top OC, you're safer with seperate componets.

KT333 or KT400? Right now, the KT400 does not have a 1/6 divider, and probably won't, so KT333 or KT400 should OC just as well, of course the KT333 have been out longer so more folks know how to tweak the KT333s. ON the other hand, if you're pimping your stuff out, the KT400 has 8X AGP, (raedon 9700) while the KT333 do not.

SIDE NOTE with unlimited money AND time ..... there will probably be some (UNKOWN) ocing improvements in the next few months. The KT400A should have a /6 divider, and the Nforce2 will be able to lock the PCI and AGP independent of the FSB. Of course, there are no firm dates on either one yet, so know idea how long you will need to wait.

Good luck.

 

[JoJoMoJo]

that cpu database hasnt been updated for quite awhile ....from what im seeing.

 

[dxiw]

3 Words:
EPOX
ABIT
ASUS

Not in any order or anything all are good o/c'rs

 

[donny_paycheck]

I'm in the market for the same thing right now.

I prefer ABit over any other brand. Historically they were the first enthusiast motherboards around and they still are the easiest to tweak thanks to Softmenu 3 (BIOS menu that lets you adjust voltages and frequencies all in one page).

Right now thanks to other members helping me, I've learned that the ABit KX7-333 has the best memory performance out of any AMD motherboard, hands down. This is the KT333 chipset.

A note about 8x AGP and the KT400 chipset - 8x AGP is brand new and doesn't show a significant improvement in performance (yet) over 4x AGP. The only cards that utilize this are the Radeon 9700 and the NV25 versions of the GeForce 4. The NV25s aren't noticeably faster than the 4x AGP GeForce4s and the Radeon 9700 has had a lot of problems working with 8x AGP, mainly not being able to at all.

This will all change but after stating these facts my recommendation goes with the ABit KX7-333.

 

[dxiw]

asus have all the frequency and volts on its own page in bios too thank you very much

 

[none1]

that cpu database hasnt been updated for quite awhile ....from what im seeing.

Hmm. I see some of the newer Abit max2 boards, theres a bunch of the AMD 2200, they haven't been out that long, can't be too old.

You can tell that shuttle, gigabyte, ECS are NOT getting the big OCs. Its the abits, epoxs, and some Asus. The MSI are just NOT hitting the 180+ FSB. For ANY of the CPUs.

 

[JoJoMoJo]

i posted three different cpus i have in last month or longer and they are still not up and I agree with you on MSI not without some mods they wont

 

[Deathknight]

Re: MSI for me

MSI overall is the best choice.
I understand u wanna clock it till it smokes but don't forget ur also going to use it under those conditions
Therefor i say MSI
(only my opinion)
Epox is a good runner up but MSI has all the other goods like frequent bios updates that go really smooth with their website , support (hardly ever needed ) is great and it comes with all those extra features like bluethooth and USB's etc....
U might never use them but it's still a full package

I agree that you do get quite a nice package with the MSI mobos. I am pleased but not thrilled with my OCs with the msi board I have however. I didn't intend this system to be a big time oced system (heh it just started evolving I guess) so I went with a more feature rich board.

 

[JoJoMoJo]

http://www17.tomshardware.com/mainboard/02q4/021007/index.html Goooooooooooooooooooo ASUS

Quote: Asus came out on top in the benchmarks, too. The A7V8X was one of the best performers with DDR333, as well as with DDR400. The results were even marginally better with DDR333.