I'm lighting a fire!! DDR Mobos for AMD!! Ack!

[Weirdo]

This is going to turn into a "Slam Weirdo for asking a stupid question"-fest in a little bit. But I'd like a second opinion on something, and I think that this is one of the best places to get it.

Let me start by saying I just bought parts for a new computer to replace the POS thing by my side. It should be a sweet system, and I can't wait for the parts to get here. But of course, I'm now having that "Did I buy the right thing???" syndrome. I wanted to go DDR, and at one place I got an almost unanimous reccomendation of the Asus A7M. So that's what I ordered!

However I'm now second guessing myself. Is this really the best board out there? I always thought Asus or ABit was the best, and then I was warned away from ABit because of a bunch of problems with them.

I don't plan on doing much overclocking. (Esp. since AMD-761 doesn't allow multiplier adjustments) I just want a stable, powerful board. Did I get the right thing?

Did I even get the right chipset?

-Weirdo

 

[Curious_George]

Weirdo (Jun 15, 2001 12:01 p.m.):
However I'm now second guessing myself. Is this really the best board out there? I always thought Asus or ABit was the best, and then I was warned away from ABit because of a bunch of problems with them.

I don't plan on doing much overclocking. (Esp. since AMD-761 doesn't allow multiplier adjustments) I just want a stable, powerful board. Did I get the right thing?

You got one of the best, I wouldn't go as far as to say it still remains the best(maybe a few months ago but I would say it has been recently dethrowned by the newer epox and gigabyte boards). It still is a good stable board if you don't plan to OC. Your statement about the amd 760 not allowing multiplier adjustment is wrong though, because there are many boards with it that do, just the A7M doesn't.

 

[Weirdo]

[Quote}
You got one of the best, I wouldn't go as far as to say it still remains the best(maybe a few months ago but I would say it has been recently dethrowned by the newer epox and gigabyte boards). It still is a good stable board if you don't plan to OC. Your statement about the amd 760 not allowing multiplier adjustment is wrong though, because there are many boards with it that do, just the A7M doesn't.[/quote]

Hmm. Would you care to reccomend a different one. (BTW. thanks for setting me straight on the multiplier) I can still return the A7M!

 

[Weirdo]

For the record.. I'm getting Asus A7M266. Is there a difference between A7M and A7M266?

 

[Curious_George]

Nope I think A7M266 is the only A7M out, people just shorten the name when writing it out sometimes.. You could look into the epox 8K7A or Gigabyte 7DXR, both have gotten a lot of good attention lately, epox more then any though.

 

[Nagorak]

Curious_George (Jun 15, 2001 12:20 p.m.):
You got one of the best, I wouldn't go as far as to say it still remains the best(maybe a few months ago but I would say it has been recently dethrowned by the newer epox and gigabyte boards). It still is a good stable board if you don't plan to OC. Your statement about the amd 760 not allowing multiplier adjustment is wrong though, because there are many boards with it that do, just the A7M doesn't.

Actually, I think the A7M still is the best DEPENDING on what you are looking for... It still beats the other boards in benchmarks, so it's the fastest board on the market (it's very close). BUT, it has no multiplier adjustments which is a MAJOR detraction for overclockers. It doesn't matter if the board is the fastest on the market if you have to run your CPU 200 MHz slower when you use it (thanks to no multiplier adjustments).

For overclocking I'd suggest going with the EPoX 8KTA. If you don't really care about overclocking that much, then stick with the A7M266 (but I figure it's probably important to you since this is the overclockers.com forum).

 

[Daniel ~]

OK your here so I have to ask you, you don't care about O/Cing today, but what about tomorrow? Once you build your box and get into it, will you regret not have more options to play with? An overclockable board is no more trouble to set up and leaves your future options open. Just a thought.":O}

 

[FRANK]

I've got a couple of ASUS boards ( A7V and an A7V133). because of the lack of multipliers on the A7M266 I went with an FIC AD11 on my last one and am pleased with the decision. I've had good luck (within the limits of the KT133 chipset) with the FIC boards in the past, including an AZ11 and several socket 7, VA503+ boards.

The AD11 uses DDR memory and has the AMD chipset with both multiplier and FSB adustments. This board has performed at least as well as my A7V133, matching it MHz for MHz with any CPU I've tried on it. I've had my DURON 600 to 1170MHz and my 1.2-C T-BIRD to 1470.

 

[Flash]

Nagorak (Jun 15, 2001 07:25 p.m.):

Curious_George (Jun 15, 2001 12:20 p.m.):
BUT, it has no multiplier adjustments which is a MAJOR detraction for overclockers. It doesn't matter if the board is the fastest on the market if you have to run your CPU 200 MHz slower when you use it (thanks to no multiplier adjustments).

I agree that you have less flexibility w/o multiplier adjustments, but I don't consider it a MAJOR detraction in every case--specifically, if you're running a 1.33 or 1.4ghz Tbird.

Realistically, with proper cooling you stand a decent chance of stably overclocking a 1.33 Tbird between 1.47 and 1.56ghz (I know more is possible, but talking typical results w/o extreme cooling).

Chances are that for a stable overclock you won't get much beyond a 150mhz fsb, so you'd be limited to 1.5ghz on the A7M with a 1.33 cpu (1.575 w/ 1.4). If you had multipliers, you could probably get away with 1.56 ghz at 11x142. Faster, right? Probably not, since your memory and other subsystems would be running slower.

So basically I'm saying that having multiplier adjustment isn't that big a deal if you already have a processor with a 10 or 10.5 multiplier.

Still and all, if given a choice I'd pick a board with multipliers--either the EpoX (cheaper) or Gigabyte 7-DXR (best).

 

[Valid]

Quick question in this same vein. Was considering the Gigabyte (liked the 3DIMM slots, etc), but the 7-DXR has onboard RAID support I believe. This put it out of my price range, especially with comparison to the Epox, so that's the one I'm currently going with. I assumed the 7-DX would be equivalent to the DXR but without RAID support, but everything I've checked say it only has 2DIMM slots. Anybody know this for a fact? (Is it lacking any other features?) If it's true, I see nothing that would make me choose that board over the Epox, especially considering the lower price on the epox.