Motherboard Dilemma

[i810 Forever]

I read through a few threads in the Epox mobo section of the forum, and its got me worried about getting a dead/bad board, and not being able to return it. I was as of late considering a refurb 8K3A+ from Newegg for $69, but now I notice that the Epox boards are non-refundable, and even the new 8K5A2 boards (was considering getting one if I was able to get the funds, which I think I'll be able to do) are out of stock. Are Epox KT400 boards going to be here next week or something? Or just a lot of bad boards?

Should I proceed with getting an Epox board as planned or get an alternative such as an ASUS A7V333 ($85 refurbished) or something else? I heard that Soltek had some nice o/c boards but NewEgg dosn't seem to be selling any Soltek AMD boards right now.

The board I plan on getting will be used in conjunction with the below parts:

AMD Athlon XP 1600+ AGOIA Core
256MB Corsair XMS 3200 CAS2
ASUS 52x CD-ROM
Black Mitsumi Floppy

Stuff I already have:
80GB Seagate Barracuda ATAIV hard drive, Hercules 3D Prophet 4000XT 32MB PCI (I'm gonna be getting a Radeon 9500 or NV30 or something for Christmas).

Thanks for any input.

 

[Yodums]

The item isn't refundable however you can exchange it for the same item. Where are you getting that it that the boards are DOA? The Asus A7V333 is an OK buy. I just think their performance isn't comparable with Abit's or Epox's.

If you wait one week or so the KX7-333 will be back in stock which is going to be a great deal.

 

[gooutside]

order from mwave. f those newegg dudes, lol. *no offense, i do order from newegg*

anyway, the 8K5A2+ board is 99 bux there and shipping is cheap. i got the board for 113 with 2 day shipping today. works great. it's a CE revision of the KT333 chip.

 

[gooutside]

whoops, i guess 13 bux shipping isn't that cheap but what i meant was that the board is still cheaper than newegg even with shipping.