Wich is the best DDR AMD mobo out there?

[Cheesas]

Please, I´m got confused seeing so many reviews and can´t get a clear idea.
I have a T-bird 750 and also planning taking it to 1000.
Which is the most stable-outstandingperformanced-OC´capability mobo out there????
Thnx!

 

[DamnFast]

Cheesas,
I think either ASUS A7M266 or Iwill KA-266R will be a good DDR board for a while. THe ASUS board uses AMD761 northbridge and VIA southbridge while Iwill board uses ALi chipsets. I personnaly like ASUS better than Iwill because of their reputation in overslocking. But for my new system, I bought the Iwill KA-266R and this board is solid stable with any torture tests and very good benchmark. I'm running my 1.2GHz T-bird @ 1.33 (10 x 133FSB) with crucial PC1600(overclocked to PC2100) on this board and they all perform outstanding. Many review sites says that AMD761 is better performer but I don't think that is true and even it is, it wont be a big difference that you'll feel.
The Iwill mobo is very overclocker friendly and I do recommend it. It has the multiplier option to 12.5x(I know it's not that great but consider lowering the multiplier and raising the FSB for overclocking) and FSB upto 146MHz. And you can set the vcore voltage setting upto 1.85v for stability. It also supports 3 DIMM slots for DDR (compared to 2 on ASUS board) and a VERY GOOD onboard audio.
They both are very good boards but you also have to consider that those DDR boards are not yet mature to take full advantage of the DDR memory compared to those Via KT133 based boards out there. Although they are better than standard pc133 sdram mobo, I personally would recommend you to wait till they come up with a rock solid, hard performer Mobo. If you need to get the mobo ASAP (like me where I had to give my old computer to my younger bro) either boards will be a perfect choice. But I'm just mentioning the Iwill mobo since I am using it currently. So, do some research and go with what you think is the best.
Cheers.

 

[Cheesas]

Yeah, thnx man!

All your info really helped me DammFast! I really thank you. I´ve been doing some research lately and found that many sites considers de Iwill a better option than the Asus.
First of all the Asus A7M266 seems no to take advantege of the DDR memory!

http://www.iamnotageek.com/cgi-bin/reviews.cgi?name=a7m266&p=4

here´s a review of that mobo and you can see the DDR benchs... really depressing I may say. It seems he had better results with the "sample" boards!
And also that mobo doesn´t allow you to change the multiplier! so it´s not very good for OC.
So i will look for the IWill I hope it works great! if anybody knows of another good mobo please post.
Thnx again man.

 

[DamnFast]

I'm very confident that the Iwill KA266R (or KA-266 wihout RAID option) will be a outstanding performer. And as far a the memor is concernd, go for the Crucial DDR memory. They are on sale for the same price as the PC133 SDRAMs...very cheap ~!! And those PC1600 DDR from crucial rocks @133 FSB without any problem~!!

 

[AZZKICKER]

wow

you guys are right

the asus ddr mobo is slacking bad

im getting better scores than that with sdram and a KT133A mobo (ABIT)

look

 

[evlfred]

Well I have a little better scores and once I get my multiplier adjustments fixed and I can run @ 133+ I'm sure my memory scores will jump a lot. Plus the A7M266 is VERY stable @ 117mhz x 12 = 1404
Tbird 1200 @ 1404 (117x12)
A7M266
128mb PC1600 Micron DDRSDRAM
Hercules geforce2 GTS PRO 64MB
SB Live 5.1
PCI 3com Modem
D-Link homepna 2.0 NIC
ATI TV Wonder PCI
IBM 75GXP 45GB
Plextor 121032A
Pioneer 105S 16X DVD
Illyama 510 pro 22"
other stuff what don't matter
Here are some sandra scores and heat info.


[img="[URL]http://images.honesty.com/imagedata/h/630/14/26301477.gif[/URL]"]
[img="[URL]http://images.honesty.com/imagedata/h/630/14/26301478.gif[/URL]"]
[img="[URL]http://images.honesty.com/imagedata/h/630/14/26301479.gif[/URL]"]
[img="[URL]http://images.honesty.com/imagedata/h/630/14/26301480.gif[/URL]"]
[img="[URL]http://images.honesty.com/imagedata/h/630/14/26301481.gif[/URL]"]

Thanks,

evlfred

 

[Metaxas]

Hey EvlFred...are you using a 100Mhz based cpu, and ramping it up to 133? See, I really wanna get in to DDR, and I have been looking around, but reports are conflicting. And what did you mean about your multiplier, does your have the AMD760 chipset, or the AMD761? I want one with the 761 - a lot of the problems with the 760 were fixed. Hell, you can't even get 133Mhz pieces yet, should I go with a 100Mhz piece, or a 133 piece? And I am just going to put PC2100 in it, instead of 1600.

 

[evlfred]

actually, I am using a 100 mhz chip @ 117 mhz, for now. I need to finish the multiplier mod to get the multiplier lowered for 133+ operation. The board has the 760 chipset and it is perfectly stable. The 761 you are referring to is actually the north bridge of the AMD 760 chipset. All motherboards are therefor using the 761 because they forgo the 766 (the other half of the 760 chipset) for the via southbridge. There really was no 760 chip.

The only reason I am using pc1600 is because it was SO cheap by comparison. When crucial gets it's pc2100 I'll drop that in and go for 256mb as well.

If you don't want to do some SERIOUS modification to you main board you really should go for the 133 mhz chips. By serious I mean removing and replacing two micro resistor arrays (surface mount). They are about 2mm by 1mm with four terminals (not pins, no that would be easy!) down each side. Not for the faint of heart!

evlfred

 

[AZZKICKER]

AWSOME

i bet the next chip will untalize DDR better

thats going to be sweet

 

[Metaxas]

Ack fred...nope, I will wait for the 133 parts to come out, but there is only one other thing that I want to know....where did you get that board? Every place that I went too, said it won't be available until the 12th. Oh well, I guess it doesen't matter, since the 133 cpus arent even available, wonder when they will show up? I am really anxious for a new box, this PIII 600 is getting real tired... I am going to try to be as patient as I can though, because I can't afford a costly mistake right now.