Best KT333 Motherboard out?

[wolfsblood]

I'm gettin a new motherboard today and I need some recomendations. Right now I've been looking at the MSI KT3 Ultra-Aru, Epox 8K3A+, and the Abit KX733R. I need something with good overclocking features and onboard Raid. Which do you think is the best?

 

[obsolete]

i dunno if you have read these reviews but heres some:
www.vr-zone.com/reviews/ABIT/KX7-333R
www.digit-life.com/articles/roundupmobo/index.html
i plan on getting a kt333 board soon, from the looks of it i'd be choosing from the abit KX733R and the Epox Epox 8K3A+. Both of these boards have very nice price tags on them.

 

[Rainsford]

Read this, Tom's Hardware KT333 Roundup.

 

[wolfsblood]

bump for any more help.

 

[Mingon]

I have the epox board - I can safely say no problems so far. This board seems as stable as my previous asus and gigabyte boards.

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: Rainsford
Read this, Tom's Hardware KT333 Roundup.

No, don't read anything from Tom's. I thought this was sort of common knowledge by now.

The MSI KT3 is excellent, so is the Abit.

 

[Heinrich]

I am torn between the Abit and the Epox as well, about 45/55. Or even 40/60. The edge goes to the Epox because apparently that board, contrary to Tom's review, does read the thermal diode in the Athlon for thermal support. That's a rarity.

I like the idea of that other Abit board that's not got the PS2 stuff in it. Apparently eliminating that older technology stuff helps Windows to run more stably. Unfortunately its performance isn't that great. The KX7 runs faster. I think they've tweaked the design better, and apparently the BIOS offers more overclocking.

 

[classy]

I just got my KX7333r Saturday. I am going to install it tonight. Out of all the reviews and roundups, the Abit boards always seem to be among the best. And it seems from all the forums there seems to less outcry with these boards as well which is a good sign. I'll let you know how my experience goes.

 

[10mA]

got myself a gigabyte ga-7vrx, its layout and features are the best, not to mention great documentation. It's got dual bios which i can't do without since i stuffed my asus board due to a bad flash
but anyways get an Epox cause its good 4 overclocking ("overdrive" as gigabyte would say it)

 

[pkypkypky]

i'm thinking about getting the gigabyte kt133 board and want to get this case with front usb support. Do I have to purchase the connector from gigabyte or will the case come with it...?? never tried to do a hookup on front. will this even work on this board? I'm guessing there's 4 usb on the board to the back and two more that need to be connected to the front (?)

help me out if you know more info, thx

also, will 300w be ok for 1900+ running on this board? one hdd, two cd drives, etc...mostly basic setup

 

[mechBgon]

pkypkypky, what particular case will you be buying?

got myself a gigabyte ga-7vrx, its layout and features are the best, not to mention great documentation.

The layout is fantastic, particularly the location of the IDE and floppy connectors! That should eliminate the need for extra-long cables for many people.

 

[pkypkypky]

enlight 72500AZ

not sure how this setup would work with the GA-7VRXP version of this board. i would like to make use of all my 6 ports and have two in the front if it's possible on this case.

 

[MangoX]

I got a Abit AT7 this weekend. So far so good. Overclocked my 1700+ to 1.6ghz with no problems at 1.8v and memory timings and speeds at their fastest. I have a single KingMAX DDR333 256mb piece.

 

[Zim Hosein]

Originally posted by: Heinrich
I am torn between the Abit and the Epox as well, about 45/55. Or even 40/60. The edge goes to the Epox because apparently that board, contrary to Tom's review, does read the thermal diode in the Athlon for thermal support. That's a rarity.

Heinrich, are you sure about this fact? I just got the Epox board but haven't had a chance to look through it's documentation, but I did take a peek at the board and saw a diode in the CPU socket. If it does have thermal protection I'm even happier that I made the decision to go w/ the Epox. Thanks for your time

 

[holyghost]

Originally posted by: jaeger66

Originally posted by: Rainsford
Read this, Tom's Hardware KT333 Roundup.

No, don't read anything from Tom's. I thought this was sort of common knowledge by now.

Pls help me understand this. Why is it not advisable to take recommendations from Tom's? I thought they are one of the reputable review sites.

 

[bsr]

Epox 8k3a+ and Abit KX7 is best performance wise... Shuttle and gigabyte will probly be more affordable..

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: holyghost

Pls help me understand this. Why is it not advisable to take recommendations from Tom's? I thought they are one of the reputable review sites.

Why did you think that? Because they say they are? The reviews are sloppy, poorly written, and draw highly questionable conclusions.

I started this thread, there's more if you search:

TH Thread

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: Zim Hosein

Originally posted by: Heinrich
I am torn between the Abit and the Epox as well, about 45/55. Or even 40/60. The edge goes to the Epox because apparently that board, contrary to Tom's review, does read the thermal diode in the Athlon for thermal support. That's a rarity.

Heinrich, are you sure about this fact? I just got the Epox board but haven't had a chance to look through it's documentation, but I did take a peek at the board and saw a diode in the CPU socket. If it does have thermal protection I'm even happier that I made the decision to go w/ the Epox. Thanks for your time

I actually e-mailed EPoX tech support recently on this very matter ) I got back two replies. The first one stated that there is a BIOS setting you can adjust to make the system shutdown when it hits a certain temp, and that with the latest BIOS, it will read the temp. direct from the CPUs temp. diode (nice feature); however, the second e-mail said that the 8K3A+ do not now, nor will they likely support the type of overheat protection required by AMD since the 8K3A+ is currently in production.

 

[Zim Hosein]

I actually e-mailed EPoX tech support recently on this very matter ) I got back two replies. The first one stated that there is a BIOS setting you can adjust to make the system shutdown when it hits a certain temp, and that with the latest BIOS, it will read the temp. direct from the CPUs temp. diode (nice feature); however, the second e-mail said that the 8K3A+ do not now, nor will they likely support the type of overheat protection required by AMD since the 8K3A+ is currently in production.

CrazySaint, so there should be two different versions of this board out Must investigate further Thanks for the response CS

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: Zim Hosein

I actually e-mailed EPoX tech support recently on this very matter ) I got back two replies. The first one stated that there is a BIOS setting you can adjust to make the system shutdown when it hits a certain temp, and that with the latest BIOS, it will read the temp. direct from the CPUs temp. diode (nice feature); however, the second e-mail said that the 8K3A+ do not now, nor will they likely support the type of overheat protection required by AMD since the 8K3A+ is currently in production.

CrazySaint, so there should be two different versions of this board out Must investigate further Thanks for the response CS

No problem Let me clarify a bit, though. They didn't say there would be two different versions of the board. The boards currently support overheat protection in the BIOS (with the latest BIOS revision), but they don't plan on coming out with a new board that has the AMD-required overheat protection (which is a seperate IC on the board that shuts down the system if it gets too hot) like Gigabyte is going to do with the Rev 2.0 of the GA-7VRXP board. I hope I cleared up any confusion from my other post.

 

[colonel]

small brands like Soltek, Shuttle and Aopen got amazing Kt333 board, why go for a lot of money. IMO

 

[Jackman]

I got the MSI KT3 ultra. No Raid this time, For the $75.00 price tag it performs well. Well packaged also.

 

[Goi]

Why do people think that Toms Hardware's reviews are sloppy and poorly written? Hmmn, well they're mostly germans IIRC so if their language is incorrect then I can understand that, but I don't think that their reviews are sloppy. They're often in depth and comprehensive, and covers just about everything, compared to 1-2 page reviews on other sites.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: jaeger66

Originally posted by: Rainsford
Read this, Tom's Hardware KT333 Roundup.

No, don't read anything from Tom's. I thought this was sort of common knowledge by now.

The MSI KT3 is excellent, so is the Abit.

Here's a newsflash for you, some people find Tom's Hardware articles informative and well done. If you don't like it, I'll send you some quarters so you can call someone who gives a damn. Personally I think you just like complaining. Start your own review site, and do a better job than Tom does. Then I might care what you think.

Edit: I'm not really as pissed as this sounds, I just hate it when people make such extreme statements in place of well reasoned information. This reminds me of Intel rules, or Via sucks or never buy ATI or any of the other extreme viewpoints held by some people. If you want to think that, fine, but don't pass it off to other people looking for information like it's true.

 

[daveqb]

i've never used Tom's hardware before , so went to that link to read it

found some concerning ill reported facts,
cant remeber them all , i think one was that the article said no 2.0 USB support for KT333 which isnt true
but i might have recalled that wrong

so not too sure bout that site, but i'll try again .

just my my own personal findings

to each their own