I've really gotten the new PC bug now. I've decided on my case: Lian Li PC61 I've decided on my power supply: Enermax Whisper 431W EG465P-VE(FC) Switching Computer Power Supply I've got an IBM Hard drive that I'll use, I'll get some DDR memory and an XP chip. I haven't decided what video card I'll get...whether I'll spring for a G3 Ti or something cheaper, and the other stuff I can figure out myself (unless you have strong feelings one way or the other) But what's killing me is this: I can't decide on a motherboard. Does anyone make a well respected motherboard with the VIA KT-266A chipset, AGP Pro support, and on board ULTRA ATA 133 support. If not, should I go for the MSI K7T 266Pro2, the Epox 8KHA+ or the Shuttle AK31 Rev3 KT266A? And of course, why?
Not sure if any of the current KT266a mobo's support DMA 133 transfers. I don't think any at the time of this writing do. I just bought the Epox 8KHA+ mobo and this case : http://shop.store.yahoo.com/directron/fs710.html which is basically the Antec SX1030 with a better power supply and cheaper. All kinds of places for fans in it including in the drive bay and all kinds of room for cooling. It has drive cages that can pop off at the push of a lever as well. Has a handle-latch to pop the side of the case off, too. I bought a 60 GB drive and have 2 more 30 GB drives. I'll be getting the Athlon XP 1800, but will wait to see if the prices drop further since AMD will be doing price-cuts on Sunday/Monday of this week. As far as video, I'll probably get a Radeon 8500 or a Geforce Ti 200. The 300 isn't worth it to me. The Radeon's drivers stink, so I may just get the Ti 200. The RAM will be coming from Crucial (either 512 MB or 768 MB). And I just got XP Professional after my company said we have to support it... meaning I have to know the ins and outs of the stupid OS. I liked the Epox board over the others that are currently out simply because it seemed to be the most stable of all of them and it has 6 PCI slots. Shuttle users seem to have more problems with the AK31 and if you're into overclocking, I understand the EPOX and the MSI are the best, with a slight nod to the EPOX. I never overclock my main machine, so I didn't care about that. The one advantage the AK31 had was the 4 banks of RAM as opposed to 3 for everyone else. Outside of that, these boards are pretty much the same in terms of "the average user" and features that user will use. Asus is about to come out with a KT266a motherboard, but at about $150 or $170, I just didn't think it was worth it. It may come down in price, so then again, it may not be a bad deal.
I briefly took a look around at the KT266a boards out that I know about and none seem to support DMA 133 transfer rates. The following are the manufacturers' boards I checked : EPOX Gigabyte Shuttle MSI
Thanks DoD I know I'll be paying almost twice as much as you did for my case and PS, but that black Lian Li just looks so cool. What can I say? I'm a material girl. Should I be concerned that all of these Mobos only support AGP 4X, but not AGP pro?
Ooops; just announced on www.amdmb.com (great site, by the way): the new SOYO SY-K7V DRAGON Plus with AGP Pro support--due out on Halloween. How's that for foreshadowing. This may be my board.
The new Asus board was supposed to be coming out around the same time as well (late October/early November). BTW, why the need for AGP Pro?
