KT266 or AMD761?

[Ozymandyus]

Hello all. I'm about to purchase a new motherboard, and have decided to get one from Microstar (MSI) based on the reviews I've read here and elsewhere. My only remaining decision is whether to get one based on the AMD 761 chipset (K7 Master) or one based on the just-arrived KT266 chipset from VIA (K7T 266 Pro). I can't find any compelling differences between the two, and was wondering if someone could offer me some advice? Or would you chuck these entirely for a different brand?

Thanks,

Oz

 

[Ozymandyus]

No opinions? In a place like this? Come on, don't make me come through that monitor...

 

[Ncogneto]

Check out the SIS 735 first.

A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing!

 

[Oni]

no good manufacturers have Sis 735 boards though. Only ECS and PC Chips, and both of those are the cheapest of the cheap manufacturers. If you can wait till September get an nvidia nForce.
I personally wouldn't buy an MSI board though. I'd get the AMD761 based board from Epox, Chaintech, or Asus.

 

[Ozymandyus]

Thank you for the feedback. I too had looked at the SiS chipset, but I just don't see any motherboards hitting the street yet. It's not critical that I buy right now, so perhaps I can wait for the nForce.

Out of curiousity, why would you avoid the MSI boards? I personally had a very very bad experience with Epox (7KXA), and would be very leery of buying another product from them. But I won't hold the past against them if their new mobo can make the cut.

--Oz

 

[girish]

between those I'd say VIA KT266. i'd say you stay away from VIA southbridges, but both of them will use the same one anyway, so there is hardly any choice

most AMD761 boards invariably use the VIA 686B southbridge for some stange reason, ones using the AMD766 are extremely rare. so if anyway you will be using the VIA southbridge, then the KT266 is better.

but I would suggest you the <font color=blue>ALiMagik</font color=blue>!

girish


<font color=blue>die-hard fans don't have heat-sinks!</font color=blue>

 

[zengeos]

Hey Girish!!!!!!

I think you must be reading the same reviews I am!!

LOL


When all else fails, throw your computer out the window!!!

 

[Ozymandyus]

Excuse my ignorance, fellows...but what's so poor about a VIA southbridge? It seems to me that they bring in a lot of good things, like the higher ATA support that Intel would never get off their ass and include. And VIA seems to provide good driver support as well.

--Oz

 

[girish]

all new southbridges support higher ATA100, and I found the Intel 82801BA the best among the lot. basically intel's driver support is far better than VIA's! even ALi and SiS southbridges are good, they have no compatibility problems so far, and they do provide consistent performance.

VIA has a long tradition of crappy southbridges I've seen right from the 486 times VIA 686B can have many problems with compatibility, device support, IRQ issues, strange problems regarding IRQ usage by other devices as well as data corruption at the worst! you can get a million complaints on the VIA southbridge just by searching for "686" in these pages of THG!!!

my Duron on KT133 i got almost a year ago has the 686A southbridge that supports ATA/66, tested a Seagate 8.4 GB ATA/66 drive on that and it gave 13 MB/sec! installed VIA Bus Master drivers that came along with the board and got 9 MB/sec!!! downloaded and installed VIA's every 4in1 driver versions but still it doesnt go past 12!!! and the same drive posted 54 MB/sec on a friend's 810e board and 88 MB/sec on Intel D815EEA2 that has the 801BA ICH2 supporting ATA/100! i cant say more.

girish

<font color=blue>die-hard fans don't have heat-sinks!</font color=blue>