QDI Kinetz 7T / ABIT KT7-RAID

[Phil]

Hi,

I'm planning on building my own Athlon based system (my first attempt at a home-built PC), and the local PC components shop is offering two seperate 'upgrade kits' Both include processor, memory, case and motherboard. One uses the QDI Kinetz 7T, the other the ABIT KT7-RAID. I'm just wondering if there is anything really to separate these two boards, other than the moderate (IEP £70) difference in price, the ABIT board being the more expensive.

Thanks,

/Phil

 

[jclw]

Depends what you want to do with it really...

They both use the same chipset but the Abit board is more "overclocking friendly" and has a built in RAID 0/1/0+1 controller chip which lets you have a maximum of 8 EIDE devices (vrs 4 on the QDI board) and it suports drive mirroring and striping if you need maximum data security or disk access speed. I don't think most people use RAID who have it. I've never owned either so I can't say much more then that.

-JW

 

[Guest]

I have a QDI with Athlon800 and one A7V with Duron700@900 (no experience with Abit). Never had any problems with QDI. The same I cannot say about A7V. If your hobby is not overclocking, but looking for a solid PC for gaming/working go for QDI and save the money.

 

[Phil]

I won't be using the RAID controller for a RAID setup, but will I get better/more reliable HD performance if I go for the Abit mobo with the seperate HDD controller chip?

I probably won't overclock it, at least not immediately, but I won't want to close off any options. The main thing I'm looking for is a relatively easy set-up, and no compatibility probs.


Thanks,

/Phil

 

[Guest]

I just got an ABIT KT7A Raid and I really like it. ABIT's reputation is for overclockers. Unless you really need the fault tolerence provided by RAID technology I go with the conventional board. You might want to ask your self this question though - why by KT133 when you can get better performance from KT133A board for the same money. Find an upgrade kit using the ABIT KT7A or comparable board. See Tom's review of KT133A boards first.

 

[Phil]

Unfortunately that isn't an option unless I go and import the components from abroad, because the market for PC components isn't huge here, I'm stuck with what they have locally... Although, if someone could point me at a good EU based online-retailer in the Euro-zone (germany/france maybe?) that could drastically change my mind...

UK is no good because of the hideous exchange rate between the Euro and sterling...

I've read Tom's review, but seeing as how I'm prolly going for a 900Mhz chip, I didn't see the benifit of getting a KT133A board ('cos the chip would probably be a 100MHZ FSB chip, if I bought it here....) Am I wrong in making that assumption?


Thanks for the info,

/Phil