ASUS A7M266 or MSI KT266pro?

[thebluedog]

I am going to build a system from scratch soon and was wondering which would be the best mobo to get. I am going to use the computer mostly for gaming and I am definitely leaning to go with a system that supports DDR SDRAM. If I go with the a7m266 w/audio from Asus I will probably buy it from a local store for $203 and will put a soundcard in later when I get more $$. The MSI will probably cost me about $160 total (w/shipping) from pricewatch. Which is the better board and/or better buy? Does anybody know any links to articles where they compare the two? Also, I haven't ruled out other mobos if you have other suggestions. For reference the following are the other components that I will probably put into it -

-AMD-K7 Athlon Thunderbird 1200MHz - 266MHz Socket A (or maybe the 1000MHz for $50 less)
-eVGA Geforce2 PRO 32MB DDR AGP W. TV Out - RETAIL
-256 MB DDR PC2100 CL=2.5 Unbuffered Non-parity 2.5V 32Megx64 from crucial.com (is it worth the $20 more to get registered ECC?)

the hdd, cdrw, and other components I am not completely sure of yet.

Any help or links would be greatly appreciated.

----

As long as it's funny it's okay.

 

[mwgorecki]

I just bought two Asus A7M266's - building two systems. The A7M266 is performing well in benchmarks, and those that own it say the same. Look on pricewatch for it at about $180. If you get a DDR board with 266MHz FSB, get an Athlon C also at 266 MHz - not 200 MHz Athlon A. I bought two 1.33Ghz Athlon C's myself.

I have also heard and read not so good things about the eVGA GeForce cards. I bought two GeForce 2 Pro boards from MSI - they call it the MS-StarForce 815 Pro. I will let you know how well it works in a few days. As MSI makes excellent motherboards, I expect great things for this video card.
As for ECC DDR memory, skip it. Not all boards like it and it is extra $ for performance you are likely to never see.

With all this, I got the 40Gig Western Digital hard drive ATA100, 3COM Etherlink 2 NIC, Sound Blaster Live X-Gamer 5.1, and an Antec SX-830 case @ 300 Watts.

sz

 

[Booky]

I just built a system with the MSI K7T266 Pro, it performs good. I had some problems in beginning but I think they were related to it being my first system. But just in case, if you use a PCI graphics card do not install the AGP VxD driver found in the VIA 4 in 1 driver set. Hehe it messes it all up. I had to reformat but it all good now. As soon as my home gets internet service,hope on monday, I will download 3dmark2001 and get some numbers for you. However I am useing a PCI 32MB TNT2 M64 card. I need to order a AGP tonight. Also the onboard audio jumper is gone, so you have to enable or disable in BIOS. But hey I figured it all out so im sure you can. Also the Asus A7V266 another board with KT266 chipset but I don't know when it comeing out. And we all know the A7M266 is a good board so you make the choice. I went with the K7T266 because it was $159.37 with shipping and all, and I got it in 2 days.

A revision to mpjesse's signature;
"My Signature Sucks"

 

[Booky]

I also heard bad things about the eVGA, it was that they used slower memory I think. What did you pay for the 815 card from MSI? I was looking a while back and they were $220. Maybe I get one of them, when do you think you can get me info about there performance? I need to order tonight or this weekend anyway. I have a MSI K7T266 Pro with a 1.33GHz T-Bird 266FSB, 512 MB PC2100 (Crucial), 30GB IBM Deskstar 75GXP, Toshiba 48x and others stuff, buying SB Live Value with video card.

A revision to mpjesse's signature;
"My Signature Sucks"

 

[Booky]

I was just looking at that Video card, did you ever find what the core/memory speeds were? I mean dam $209 for a 64MB DDR 5ns GF2 Pro? I think its too good to be true, but I may order it anyway hehe. Let me know if you found the speeds, I couldn't find them on MSI site or anywhere.

A revision to mpjesse's signature;
"My Signature Sucks"

 

[mwgorecki]

I paid $209 for the 64MB version and got it today from NewEgg.com today. I will not know how well it really works for a week, sorry. Though I would guess that an MSI card on an MSI board is a good pairing.

sz

 

[thebluedog]

thanks for the info. I have changed my mind and think I'll go with a different video card - that msi starforce gf2 gts is a good deal at newegg.com!

- alm "As long as it's funny it's okay."

 

[Booky]

The MSI GF2 GTS is only 32MB I think, if you want the card we were talking about then you need the MSI GF2 Pro. It is the same card almost but has the Pro chip instead of the GTS chip.

"It Works!"

 

[mwgorecki]

Yes, to thebluedog, <b>GeForce 2 Pro with 64 MB!</b>

sz

 

[Guest]

I have the MSI k7t266 pro, and my roomate has the Asus a7m. Both of us agree the MSI is a better board. We dont overclock eithre of them (we have 1.33 athalons 2100 crucial memory) and the MSI is way faster in the Sisoft tests.. Its not only that though thge MSI is a REALLY stable board and has some nice touches D-LED and some cool software. That is my recommendation... Plus 50 bucks less...