What's the most stable chipset for Athlon?

[Guest]

I'm usuing my ABit KT7A-133 and I've noticed that there have been more hangups and some conflicts with my setup than with my old IntelBX board and P3-500. I was just wondering what evryone thinks the most stable board/chipset is for the Athlon. I would have to guess the AMD chipsets offhand.

Athlon 1200c 512Mb
ABIT KT7A133
Creative Geforce2 GTS
Win2000

 

[bgates]

I'd say the 266A, but that's just me.

 

[lamer_gamer]

The AMD chipsets, I believe, are hybrids. An AMD northbridge, and VIA 686b southbridge (there was a full AMD chipset, but I don't know if that's even available anymore). Your Abit KT7A also uses a 686b, along with a VIA KT-133a northbridge. VIA chips are known to be somewhat buggy. Especially the 686b southbridge. Data corruption, Creative SB Live problems, hardware incompatibilities, were among the common complaints. There were a lot of posts here regarding problems with VIA chipsets, and, more specifically, the 686b southbridge .
That being said, I've heard good things about VIA's 266a chipset (still, it <i>is</i> VIA!).
SIS's 735 chip(set) has gotten good reviews. There have been a number of posts regarding ECS's 735 solution, but I think that's more an ECS problem than a chip(set) problem.
The ALi MaGiK 1 chipset is also quite stable, though it's getting dated at this point. I hear there's a new revision out (or coming out soon), that's <i>supposed</i> to be on par with the performance of the 266a chipset. But that's mere speculation.
NVIDIA's NForce mobo specs have been impressive, but I don't think it's available quite yet (should be soon). We'll have to wait and see what the final retail version will offer in terms of performance and stability. I think the reviews of the NForce reference boards have been quite positive overall.
Just my 2 cents...

 

[nevyn]

I'm using an Asus A7M266 -- which is the AMD north and VIA south combo. I haven't had any problems with it at all. I'm running with: WinME, 512MB PC2100, Promise RAID controller, Adaptec SCSI controller, GeForce3, SB Live. I'm still using the onboard controller for one of the CDRs and even given all those controllers I didn't have any setup problems and it runs stable.

Aaron

 

[bgates]

What's your cpu? Does that Asus board support the Athlon Xp's up to 1900?

I'm still torn between that board and an actual 266A one.

 

[nevyn]

The last BIOS update says it supports the XPs. Mine is a 1333mhz. I don't know much about the XPs. As for how fast you can set it, no idea, can't find the manual.

Aaron

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Nevyn on 11/13/01 00:52 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Ron_Jeremy]

Hehe, I still use BX boards & haven't tried any AMD chips due to the bs that comes with their associated chipsets. But, I think I may give this Iwill board a try <A HREF="http://iwillusa.com/products/spec.asp?ModelName=XP333-R&SupportID=" target="_new">http://iwillusa.com/products/spec.asp?ModelName=XP333-R&SupportID=</A>.

As for Athlon chipset stability, the most stable would be anything that does NOT have these letters on it <b> V I A</b>. Sorry, couldn't resist

Cheers,

Ron_Jeremy

If you loan a friend $20 & never see them again, it was worth it.

 

[Crashman]

Put down the crack pipe and step away from the computer...nobody has to get hurt!

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[Crashman]

I believe the ALi MAGiK 1 is the most stable/compatable chipset for AMD, followed very closly be the SiS 735. But they are so close it's hard to say. What can be said is that the SiS 735 is very good and outperforms at least the first two revisions of the ALi. But the ALi chipsets are available on more motherboards by better manufacturers.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?