A7V8X-X a good choice?

[Bill Rubin]

I see there are lots of posts here from people who are having
problems with the A7V8X-X. I'm in the market for a new system
and was considering getting this board. Would I be wise to
consider something different? What else is there in roughly the
same price range that's good and reliable?

Bill

 

[Mike Gorman]

One thing about checking a newsgroup as part of your buying decision process
is that your going to hear mostly horror stories here. I guess it's good to
know some of these things ahead of time. I have the following setup.

A7V8X-X - Rev1.01 Bios flashed to 1005
Athlon XP2600+ @ 2.24 (13.5x166 ) running at SPD
512mb 333mhz pc2700 Crucial mem (SpekTek rebrand)
Antec 400W PCU
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro 8XAGP

I chose this board because I previously owned an ASUS A7V and loved it but I
was hitting the ceiling on capacity and such. What I like about the A7V8X-X
is that it handles any Athlon up to 3000 and it's a pretty solid performer.
Also I saw no reason to pay for things like SATA or firewire if I wasn't
going to use them.

One thing about this board is the KT400 Northbridge. Overall, it's a fine
performer but a board with the KT400A or KT600 (not available yet) chip
would probably be more worthwhile. Your unlikely to get any more that 400mhz
performance out of the memory bus. Not that I've tried.

As far other motherboards within the same price range, the MSI KT4A series
is probably worth a look and has about the same feature set but includes the
KT400A chip. Two other that I would look into would be ABIT and DFI but I'm
sure you'll get more than a few different opinions.

 

[john]

I just finished my system as we speak
The price has just gone down so they are cheep
it works great for me and easy to setup
2500+
80gig seagate
netcomm internal modem
liteon 52*24*52
512 pc2700 kingston

 

[Gijs Rietveld]

Last month I bought a A7V8X-X for my son in combination with a Saphire
ATI9500 and Athlon 2000 and it works perfect without any troubles.
Just sticked them together and turned it on. And it works. My first selfmade
pc. I'm very proud on that but the most credits go the manufacturer of the
mb.

 

[Marius]

No problems here on two machines:

System 1:
A7V8X-X
AMD XP 2000+
512 PC DDR 333 (1 stick)
Radeon 8500 64MB (ATI Build)
Topower 350 W PSU
2X20GB Quantum Fireball
Asus 50X CD-ROM
Yamaha 2200e CD-RW
SB Live 5.1

System 2
A7V8X-X
AMD XP2400+
512 PC DDR 333 (1 stick)
AIW 9700Pro
Enermax 350W
2X80 GB Maxtor Raid 0 on Promise FastTrack 100
Creative Lab DVD-R 6X
Sony DRU-500U
Audigy Soundcard

As you can see a GOOD PSU is the key for new systems !

Regards.

 

[Angus Rodgers]

Last month I bought a A7V8X-X for my son in combination with
a Saphire ATI9500 and Athlon 2000 and it works perfect without
any troubles. Just sticked them together and turned it on. And
it works. My first selfmade pc. I'm very proud on that but the
most credits go the manufacturer of the mb.

For what it's worth, that was pretty much my experience too. I'm
a raw newbie, but I just stuck the parts together, and it worked.
I haven't had to open the case since.

AMD Athlon XP PR1700+ OEM Thoroughbred B core JIUHB DUT3C
GlobalWin CBKII58 Skt A cooler 25dBA
Crucial 256MB DDR PC2700 333
Crucial Radeon 7500 64MB AGP
AOpen HQ48 Pro midi tower 300W PSU (AMD approved)
YSTech 80mm Lo Noise 3 pin case fan 20dBA
Sony 3.5 inch floppy drive (beige)
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 80GB 7200rpm 2MB buffer (OEM)
Toshiba SD-M1712 x16x48 DVD-ROM (OEM)
Plextor 40x12x40 BURNproof IDE CD-RW drive (retail)