Announcement

**Helevitia** · 1 October 2000, 15:00

They are both very nice boards. I own an Asus A7V and it is rock solid. It doesn't have ISA slots so if you have a legacy card, something to keep in mind. It comes with 5 USB ports right out of the box which is nice and you can expand to 7.
The KT7 appears to be a tiny bit less stable but it has more features including RAID(as you already know), fan on kt133 chipset, everything can be adjusted in BIOS, one ISA slot, 6 PCI slots. It's hard to beat that setup. I probably would have chosen the ABIT if it was out at the same time the ASus came out but I couldn't wait. don't get me wrong though, I love my motherboard and I like the fact that I know it will always be nice and stable. To me, the bottom line is, do you have any components that you have that are known to have probs with the KT7? If not, get the KT7.

Dave

**DentyCracker** · 1 October 2000, 15:06

KT7. Softmenu III baby. Gotta love it. No @#$! jumpers to set.

**Thundrchez** · 1 October 2000, 15:12

I've had an Abit KT7 for a couple of weeks now, and it is absolutely rock solid. I don't have any problems recommending that you get one too.

**dsp** · 1 October 2000, 19:54

Thanks for your comments so far. I am leaning toward the Abit KT7 RAID, but it costs more than the others so I'm just trying to justify the price difference. As I don't have any ISA cards anymore ISA slots don't matter to me anymore. Please keep the comments coming, this helps me to make my decision.

dsp

**jackzod** · 1 October 2000, 20:22

Asus A7V here, rock-stable, didn't use any other socket A board, so its a tough call, but it has nice feature like 5 USB right away, With 7 port possible, ATA-100 (for what it worth for now). And also if you plan a big heatsink, the ASUS has more space for that than the ABit (unless you bend the capacitator...)

I've owned 2 Abit board before (Bh6 and a now-dead BF6) and they were not as stable as this one, but are more overclocking-friendly if you intend to overclock to the limit.

I suggest you go to www.bxboards.com they just have a review of the Asus A7V, and have one of the Abit KT7, and since they are not known to favor ASUS (ANAND anyone ?) they wrote a non-biaised review (I think ) of the ASUS board where it seems that speed to speed the Asus is a tad faster (go read for details).

Anyway, I think both way you can't lose. Its a matter of what you feel comfortable with.

Hope it helps

Jackzod

**EchoWars** · 2 October 2000, 10:43

You don't HAVE to buy one with the RAID controller. I have built two Abit KT7's, neither one with a RAID controller, and all works great. If you browse the Abit newsgroups though, the crummy Highpoint controller is giving a lot of people a lot of trouble. If you want RAID, get a non-RAID MB and add a Promise controller.

**Holerith** · 2 October 2000, 19:43

Both are nice, its mostly a features difference and you win either way. Personally I like the ISA slot as it holds a V.Everything modem nicely.

Has anyone seen the Tyan S2390 yet? It looks nice too.

------------------
Dean
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PDP-11, Dec-writer & ZD-11 Terminal Unit, RSTS-OS

**ph0rk** · 4 October 2000, 11:29

I've got an A7V, and it's great stuff. I've owned Abit in the past (BH6 and BP6) and have run into problems with the HighPoint controller on the BP6. Also there were other problems with the BP6 due to cheap components and lack of QA.

I'd stick with the ASUS myself, but if I did get the Abit board I'd get the non-RAID one.

Others here seem to really like their Abit boards, though...in the end you probably can't go wrong with either one

**dsp** · 24 October 2000, 20:07

Okay all, two more questions for you. First do you think my Global Win FKP-32 will work on the Duron/Athlon processors? Second which should I get the Abit KT7-RAID board or the Abit KT7 Non-RAID and a Promise Ultra-66 controller card? Thanks for all your previous replys guys, its been a great help so far.

dsp

**Wombat** · 24 October 2000, 22:10

You're better off buying an actual SocketA cooler. Duron's and Thunderbird's are a little on the fragile side, and poorly-fitting heatsinks have been known to bust the CPU into a useless chunk.

**DentyCracker** · 25 October 2000, 06:44

I have an Abit KT7 and I love it to death. I have no problems recommending it. It is $131 at www.mwave.com or the direct link http://192.216.185.10/mwave/ProdMB-A...odMB-ABIT.hmx?
However the MSI K7TPro2 (not the original K7tPro) has all the advantages of the KT7 and should be cheaper when available. If you buy from mwave get their recommended thunderbird cooler. I have my 700 Duron at 850 with one of those. I also recommend you get your hands on so arctic silver thermal compound, use a plastic pen cover to remove the thermal pad off the heatsink, clean offf what's left with rubbing alcohol and a soft cloth, and then apply the arctic silver to the HS using a small amount. Yes the durons are fragile, and putting on the heatsink can be a maddening experience, but the results are gratifying. 3000+ 3DMarks with the default benchmark in 3DMark2000. Smooth UT gameplay, NFS PU (demo) smooth as silk etc

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