ASUS VIA KT133 Chipset A7V-E - motherboard - ATX - KT133

Advantages: KT333 USB2 and DDR3 PC2700
Disadvantages: via VT333 chipset is currently Sept 2002 buggy poor Asus support

...If your looking to build a top sepc PC then you undoubtedly choose the KT333 chipset as this offers optional low cost RAID 1 and 2, USB 2 & DDR3 to PC2700. Asus historically offer great support, this board claims to talk (but it actually just plays .wav files at appropriate points) and is around £120. There are many sources on how to choose a motherboard e.g. Tom's HArdware guide, so I'm not going into that. This board has all the features you'll want to make a great PC... so will every motherbaord with a KT333 chipset. And this is the problem. The KT333 chipset is so new that it is full of bugs. PC's cannot warm boot being the one still unresolved. Don't buy this board. Get an Epoc or Soyo Kt333, save around £70 and have the same bugs. This makes my opinion the dog's dangly bits because you save £70, your board doesn't talk to you... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Reliability, Speed, 4xUSB, ASUS support
Disadvantages: No support for TBird and Duron, slightly more expensive than some

...AND cheaper than the Athlon, which would be great except that the VIA KX133 chipset used on the K7V will apparently not support these chips. If I were buying an Athlon board now I would be tempted to wait until ASUS released a board based on VIAs new KT133 chipset which will support these faster processors. In summary, If you are buying an Athlon CPU now, there is IMHO no better board to choose, however if you have the luxury of being able to wait a few weeks then keep your eyes open for KT133 boards.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Overclockers Dream
Disadvantages: Ageing processor support

...I build about 20 systems a year for friends and familly. Mainly High spec gaming beasts... allthough recently (12/04) I used a A7v600-X MB for a build intended for web surfing. Asus for me are the best MB maker anyway.. their range of features and board support are excellent... and this MB based on the VIA KT600 chipset is another top notch product from ASUS :) Overclockers dream.... you can twiddle all the essentials, bus spead, vcore, multiper ( 1 MHz steps) , etc, etc. Coupled with a pleathora of very usefull features (LAN, USB, SATA , RAID)... this makes a great start for a budget PC. The bundled software is limited to drivers etc, but everything was in the box that I required to build the PC with (disk drive cable, hard dirve cable).. you also get a metal sheild for placing around the I/O ports on the MB when installing... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful