Which ASUS Board I should get?

[vesther]

My case: Enlight EN-72370AZ (with Enlight's EN-8341934 340WPS) or an Enlight EN-72370X3C (with the Enlight-branded 300W Power Supply)

My processor: Either an AMD T-Bird 266FSB 1.33GHz or 1.4GHz

Now here's the most obvious show-stopper:

The Asus Motherboard:

If I'm planning to use an Asus Motherboard, which one should I get?

* A7A266 with the ALi Chipset OR
* A7M266 with the AMD 761 Chipset (This is more expensive than the A7A, though)

And I have no intention of overclocking the system since overclocking will void all processor and motherboard warranties.

Asus is a must for me. Which Asus board (and Enlight Case) I should get for the above Athlons?

I would like to know which mainboard I should use for an Athlon of 1.33GHz 266FSB or faster. Thanks.

[Comage]

I think you should get the A7M266. Don't get the one with the ALi chipset. :P

Anyway, if you're intending to get an Asus motherboard, be aware that the thermal sensors on the board are very inaccurate.

[vesther]

What's wrong with the ALi Chipset? Did you have any experience with it? How could the Asus Mainboard's Thermal Sensors be inaccurate? I've heard that the Asus A7V266 should be on sale pretty soon... Is the A7M266 is more stable than the A7A or A7V266's? I'm not sure if the A7M266 will run a 1.4GHz Revision C but at AMD's website, AMD OKs the A7M for use with Revision C Processors of up to 1.33GHz.

[Sleep21]

I've been researching like a mofo, and here's what I've found:

AmD 761 --> One of the fastest DDR chipsets, but harder to find(Not mass produced by AMD), and thus expensive.

Ali Magik1 --> not quite as fast (one of the slowest DDR chipsets doubt you'd notice though), but makes up for it in stability.

hope it helps

[alphageek]

The A7M266 seem like the better board, or that AMD chipset is better than the ALi.

The Asus A7V266 might be on its way out soon, and could be a happy medium between the two.

[acid_burn~187]

Asus's Temp monitors are messed!!! I have the original Asus A7V with a thunderbird 800 @ 850.. the processor won't do more than 850 (I'v tried everything) and the temps are at 44 celcius with A WATER COOLER!! Can't figure it out.

~Paul

[card_magic]

Well, I've got a 1.4GHz, 266 FSB Athlon, and I opted for the A7A266. So far, I love the board. The features are great, the stability is great.. sure, the temps are probably a little messed up, but as long as they read consistantly, you can monitor your heat. The only complaint I have, is that there is a huge capacitor that butts up against my CD-Rom.. but thats just a layout of the mobo/layout of the case issue. So, if the A7A's cheaper, thats what I would/did, get.

-Jim

[Sleep21]

I read an article at xbitlabs that says Ali began making revisions to the Magik1 chipset almost immediatly after its release. The new revision called B0 was tied with the SiS chipset as the fastest DDR set. So if you can get one of the A7A266's with the revision, it will beat the hell out of the A7M. I'm shopping at newegg.com, but the rep hasn't emailed me yet with the revision info. I'll be back when I get any info.

[Sleep21]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/mainboards/socketa-chipsets/

[Surrea1]

Indeed the temp monitors are messed up, mine reads 62 and it's just a Athlon 1ghz not OC'ed! I ran a different temp monitor and it's reading at 52 Celcius so something is definately wrong!

[Comage]

Hi vesther, it is true that the thermal sensors on Asus board made for AMD CPUs are screwed up. I'm getting 60 degrees celcius for idle (mine's 1.2 GHz -C). Used the Senfu Thermometer Probe, and it measured 44 degrees idle. Plus the vcore of the CPU (1.75V) is read off as 1.78V (not that much of a difference) in the BIOS, and 1.86V under Asus Probe.

The Asus Probe reads off my CPU fan RPM as my PSU fan RPM. My CPU fan RPM is reported as 0, and my PSU fan is reported to have a value (my PSU doesn't even have a RPM monitoring wire to the motherboard).

[J.A.D]

I have an A7A266 and had some problems with
temp readings. I'm not sure how much the
temp reading was off vs. my system being hot.

You probably already tried this, but upgrading the bios to 1.006 (or higher) might help. There is something in the patch doc about temp reading too high...

As far as Ali vs 761, from what I researched before this it seemed to boil down to cost for performance. The 761 is a better performer but costs more. Personally I did not feel that the extra performance gains was worth the extra price.

[Comage]

Well, yeah the AMD sure does cost more. But frankly from my personal POV, I'd fork out a bit more to save me a headache in the future in the event of any troubleshooting that needs to be done.