Best KT133(a) Chipset Mobo?

[Clocker]

I think I want to replace my dad's Epox 7KXA KX133 700mhz slot A system with a newer kt133a based system with a cool running Duron. I'd prefer to stick with something that has a 686A or 686B southbridge to minimize the possibility for problems when just moving his hard drive from the old system to the new (no fresh install planned).

Any recommendations for a kt133 or kt133A motherboard? I have a bunch of PC133 SDRAM and don't want to go to a DDR system...

Thanks,
C

 

[Mercutio]

You need a Shuttle AK32L. KT266 - some doubt as to the "A", but it's got DDR and SDRAM support and it can handle a 2000+ chip just fine. Plus they're all of $60 new.

I've got one kicking around in a Linux box and thusfar it's been excellent, even with 1GB of SDRAM (2x 512).

 

[Tea]

Hoolie Doolie! Merc'z gone troppo! I never thought I'd zee the day when Mercutio recommended a Zhuttle board!

 

[The Grammar Police]

Can we expect a glowing review of a Nivida graphics card next?

A sentimental eulogy for those wonderful old Micropolis drives?

A learned discourse on the contribution to the development of tonality and the creative use of leitmotifs made by Johnny Rotten?

A resounding endorsement of the policies and wisdom of George W Bush?

 

[Tannin]

No.

 

[Tannin]

PS to Tea and The Grammar Police: see my sig.

 

[zx]

PS to Tea and The Grammar Police: see my sig.

Does he fall in the "everything" category or the "crap" category?

 

[Mercutio]

Speaking of Micropolis... I found a 4.3GB 50-pin drive in my goodybox this weekend that appears to still work. It holds data and doesn't have bad sectors anyway.
It's also louder than some entire computers I have, by itself.

I'm still waiting for nvidia and Bush to apologize for being born.

 

[Clocker]

Merc-
Thanks for the reminder that the KT266 (and A?) are candidates for using SDR SDRAM.

I know the performance loss w/o using DDR might be big but this is just for th elight use of my dad and it seems his SlotA runs a bit too hot...

Any other ideas?

Thanks,
C

 

[Mercutio]

Also Abit. Abit also needs to apologize for being born.

And AOL.

And Barbera Bush, for marrying George I. George I should never have known the touch of a woman. And I use that term only technically, 'cause I've seen defensive linemen that look more feminine.[1]

While I'm at it: Both Jerry Seinfeld and Wayne Knight should burn in a pit of eternal torment. The former for not being funny, the latter for forcing me to go through life being mistaken for him.

And Kim, Amy's extra-special manhating girlfriend. I don't know what should happen to her but it needs to be really fucking painful and slow. Possibly also "chronic" and "acute". Bitch.

Not that I'm bitter.

[1] Yes, Mercutio has made a sports joke. This is, I believe, one of the signs of the biblical apocalypse.[2]

[2] The others being that
a. The best rapper is white
b. The best golfer is black [3]
c. Germany doesn't want to fight a war

[3] Again, with the sports jokes. Hope you're squared with your diety of choice.

 

[Mercutio]

There won't particularly be a performance loss. He's on SDRAM already, and DDR doesn't really come into its own until you hit a 133MHz bus.

 

[Howell]

PS to Tea and The Grammar Police: see my sig.

Ts. I'm honored you have once again graced your sig space with one of my posts.

 

[Mercutio]

Perhaps we should start a club...

 

[fool]

[1] Yes, Mercutio has made a sports joke. This is, I believe, one of the signs of the biblical apocalypse.[2]

[2] The others being that
a. The best rapper is white
b. The best golfer is black [3]
c. Germany doesn't want to fight a war

[3] Again, with the sports jokes. Hope you're squared with your diety of choice.

Seems were safe then, unless of course theres something Mos Def isnt telling us.

 

[Mercutio]

Owing to a couple of years of being forced to listen to a particularly belligerent neighbor's Wu Tangy goodness (that's a joke, people!), I sort-of got that, but the one I was referring to is the homophobic wanna-be M&M.

Or Vanilla Ice.

Whichever.[1]

[1] Now I'm making jokes about rap. It's duck and cover time, 'cause little George just said "Daddy what does this big red button do?!?", and there's a guy with a pale horse here to see me.[2]

[2] I wish.

 

[Jake the Dog]

I second the motion for the the AK32... for the price it is a great board indeed. Mine was very stable with 1GB SDRAM and a highly overclocked Pal AthlonXP. the only problem is that it doesn't support 4 rows of DDR. I stuck two 512MB DDR sticks in it and it saw only 768MB. if you do get one, make sure it's a 2.x revision board, with the latest BIOS, it supports T'bred's up to 2600+.

 

[Howell]

... and there's a guy with a pale horse here to see me.

Only one! If you see another three, run. Don't walk, run.

 

[Mercutio]

The one will do just fine.

 

[blakerwry]

You need a Shuttle AK32L. KT266 - some doubt as to the "A", but it's got DDR and SDRAM support and it can handle a 2000+ chip just fine. Plus they're all of $60 new.

I've got one kicking around in a Linux box and thusfar it's been excellent, even with 1GB of SDRAM (2x 512).

The AK32L is a Via kt266.. the AK32A is its direct replacement, and sports a shiney new kt266a northbridge (same 8233 southbridge) The ak32A should cost the same as its predecessor.

The board comes with Via AC97 audio (dont use shuttle's drivers cause they are 2 or 3 years old and suck horribly)... new drivers here: http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=69

Other than that it's a great board, mine ran great with the Duron 1.3 I used in it... although it overclocked poorly (dont think i could get it to POST @ 115 FSB... wasn't the RAM, but might have been the CPU)

 

[Mercutio]

The AK32A doesn't have 168pin DIMM slots on it, Blake. That doesn't do Clocker any good.

 

[blakerwry]

Iit has two.... according to shuttle's website and newegg.com's pics of the board.

 

[blakerwry]

also, read the cust. comments, they specifically indicate that they purchased an ak32a and used SDRAM...

 

[Mercutio]

That's funny, 'cause I've got one right here and it's 184-pin only. The AK32L is the only one with SDRAM sockets.

 

[blakerwry]

Next time im at microcenter I'll check, shuttle's website is known to be wrong on occasion, but i dont think newegg.com's pics plus cust comments would be.

 

[blakerwry]

Every freaking store I look at shows the ak32A to have 2 DDR and 2 SDR slots... Both in the specs and in the pics.

I think you must be mistaken Merc. ...or perhaps you got some weird kind of board.

 

[Mercutio]

I bought the board in question as a mistake; it doesn't have SDRAM slots, physically it looks a lot like an Epox 8KHA or any other vanilla KT266-based board, but it says Spacewalker on the heat sink and my invoice lists it as an AK32A. It's definitely *not* an AK32L. The retail packaging is of course identical.

My thinking is that the "A" is the older revision of the board for a mainstream market, while the "L" is a value-priced/value feature (SDRAM sockets on a KT266 qualify!) product.

 

[blakerwry]

The A is a new product... used to identify that the board uses the kt266a (I have done visual inspection) instead of the plain kt266.

I'm off to microcenter anyway to pick up supplies... I'll take a look when I'm there.

 

[Mercutio]

The AK32A has been around for at least six months. I've had it on my price lists that long.

 

[Mercutio]

This is the kind of crap that makes me dislike Shuttle.

 

[Jake the Dog]

how is this Shuttle's fault Merc?

AK32L - KT266 was replaced by the AK32A - KT266a

both boards are available with 2 x SDR & 2 x DDR slots.

I have no idea what you have Merc, perhaps it's a "budget" AK32A? does it only have 2 or or 4 DDR slots?

 

[time]

It's Shuttle's fault because it's an undocumented variant. When Mercutio bought it, he had a reasonable expectation that it would support both types of DRAM (thanks to their website).

It's doubtful that his supplier realized what they were getting either.

 

[time]

I would have thought that a pure KT133A solution would perform better than KT266A talking to SDRAM. Does anyone know?

 

[blakerwry]

No. kt266 and kt266a were also designed to use SDRAM.
The kt266a seems to be ~10% faster than the 266, and I would think the same would be true for a kt133 -> kt266...

No doubt in my mind that the 266a is atleast as fast or faster than the 133a... not sure how the non-A varients fair.

 

[Clocker]

I ended up getting a KT133A solution...the GIGABYTE:GA-7ZXE. I wanted to get everything from one place and the cheap place I found to get the Shuttle didn't have the Duron or video card I wanted in stock.

It's still a nice board...takes up to an AthloXP 2600+. With 512MB SDRAM, a Duron 1100 and a 64MB Radeon 7000 should work very nicely for my dad and run cool as well.....

C

 

[Buck]

That system should run nice Clocker. Those Radeon 7000s are pretty decent little video cards.