Recommended motherboard [ MSI vs. Epox ]

[Cosmin]

Decided to upgrade my mobo .. here's what I've chosen :

1.

EPOX 8K9A Socket A ATX
Model : EPOX 8K9A Socket A ATX
Producator : Epox
Format : ATX
Soclu procesor : SocketA
Chipset : VIA KT400
Procesoare suportate : Athlon/Duron
Mod agp : 8x
Udma : 133
Audio integrat : AC-97
Memorie maxima : 3072
Sloturi ddr : 3
Frecvente bus : 200/266/333
Agp : 1
Pci : 5
Numar ide : 4
Porturi usb : 6
Software : Drivere/Aplicatii Software
Alte accesorii : cabluri IDE/cablu floppy
Garantie : 12 luni

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2.

Model Number: MBMSIKT3V

Specifications

Supported processors:
AMD Athlon™ XP, Athlon™, Duron™ up to 2800+
Socket:Socket A
Format:ATX
Chipset:VIA KT333 / VT8235
FSB (Front Side Bus):200 / 266 / 333MHz
Memory slots / Max. memory / Memory type:3 / 3GB / DDR333
AGP/PCI/ISA/AMR/CNR slots:1 / 5 / - / - / 1
AGP/PCI/ISA/AMR/CNR slots:1 / 5 / - / - / 1
Mod AGP:AGP 4XMod UDMA:ATA133
Audio:integrated with 6 channel support and digital audio output
Features:USB 2.0
MSI Facilities:Fuzzy Logic™ 4, S-Bracket™, D-Bracket™ 2 (optional), Live Update Series™ 2 (Live BIOS™ 2, Live Driver™ 2), MSI DVD 5.1, PC Alert™ III

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I've decided on these models cause price must not pass 80 $

MSI $77
EPOX $ 67.30

So which one ? [ any other suggestions are welcome ]

 

[jumpy]

I'd take the epox, I own an epox P4 board and it's great. The epox will be a much better overclocker than the MSI if you're into that plus it uses the kt400 chipset and is cheaper. The epox doesn't have 6 channel audio though. Do you have a sound card already?

 

[Cosmin]

What I can say .. not passioned on overclocking but consider the Kt400 chipset is more important than 6chanel audio on MSI .. don't have soundcard , momentainly using onboard ..

 

[UofEEE]

Why not get a KT400A or an Nforce2 board? They're getting cheaper, and you can find some pretty good deals on them. I've dealt with MSIs in the past and they're solid boards. I love the red pcbs. I have a VIA KT333 chipset in my board and I doubt you'll notice the difference between KT333/KT400. If you really want to upgrade in the future, get the nforce or kt400a/kt600 boards. That way you have barton support.

 

[dick471]

Epox Mobo's

I've lost seven Epox mobo's in the last two years, for myself and friends that I built. Even the latest 8KBA+ died in six months, and I bought a replacement brand new with two bad ram strips. They still wanted $28.00 shipping for a warranty replacement. I told them to go pound sand! I finally got smart and buy the Asus A7V8X or A7N8X. Work perfect.

 

[jumpy]

Seven! Thats some really bad luck there. If everyone had luck like that, epox would definitely be out of business
Go with a NF2 board if you can though, a much better choice as UofEEE said.

 

[LeeJend]

Have a 3 year old EPOX that's still working fine (in my wife's comp.) never had a problem with it.

All of the MSI boards I've seen (MB and Video) were poorly assembled and had failed very early in life. Cold solder joints, flimsy CPU socket. Heat sinks glued on crooked.

Go for the EPOX. Not that over clcoker friendly but solid board.

 

[Cosmin]

.. thanks for advice and surelly changed my opinion ..
I've decided on Epox 8RDA ( nforce2 ) at 87$ and I'll take it next week ..
8RDA3+ is almost 114$ and has 400FSB & RAID should I pay this difference only for that FSB incresed ( cause I don't use/need raid ) ?

ADDON : my Leadtek GF4MX 440 will fit ( & run perfect ) on that AGP8X slot ? ( I've heard there are no prob. on this way )

 

[Taurus]

your gf4mx will run fine on any agp 2x, 4x, or 8x slot. everything's backwards compatible (slots and cards).

the nforce2 is a good choice. as for going for the 2.0 version (8rda3+), if you don't plan on getting a 400fsb processor like the 3200+ and won't want to overclock any 333fsb processors, then it's probably not worth it. but some 1.x boards can reach the 400fsb anyways... just not officially.

8rda is a fine choice.