Quick question

[D Artagnan]

I am about to create, for myself, a computer with Athlon processor. And then perhaps one for my parents with same specs. I have a choice here and cannot decide what to do.

There are two motherboards that look to suit me. I plan for an Athlon Thunderbird 1.3GHz processor. My two motherboard choices are as follows:
Asus A7A266
Asus A7M266

Money is, for this small a difference, no matter. They both suit the needs of this young engineer quite well (as far as I am to know, that is). And they both are available to me.

Perchance, if there are any thoughts, comments, suggestions for which I should choose I would be most obliged. I do not have the money now but would like to begin ordering for my system quite soon.

Thank ye, good sirs. And adieu.

[Bladeconquest 12]

The A7M of coarse. The A7M runs on the AMD 760 chip and the A7A runs on the weaker Ali chip. The Ali chip, for me, and to others was a disappointment, but it was the first actual DDR chip out so they deserve some credit for that. If you can get ahold of that A7M, go for it, otherwise there are much cheaper motherboards, such as the FIC AD 11, and it performs right up there with it and it only cost 109 Dollars at Newegg.com. I've not read much on this motherboard myself, but many seem to like it. Best of luck.

[This message has been edited by Bladeconquest 12 (edited May 29, 2001).]

[Zakath15]

I'm basically going to reiterate what I've said before, and heard richoted throughout these forums...
FIC AD11 - great performance, usually dominates in the benchmarks; has problems with stability and a poor layout.
Asus A7M266 - overall favorite, especially in this forum. Awesome performance, stability and board layout. Difficult to find since Asus has stopped distributing them in the US.
**** A7A266 - again, a good board. Based on the weaker Ali chipset. Still a great choice.
Epox 8K7A - my personal favorite at the moment, based off of AMD's 761 chipset. Has done well in the (only) benchmark, second only to the AD11. Stable, has an extra PCI slot (the reason it's my current favorite).
Any others I'm forgetting (sorry, I don't know that much about the gigabyte boards, etc... any takers?)