Power Users Will Love The A7V!
Written: Nov 14 '00 (Updated Nov 14 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Overclockability, Upgradable
Cons: No Raid Support
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| aurigus's Full Review: Asus A7V |
Needing to build a new computer, I did TONS of research and finally picked this board. I am extremely happy with my decision and I believe I will be for a long time. This board has a number of things going for it:
Supports AMD Chips
This is good because AMD is planning on releasing numerous more Athlon Thunderbird and Duron chips not only up to but past 1 Ghz. This leads me to my next point:
Upgradability (new technologies)
Since this motherboard supports both AMD Duron and Thunderbird CPUs, it will last a long time. Myself, I purchased a Duron 700 (which promptly dropped in price about $30 the next week to my dismay) and in the next year I plan on getting a Thunderbird > 1 Ghz. It supports the AGP Pro and 4x graphics card slot so as far as graphics go there is room to upgrade. It supports Ultra DMA/100, DMA/66, and UDMA hard drives. (The IBM 75GXP is a great UltraDMA/100 hard disk for this board!).
Some people don't like the fact that it only has PCI slots, but I believe this is a good thing. I couldn't imagine MCA slots still in computer, we have to keep on moving forward!
It also has up to 7 USB ports for outside peripheral connection. Also as a side note, if you are using the latest CPUs you might have to download a BIOS update.
Overclockability
This board is HIGHLY overclockable. I would recommend the following pages for more information on this, as they have more information than I could provide here:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/00q3/000808/
http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/00q3/000928/
Once the modifications are done you are free to overclock away! The board features temperature sensors that aid you in this goal.
Summary
This is a great overall board. If you are looking into running raid there are other boards I would recommend (KT7-RAID) but if you're not running raid, get this board! It is good for both Overclockers home system builders alike. Asus is a great company that continues to deliver quality products.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 135
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aurigus
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Location: Coatesville, PA
Reviews written: 18
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