The First and the Best
Written: Sep 05 '01 (Updated Sep 06 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Asus stability, plenty of HSF clearance room, AMD 760 chipset
Cons: Problems in Win98, questionable fan header placement, 2 memory slots
The Bottom Line: With an exceptional package, great layout, and great performance plus stability, the Asus A7M266 is one of the best 760 motherboards in the market.
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| cptsulu's Full Review: ASUS AMD 761 Chipset A7M266 (A7M266/550/WOL/2DIM) ... |
Asus is not considered the Taiwan's largest and best motherboard manufacturer for nothing. By engineering motherboards that perfrom very well, while maintaining rock solid stabilty, and catering to both the needs of OEMs and hardware enthusiasts, Asus's title should not be questioned. The Asus A7M266 is one of the first AMD 760 based motherboards and, being a child of the king of motherboards, should also be considered one of the best.
The A7M266's package contents is also one of the best. It includes a comprehensive manual and a quick start guide. Both are in many different languages, allowing you to easily get it up and running no matter what language you speak. It includes a driver CD with chipset drivers and other userful utilities. It includes a floppy cable, ATA33 cable, and ATA66/100 cable, saving you the purchase of extra cables. The thing I really like is it includes a USB bracket. The VIA 686B southbridge allows for 4 USB ports, so the extra USB bracket allows you to take advantage of all 4 supported USB ports. All the included supplies should, alone, make the A7M266 one of the best 760 motherboards.
The motherboard's layout is just as good, or even better, than the included supplies. I don't know if it's just something with DDR chipsets, or Asus choose to do so, but the motherboard is rather large. My experience with large motherboards (Abit SH6) is they're a pleasure to work in. All the components have a lot of space between them and there's more room to work in the case with. Asus deviates a little from other 760 boards by rotating the CPU socket 90 degrees. I guess this allows them to put all the capacitors elsewhere because there are almost NO capacitors to block large heatsink fan units. I'm positive you can get the largest heatsink, one that doesn't even meet AMD spec, and it will fit fine. This is a great feature since AMD CPU's get rather hot and require large heatsinks. Expansion wise, you're given an AGP Pro slot, five PCI slots, an AMR slot, and two DDR memory slots. I think this is pretty much standard since most people don't use all five PCI slots and in case you need a professional level graphics card, the AGP Pro slot is great. If you're concerned since there's only two memory slots, most of the early 760 boards put two because of stability issues. The new 760 boards feature up to four slots, namely the Abit KG7. But hey! Memory is so cheap nowadays, who cares?! I got a stick of Kingston 256 megabyte PC2100 DDR memory for 36 dollars! Just max out the 2 gigabyte memory limit when you buy the board! Two questionable layout issues are the placement of the power connector and two fan headers. The power connector is below and close to the northbridge, making you have to pass the power cables accross the CPU or think of a way so it doesn't block the CPU so it doesn't hinder airflow. Since the board is so big, the two fan headers at the edge of the motherboard seems out of place. What if you have a cable that can't reach the headers? But despite the two flaws, the boards layout is very good. Everything is easy to reach and doesn't get in anythings way. Truly a layout of the best 760 board.
The performance is just as good as the layout. Being one of the first 760 boards has its disadvantages. Newer entries usually perform better. Asus traditionally leads the pack in performance. The A7M266 is no exception. Compared to the first generation 760 boards, it was the best performing motherboard. The new 760 boards are out and the A7M266 is still able to keep up with them. It's not the best performing motherboard, but it's no slouch either. Combined with rock solid stability, something the better performing boards might lack, the Asus A7M266 is a winner.
So if you're looking for one of the best 760 based motherboards, the Asus A7M266 is something to consider. With exceptional package contents, layout, and performance plus stability, the A7M266 is truly one of the best 760 based motherboards in the market.
Notes:
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The AMD 760 chipset was the best Athlon DDR chipset in the market. Why? Because it outperformed every other DDR chipset, including VIA KT266. The SiS 735 took its position as best performing DDR chipset, but there were no motherboards incorporating it to be found, making the AMD 760 still the best choice. However the day I got this motherboard, VIA announced its KT266A. The benchmarks show that nothing can even come close to its performance levels. The nVIDIA nForce 220 might even have trouble keeping up with it. The KT266A motherboards aren't out yet, so you might want to hold off on the A7M266. Unless you REALLY need a DDR motherboard now, wait for the new and improved Asus A7V266 with KT266A chipset. Otherwise, go for the A7M266.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150
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Epinions.com ID:
cptsulu
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Member: Ryan Samiley
Location: University of California, Irvine
Reviews written: 33
Trusted by: 15 members
About Me:
Third year Information and Computer Science major at UCI.
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