Gigabyte Slot A GA-7IXE Motherboard

Pros: AMD750/751 Chipset, good layout. Will support Slot A Thunderbird chips
Cons: Not fit for overclocking, basic bios. ATX power connection in the way.

There's not much to say here. I wanted this board because I wanted a slot A thunderbird chip and the slot A thunderbird is only supported by the AMD 750 chipset. This is the Slot A "thunderbird approved" board listed on AMD's site for the Thunderbird...

Pros: Trouble-free, low-maintainence and compatible with most hardware.
Cons: Cannot overclock, 1x AGP bus, obsolete by 2005 standards.

I purchased the GA-7ixe from TigerDirect in 2001 after giving up on a troublesome Shuttle Spacewalker AI61 motherboard.

I used a 900Mhz Athlon Thunderbird Slot-A processor with no problems. However, I have never been able to overclock the processor.

I maxed out the memory with generic 133Mhz 256MB DIMMs from Fry's Electronics, to a total of 768MB RAM.

It is running Windows XP Second Edition.

Had to upgrade the BIOS a few times to support larger hard drives.

My computer setup is hooked up a UPS and runs 24/7. It is only shut down about once every three months to blow off the dust that accumulates inside the case. After more than four years of near-continuous operation, this motherboard is still running with no problems.

I plan on building a replacement computer soon and will definately consider using a Gigabyte brand motherboard for that machine.