Hi Slugs,
someone a while back was asking about motherboards so i asked a friend of mine
to forward me some of his research into the current offerings. can't remember
who wanted the info.
anyway, the following may help some people...
Ben
> My MB is a MSI 694D Pro A (MS6321) check out the specs at the following
> link.... http://www.msi.com.tw
>
> This board comes in the following flavours with the corresponding options.
>
> * 694D Pro A Promise Ultra ATA100
> * 694D Pro I IEEE 1394 (Fire Wire) Ports
> * 694D Pro AR Promise FastTrak ATA100 RAID Controller
> * 694D Pro AI Promise Ultra ATA100 + IEEE 1394 (Fire Wire) Ports
> * 694D Pro AIR Promise FastTrak ATA100 RAID Controller + IEEE 1394
> (Fire Wire) Ports
>
> Check out the reveiw at http://www.burningissues.co.uk/ as this also
> documents the Promise Ultra ATA 100 hack which I showed you.
>
> The reveiw at 2cpu.com is also worth a read
> http://www.2cpu.com/Hardware/msi_694d/ as are the many Forum writings.
>
> Finaly you may also want to read the reveiw that Tom's Hardware wrote
> http://www.tomshardware.com/mainboard/00q3/000911/index.html
>
> The cheapest price I could find when I bought mine was $275 + postage from
> Hypec ITS
> http://www.hypecits.com.au/cgi-bin/buy/buy.pl?action=list&cat=MBhowever
> a quick check showed that it is now $286 from them, which is still the
> cheapest acording to PricePoint (www.pricepoint.com.au). They also have
> the Pro AR version for $311, if you want RAID without voiding your
> waranty.
>
> Other boards I would consider would be.
>
> * Abit VP6 http://www.abit-usa.com/english/index.htm This board is
> very similar to the 694D but has a different ATA100 controller. There is
> only one release and it comes standard with RAID support. It also uses the
> same Via Apollo Pro133a chipset. Check this review of the VP6....
> http://www.hardocp.com/reviews/mainboards/abit/vp6/index.html I was
> interested to read the coments regrding the need to overclock.....
> * Aopen DX34 and DX43 Plus
> http://aoaen.aopen.com/products/mb/DPTab.htm This board again uses the Via
> chipset but does not come with ATA100. Instead the DX43 Plus comes with
> onboard Adaptec Dual SCSI 160. Both these boards come with onboard LAN.
> * GigaByte GA-6VXD7 and GA-6VXDC7
> http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/products/pro_new3.htm Both these boards offer
> dual CPU but not a lot else.... as far as I could see.
>
> Both Abit and Aopen are yet to release these boards in Australia... so no
> prices.
>
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