Asus A7V8X-X Motherboard

I've had very few problems with...

Strengths: Great quality board, easy setup, worked without any problems, lots of features, detailed manual, helpful tech support.

Weakness: No SATA.

I've had very few problems with Asus. They have great tech support and have resolved all of my Asus motherboard issues. This socket A based board is for system builders who want to save money and still get great quality. It's got a lot of features that most people are looking for like ATA133, DDR400, 10/100 Ethernet, 6 PCI slots, and AGP 8X. As usual, Asus has a setup CD and a detailed manual....
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I've had very few problems with Asus. They have great tech support and have resolved all of my Asus motherboard issues. This socket A based board is for system builders who want to save money and still get great quality. It's got a lot of features that most people are looking for like ATA133, DDR400, 10/100 Ethernet, 6 PCI slots, and AGP 8X. As usual, Asus has a setup CD and a detailed manual. For $60 you can't ask for a better board or tech support.

By jeff777 - Jan 20, 2004

It was painful setting up this...

Strengths: Low cost, great functionality, and the Asus brand name.

Weakness: Compatability issues, strange layout of connectors, funny ram configuration.

It was painful setting up this motherboard. Apparently there are some compatability issues that kept crashing the system (do a quick search and see you will see lots more information). The system even crashed during the installation process. It took three tries before everything worked. I had to update the bios (maybe I should have done that first) and ensure that I had the latest drivers. Right...
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It was painful setting up this motherboard. Apparently there are some compatability issues that kept crashing the system (do a quick search and see you will see lots more information). The system even crashed during the installation process. It took three tries before everything worked. I had to update the bios (maybe I should have done that first) and ensure that I had the latest drivers. Right now it is stable and I am keeping my fingers crossed. My previous Asus motherboard never gave me that many problems. I makes me wonder if it is the KT400 chipset causing the problems.

Once you install the video card, it will make it difficult to access the first memory slot. The locking connectors for the ram will be blocked by the video card.

You can only use one memory slot if running PC3200 memory, two slots if running PC2700, and three slots if running PC2100.

If you feel very confident that you can handle the compatability problems, then I would recommend it because of the low cost and its functionality. If you are a newbie, stay away, at least until you have fully researched the compatability of the components that you will be using.


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After a year it has not given me any other problems and has been stable through out.

By chinkoh - Feb 21, 2004

This is an excellent mid-ranged...

Strengths: For this price, you are getting an excellent ASUS board. It's got pretty much everything you'd need. Although not officially supported, the chipset will operate at 200MHz FSB. Overclocking support.

Weakness: Must install driver for use of onboard sound. (WinXP won't install it automatically) Also, no AGP/PCI locks as of rev 1.01 Instead, there are dividers at FSB 100/33, 133/33, 166/33

This is an excellent mid-ranged board for the price conscious buyer. In the box, you’ll find a good manual, a Driver CD, the rear I/O Panel, a UDMA/133 cable, and a Floppy cable. Although there are headers on the motherboard supporting 2 additional USB 2.0 ports and a Game/Midi port, those connectors do not come with the motherboard. (Although you can order it separately) Keep in mind that if...
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This is an excellent mid-ranged board for the price conscious buyer. In the box, you’ll find a good manual, a Driver CD, the rear I/O Panel, a UDMA/133 cable, and a Floppy cable. Although there are headers on the motherboard supporting 2 additional USB 2.0 ports and a Game/Midi port, those connectors do not come with the motherboard. (Although you can order it separately)

Keep in mind that if you want to use the onboard sound in 5.1 mode, you will not be able to connect a microphone or have a line out. To retain those features, you must use either 2.1 or 4.X mode.

This board is a good overclocker, especially for the TBred-B based Duron Processors with the Applebred core. The TBred-B core is designed to run at FSB 166/333 while the Duron is technically only supposed to run at FSB 133/266. What does that mean? Bump up the vcore in bios to 1.65 and change the FSB to 166/33, and Viola! Instant overclock. The 1.6GHz Duron will run at 2.0GHz effortlessly. You should have ram that is capable of at least DDR333 (PC2700) if you are going to attempt this. Otherwise, if you leave the FSB at 133, then DDR266 (PC2100) ram will suffice.

The Via KT400 chipset is unofficially rated to run at FSB200/400, so there is plenty of overhead for overclocking FSB333 processors. Vcore can be easily adjusted in bios, from 1.4v to 2.05v with the overvolt option enabled. (Only experienced users should use the overvolt option!) Also, ram timings can be adjusted manually, all the way down to CAS 1.5, although I’m not aware of memory that runs at these speeds. I have some PC3200 that is currently running at DDR350 at 2-2-2-6 timings.

I'm using this mobo inside my Media Center PC with a Zalman cooler, an ATi HD Wonder + Remote, 512mb PC3200 Geil Ultra memory, and a maxtor 120gb ata133 hard drive. Installation was quick and the system booted up the first time. Layout is good and quite spacious compared to other designs, which allows for the mounting of oversized heatsinks.

The board works with a wide range of CPUs and has a great price to feature ratio. Most board in this price range don't have ATA133, AGP 8x, integrated 5.1 sound and 100Mbit LAN, and 6 usb 2.0 ports. I'm extremely satisfied.

By bravotsx - Feb 15, 2005

I've been in the IT business, for...

Strengths: Asus -Highly reliable, easy to install, built in cpu overheat detection, 6 channel audio ddr400 support

Weakness: no cables bundled in, but for under 100, hey what can one expect?

I've been in the IT business, for over 10 years, and I have came across numerous mobos that won't even last a day. For reliablilty you must trust Intel (bit pricey) and Asus for more features for the buck, both last forever it seems I've had one asus mobo running for 5 years straight no problem and an intel for 4 years straight no problem. Got this mobo installed in one hour, not one problem what...
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I've been in the IT business, for over 10 years, and I have came across numerous mobos that won't even last a day. For reliablilty you must trust Intel (bit pricey) and Asus for more features for the buck, both last forever it seems I've had one asus mobo running for 5 years straight no problem and an intel for 4 years straight no problem. Got this mobo installed in one hour, not one problem what so ever, oh wait one problem, I ran out of screws, my fault though, never the less a great board.

By satu87121 - Mar 2, 2004

cheap baord with alot of fetures...

Strengths: easy to set up,alot of features,good price,really cant go wrong,on board lan,sound,asus 3year warranty

Weakness: none so far ,this is my 3rd board

cheap baord with alot of fetures cant go wrong ,this is the 3rd one of these ive bought,on board lan,sound,asus 3year warranty.easy setup ,for the money buy this board

By jas3553 - Dec 11, 2003