Looking to buy athalon and mobo?

[fenris]

I am looking around to buy an atholon and an mobo. What would be the best mobo to buy. As far as the atholon goes I am looking for it to be around 750 Mhz. Any suggestions, websites on direct comparisons etc. would be appreciated.<br><br>Thanks <p> fenris<br><a href=mailto:fenris@hotmail.com>fenris@hotmail.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>

 

[Karl Blessing]

for overclocking I would strongly recomend the Abit KA7, which runs on a KX133 chipset, I would try to avoid any motherboards with the Irongate(AMD-751) chipset. I heard the Asus board with a KX133 is very nice too, also if you havent bought your athlon CPU yet, wait out a bit, the AMD Thunderbird and Duron are still out, and boards are being made for those, might want to look into a duron, and read reviews up on it , the duron is a socket chip(just like the thunderbird cept less Cache) runs on 64K L2 cache, On-die, the Athlon classic(The one you're interested in) has off-die cache, which makes the cache run slower, the Duron will run as fast or faster than the original athlon, and pricing around a 600Mhtz is going to be about 85$(at monarchcomputer.com) which makes it a perfect Celeron killer, runs at a full 200mhtz bus, and so forth, check tomshardware.com, nvnews.net from time to time, they post reviews (nvnews post links to sites) about either of the chips, I think it's important to know this information to avoid being ripped off, check pricewatch.com for some of the lowest prices, then goto resellerratings.com to check that company and see if it has good ratings before ordering from them. <p>Karl<br><a href=mailto:kb244@kb244.8m.com>kb244@kb244.8m.com</a><br><a href=

http://kb244.8m.com>

</a><br>Experienced in , or have messed with : VC++, Borland C++ Builder, VJ++6(starting),VB-Dos, VB1 thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, Borland C++ 3(DOS), Borland C++ 4.5, HTML,Visual InterDev 6, ASP(WebProgramming), QBasic(least i didnt start with COBOL)

 

[Pitt]

I just finished my own system that runs on a 700 and the asus k7v.&nbsp;&nbsp;I haven't had any problems with any components and from the benchmarks i'm getting i would suggest the k7v to anyone looking to build&nbsp;&nbsp;an athlon system. <p>-Pitt-<br><a href=mailtoitt6969@mindless.com>pitt6969@mindless.com</a><br><a href=

http://www.angelfire.com/pa3/GamerHeaven/>Gamer's

Heaven</a><br>

 

[Karl Blessing]

so far I've heard mainly Asus k7v and the Abit KA7, I've also heard bout the MSI K7 Pro, but thats an Irongate board, plus I've had a few probs regarding the USB when it comes to putting a Self-Powered hub on it, the good thing about the K7Pro, is the board comes with D-LED, its a set of LEDs on the board, that shows the last error occured, helps you detect motherboard errors that you normally wouldnt figure out otherwise. <p>Karl<br><a href=mailto:kb244@kb244.8m.com>kb244@kb244.8m.com</a><br><a href=

http://kb244.8m.com>

</a><br>Experienced in , or have messed with : VC++, Borland C++ Builder, VJ++6(starting),VB-Dos, VB1 thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, Borland C++ 3(DOS), Borland C++ 4.5, HTML,Visual InterDev 6, ASP(WebProgramming), QBasic(least i didnt start with COBOL)

 

[fenris]

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it. So Karl you would recomend waiting for the duron to come out? What is the difference with the duron and the thunderbird? does the abit ka7 support them?<br><br>What I am looking for is the best price/performance ratio and I know amd can give it to me. As to which chip, that is what I need to research.<br><br>regards <p> fenris<br><a href=mailto:fenris@hotmail.com>fenris@hotmail.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>

 

[Karl Blessing]

no current SlotA motherboard supports them(there are some boards, that could 'Possibly' support them but wouldnt risk it)<br><br>the Duron isjust 64K ondie cache, the Thunderbird is 256K ondie cache, they're the same cept one has less cache, they have Slot A versions of Thunderbird out, some are said to have worked with Asus K7v, and also said to work with the Abit Ka7 (with CPU Pull up turned to Auto), the duron will be a very cost effective solution, as soon as a good range of socket A boards are made. <p>Karl<br><a href=mailto:kb244@kb244.8m.com>kb244@kb244.8m.com</a><br><a href=

http://kb244.8m.com>

</a><br>Experienced in , or have messed with : VC++, Borland C++ Builder, VJ++6(starting),VB-Dos, VB1 thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, Borland C++ 3(DOS), Borland C++ 4.5, HTML,Visual InterDev 6, ASP(WebProgramming), QBasic(least i didnt start with COBOL)

 

[Jumbo]

I have purchased a Athalon 800MHz with the Abit KA7 Mother board with 128 Pc-133 RAM, a Diamond Stealth 540 AGP 32M video card, and a Sound Blaster PCI 128 sound card. Running Windows 98 SE, put them all together and that equals trouble!!&nbsp;&nbsp;I install the sound drivers and reboot and all you will get out of it is a locked up expensive computer.&nbsp;&nbsp;Sent it back to the company i purchased it from thinking hardware problems and they tested it and said everything was fine.&nbsp;&nbsp;Any suggestions on how to keep the sound from locking up would really help.

 

[Karl Blessing]

hmm, I would make sure you download the VIA 4-in-1 drivers from <A HREF="

http://www.via.com.tw"

TARGET="_new">

http://www.via.com.tw</A><br>also

get the latest driver for everything you can.<br> <p>Karl<br><a href=mailto:kb244@kb244.8m.com>kb244@kb244.8m.com</a><br><a href=

http://kb244.8m.com>

</a><br>Experienced in , or have messed with : VC++, Borland C++ Builder, VJ++6(starting),VB-Dos, VB1 thru VB6, Delphi 3 pro, Borland C++ 3(DOS), Borland C++ 4.5, HTML,Visual InterDev 6, ASP(WebProgramming), QBasic(least i didnt start with COBOL)

 

[Guest_imported]

I just bought the AMD Thunderbird 800mhz and I mounted it on an Asus A7V Mobo (socket A). The mobo is a 200MHz FSB with an Ultra DMA 100 ready IDE port. it has the VIA Apollo KT133 chipset.
I cool the CPU wiht a Thermallife golden Orb heatsink and fan and run PC133 RAM.
The video card used is a Hercules 3D Prophet DDR/DVI (AGP)which uses the geforce chipset. (AGP is at 4X)
Soundblaster Live, PCI 56K modem, a PCI LAN card.
The Asus board does not have a ISA slot so beware.
All seams to run fine and I will conduct a Sisoft test here tonight as soon as I get the latest drivers for my vid card.
I have downloaded and installed the 4.24 VIA drivers and they helped greatly for 3D apps and FPS.

I paid only 160$ for the mobo and 189 for the CPU.. the fan was 21.00 =)

 

[Karl Blessing]

Make sure that goldenorbe was designed for the Thunderbird, there have been several reports that people have tried the socket7 model, and ended up breaking their Tbird and Durons. But I'm happy for you that you got that thing working. I've been hesitant to upgrade to a socketA platform, but I guess i dont need to, since I already run an Athlon(slot a) 750 overclocked at 800(not greatly overclocked, but significant on the FSB)

 

[ladin]

Since i read jumbo's response i figure i will add some thoughts of my own. i have an athlon 800 w/an abit ka7 mobo 256mb pc-133 micron cas2 ram, boca tidalwave 56k modem, tnt2 m64 vid card, sound blaster live and as soon as i install the software that comes with the sound card the computer will sporatically restart itself upon boot or it will just hang on boot with vertical yellow lines at the top of the screen but if i wait about 2 minutes i can restart the computer with a ctrl+alt+del so i dont know what the deal is. it will only do this in win98 but not in windows2000. I have the latest drivers for all of my hardware including the via 4-in-1 driver.

 

[SSGClark]

kb244.... yes, the Golden Orb I got was meant for such processors. I did almost buy the wrong one though hehe. I did find it rather tough to install the Orb (no instructions came with it). I have ran tests between the cooler and the cooler I previously used and my CPU is staying cooler with the Orb on a Thunderbird 800 than my PII 400 did.. oh, btw I saw a post somewhere where someone asked about the power drain of the Thunderbird CPU.... it is 60 =) a lil more than PIII's but greatly worth it having the L2 cache on the CPU itself.
For anyone interested, here is a link to view a review of what the Golden Orb is and does..

http://www.hothardware.com/hh_files/CCAM/Orb.htm

 

[jsauce]

I use the Athlon 750Mhz with the Asus k7V, works good, very fast, but especially with at least 256MB of ram. I found switching my system from a AMD k6-400 to the Athlon, that I needed more ram, the 128 just didn't feel like it did in the 400. Once I put in another 128, it blew anything I'd used before totally away.

 

[Karl Blessing]

That depends tho, most statitics will show that going from 128 to 256 only has an increase of 7% performance for games, however on the office appz and other utilities, the performance increase is much greater, if you are looking to a gaming rig, 128Megs should suffice on Win98.

 

[jsauce]

I'd agree except that the only game I really play now is Diablo 2. Sorry but this game definately needs 256mb of ram. While the game runs fine at 128mb of ram, there is a definate and noticable difference between them.

 

[DavidMW]

Stay away from the Asus K7.It has compatibility problems with low end Nic's and also problems with controllers.

 

[Karl Blessing]

Like most computers you cant just throw the peices together and make them work, I sugest isntalling the core drivers before installing any of the other drivers (like install the VIA4in1, MotherBoard BIOS drivers, Mobo Drivers, etc before isntalling sound, video , etc.) also far as the Asus K7V goes, it's main purpose isnt as good anymore (if you are refering to the Duron/Tbird Mobo) since AMD is removing the 3 pins from most durons that allow you to overclock it with the Asus K7V, also the jumpers that allowed you to do it were soldered off in later releases, so it doesnt have it's special overclocking ability, back to the point of 'Classic' Athlons (not Duron or Tbirds) There are two major Chipset Flavors.

AMD 751 aka IronGate
Via Kx133

IronGate is the first chipset for the Athlon, there were other small chipset, none of which seemed impressive, I belive at the time of Athlon's release, AMD just threw together what they could for a chipset, which resulted in several problems, which also bought birth to a BugFix that was marketed as a new Feature, called &quot;Super ByPass&quot; or something along those lines, it helped fixed some incompatibilities, big problems came with using Nvidia Geforce Chips with the IrongGate Boards at AGP2X, so later Nvidia drivers forced cards downto 1X on Irongate boards, the Irongate was a weak job in my opinion so I dont recomend a board with that.

The Kx133 however showed much better improvment despite some incompatibilities nowdays (especially with the Geforce2 GTS) However, it offers AGP4X, and the ability to use PC133 Sdrams. The Epox was the first to come out with the Kx133 attached, however the first doesnt mean it was the best, in fact turned out to be the worst performing Kx133 board at the time, It was either Asus or Abit that got rated for the best kx133 board, I use a Abit KA7 (not the KA7-100 revision, which holds 2 extra ATA/100 ports for ATA/100 drives) It works great, Most of the problems will be found in drivers, ever since Denator 3 came out for Nvidia cards, they've forced cards downto AGP2X , I manage to get my settings back to AGP4X with little problems. This is my current configuration, which works just fine.

Amd Athlon 'Classic' 750Mhtz
Abit KA7 (not KA7-100 revision)
512Meg PC100 SDram
23G HDD (10+13)
Elsa Erazor X2 (Geforce DDR)
Sound Blaster Live! Platinum, with Live!Drive
Creative Labs Encore 5XDVD/32XCDrom
Creative Labs Dxr3 DVD/Mpeg/VCD Decoder card
10/100 NIC to connect through my 1.5Mbit Cable modem
56K V.90 External CNet modem Voice/Fax/Data
D-Link 4 port selfpowered USB Hub (host following USB Devices)
Microsoft Intelimouse Explorer
D-Link USB Radio
Kensington VGACam
Supura640 Digital Camera
Iomega Zip100 Drive
Mitsumi 4x2x8 CDrw
Dell DH1025T (17&quot; Monitor with Sony Triniton)
HP692C DeskJet Printer

cooling used:
Heatsink attached to Athlon, no fan on heatsink
CardCooler XT cools the heatsink, rams, chipset, cards, etc
(can be found at cardcooler.com)
2 fans behind CPU blowing air out, each do 42CFM
a Slot fan under the Geforce DDr does 42CFM
a fan in front that blows in, does 42CFM
(the CardCooler XT itself blows 138CFM)

With all this , I have no compatibility problems, it has worked fine with Win98, Win98SE, Win2k (some devices didnt have drivers for Win2k), Linux (even less devices had drivers, but sound and video and cable modem worked fine)

so stay cool B-) and dont drive yourself insane

 

[Karl Blessing]

oh just thought I want to mention, the KT133 (duron and TBird) Chipset, is exactly the same as the Kx133 , except it has SocketA support.

 

[SSGClark]

Wow Karl!!
you got some stuffing in that case I do however (as you know) have the T-Bird 800mhz / Asus A7V combo but luckily I have the old style Asus that has the dip switches in tact for overclocking however I can overclock thru the BIOS with no problems and with the Golden Orb fan/heatsink and the stock Hercules 3D Prophet Video card fan I have no cooling probs at all yet and I have OCed my chip to over 900 tho I put it back to stock due to 800 MHZ is fine for me. I haven't had any compatability probs at all minus the lil hitch in getting the AGP to 4X which I have fixed and it is still running fast. Again.. nice post, you need to see a doctor about your replying problems LOL....

Peace... Mike

 

[Karl Blessing]

Mike, I'd hold onto that TBird, most of the SocketA Chips AMD is releasing, wont have the 3 pins on the bottom to allow the overclocking.