750 Thunderbird...who's your momma?

[kmike75]

Ok, I've been hanging around building cheap systems way too long. I finally invested in a Socket A 750 Thunderbird. The question I have is what is the best motherboard for the bird, and for overclocking him? I was told he was built on a 900 core, and he's prime for juice.

here's the other stuff...

128 pc133
kenwood 72X
3dfx 3-3000 pci ( gonna upgrade in a month, wanna go w/64 apg )
Sound Blaster Live
3com PCI win
300 watt Tiger case
+ one of those things I won at the County Fair...

I've heard cooling is an issue. The dude that sold me the bird wanted me to buy a sink and fan he had. It didn't look that much better than my K62-500 set up. He then babbled something like "if you don't use my generic sink and fan for $7.99 you'll snap the corners off your bird"...? I'd like a little comfort here...

kevin's got the bird...

 

[NforSa]

If you want to overclock definetly get the Asus A7V (make sure it has the multiplyer dip switches) or the Abit KT7 Raid...both have been reviewed on this site

as for cooling, DEFINetly dont get a generink sink if you wanna overclock. Go to AMD's reccomended coolers page: http://www1.amd.com/products/athlon/thermals
these are all tested by AMD and wont chip the corners of the CPU if you install it correctly.

 

[rigor3]

a7v at necxdirect for 154 - $30 coupon + $8.95 fedex 2 day

 

[maxSe]

I would recommend Abit KT7 (Non-Raid) version, soley because I don't like any implementation of onboard controllers. Yeah, it's nice to have them, but what if you decide one day you don't want to use it anymore? or may be go scsi? It'll ALWAYS be there, taking up resources. I like to have a choice to take the stuff out. Besides, I think there's too many chances that it may not work properly in the beginning. I was an avid Asus fan, but AV7 just had too many problems with the Promise controller (I think it's fixed now though) & KT7's RAID implementation is not good enough to command extra $40 or so. IMO, if you want RAID, just pick up a modded Promise controller for about $30 & you're good to go (& better performance than HPT which Abit uses).

As far as hsf's go, I would invest in some decent setup. Personally, I run nothing but Alphas, but they are bit $$. I heard Taisol(sp?) is very good for its price, but I've never had a personal experience, so I don't know... Last thing you want is that Tbird hanging off your key chain, right?

Hope this helps.

 

[Braxus]

FYI, you can disable the RAID controller in the BIOS so it won't take up any resources.

 

[kmike75]

Thanks for your comments. I'm leaning toward the A7V...

 

[AMDfreak]

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