• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

A7V + Tbird 800 + Creative GTS2 + SB1024 + IBM 75GXP: any good?

T

timco

Member
When I can afford it, I'm going to attempt a large-scale upgrade of my Intel FJ440ZX + Cel400 to the following:

Asus A7V mobo
Athlon Thunderbird 800
Creative GF2 GTS 32mb
Creative SB Player 1024
IBM 75GXP 30G (x1 at first, later another for Linux)
128M 133Mhz SDRAM

Can anyone more knowledgable than me or anyone who's got any/all of the above tell me whether this is a good combination to go for? The only bit I'm not certain about is the motherboard as some people have posted saying negative things about the board's reliability. Is this down to driver issues or being supplied with faulty boards? (Alternative suggestion for the m/b is a KT7-RAID).

Here's a question for the Linux-ers amongst you: does Linux work with the ATA-100 part of the Asus motherboard? I have kernel 2.2.16 and 2.4.0-test7 (currently use 2.4.0, but I can easily change to the other).

Cheers
Tim
 
If you're planning to overclock, you may want to switch to the KT7 because it allows you to change the multiplier within the BIOS (A7V has dipswitches). If you don't want to overclock then get a MSI K7T Pro, the most stable Socket-A motherboard around.

I'm not really familiar with that sound card... You should change it to a Live! card.

You may want to splurge on another 128MB of RAM, because you can never have enough, especially if you plan to run Windows 2000 in the future.

If you are going to get two 75GXPs, then you may want to give some thought to striping them in RAID 0. In that case, you should get the ABIT KT7-RAID instead of the plain board.
 
Yucky just about covered all the bases. MSI K7T Pro would be my choice for a build-it leave it alone system. For overclocking and other tweaking I would go with ABIT, even though their reputation took a beating a while back. BUT, I wouldn't chose TBIRD 800, I'd pick a Duron 600/650. Why, they're so cheap you can overclock the balls off it and if it finally goes up in smoke your out less than $100. If it makes 850-900, you won't need the BIRD.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top