Advice on Tbird/Duron upgrade

[Psydex]

Currently I am running the old tried and true 450a celeron.

I want to upgrade to a duron/tbird.

I have pc66 memory currently stable at 100mhz.

should I:

buy a duron 700 or 900 or so and use my current memory? That leaves me only having to buy the processor and MB.

buy tbird and pc133 memory and MB.

I am running an abit bh6 first revision.

Thanks ahead of time.

 

[SmackdownHotel]

First of all, there are no Duron 900s. I would go for the Tbird + RAM + mobo.

 

[VisionsUCI]

i would go with the tbird... and you can even keep your RAM for a bit too, if you want.

 

[Enigma]

Keep the ram and go with a 600 mhz. Duron to overclock. Spend the money saved not buying a Tbird to pick up a board that will support overclocking and expansion.

 

[moolman]

Easy upgrade is a duron and overclockable mb, such as A7V or KT7, keep your memory and everything else, it should keep you happy for another week.

Alex

 

[paulip88]

About using the memory in a new board, just keep in mind that some of the Socket A boards are really picky about the RAM. I know this is true with the A7V and the KT7.

So even if you plan on using the PC66 that does 100, don'tbe surprised if the board rejects it.

On another note, if you do plan on using the older RAM, I'd go with the TBird, just because its still relatvely cheap for a CPU and its not as suceptible to being crippled by a slower memory subsystem (bigger L2 cache).

 

[Psydex]

So what motherboards are generally thought of as the best for the overclocking and seem to have the least amount of instability issues.

Also.. assuming my pc66 memory does work with the new combo, what kind of performance hit am I looking at by not having pc133 memory?

Thanks again everyone..

Psydex

 

[jblondi]

Most people around here will recommend an abit kt7 or a asus k7v. Abits are jumperfree, but with a little mod on the asus they arent that hard either. I think your ram is going to hold you back eventually, but cant hurt to try.

 

[paulip88]

Actually, its the ABit KT7 and the Asus A7V. The K7V is a slot A and does not take Durons. The ABit is jumperfree, and the Asus uses DIP switches for the multiplier.

 

[Liquidh2o]

i would say asus a7v and the abit kt7 are the best you can buy for overclocking socket a amd chips... the both have their one ups over the other, KT7 can come with onboard raid, the a7v has four dimm slots.. i've seen alot more people have trouble with the kt7 (but i'm assuming those problems stem from the earlier revisions of that board)

i have an abit kt7 raid and it runs great.

your ram may definitely be an issue... i was reading thru some amd articles about ram issues, and they recomend ram that will run at cas2, and is 6 layer pcb..

you can take a duron 700 up to 1ghz in most cases without any problems... i have a t-bird 750 that runs just dandy at 1ghz..
the t-birds seem to be a bit more inconsistent with overclocking compared to the durons, imo... just depends on what you wanna use this system for...

one last thing... cooling is important, as these chips are heat generators!! =)

 

[kylebisme]

by going form pc-100 cas2 to pc133cas2 on my 750 t-bird memory pereformance went up considrably(20-25%), but at 10mhz it still beat the p3-1ghz with rdram on sandra membench, so its your call on wether you want to speend the money or wait.