Athlon 950 Mhz motherboard and chip for $199

[Wangel]

Here is the ad from Tiger Direct:

AMD Athlon 750MHz CPU, Motherboard and CPU Fan for only $149!
AMD Athlon 950MHZ CPU, Motherboard and CPU Fan for only $199!

Here are the specs:

AMD Athlon 750 or 950MHz CPU
Athlon CPU Cooling Fan
Slot A Athlon ATX Motherboard
200MHz Bus Speed
High Performance 18-bit On-board Sound
4X AGP Slot
4 USB Ports
5 PCI Slots
1 ISA Slot
3 DIMM SDRAM Slots / Max: 768MB
Via KX-133 Chipset
Ultra ATA/66 IDE Controller

I have a question about this deal. What RAM would be the best to get with this motherboard? PC133 or PC200? There has been some talk about some newer RAM. What exactly is this and is it worth it? Can these boards be overclocked? Does anyone know anything about these boards? Is there anything on these boards missing? Does it come complete ready to just add ram and go? What BIOS would it use?

Tiger Direct Athlon Deals

 

[DieselMan]

deal already posted.

the mobo/chips are slot A (the old stuff), and they do not support DDR (PC 1600/2100), so you'd better off sticking to your pc100/pc133 RAM. also, this chip is a tad slower than the thunderbird athlon processors.

 

[jlyda]

i think you should stick to the athlons also. alot better chip

 

[8602081]

This motherboard does not support DDR memory, so you can only put PC100 or PC133.
Since this is the KX133 chipset, you can buy those special rams.. that sells cheap..
example.. 256meg dimm $71 at pricewatch...

 

[Wangel]

Where did you find this for $71 on Pricewatch? The cheapest I found on Pricewatch was $73.

I realize that this board isn't the newest and most modern, but to get a 950 Mhz for $199 and then add 768 Megs of RAM for $71 or $73 / 256 Meg Chip, making a total of about $410 isn't too bad. Would suit my purposes very nice.

 

[rahvin]

Correct me if I'm wrong but that version of Athlon has the 2/5 cache divider and is something like 20% slower clock-clock than a thunderbird version. It's like buying 950 and only getting 800 performance.

 

[diablonhn]

that is not true at all rahvin, the 950 MHZ athlon is about the speed of a 950 OC Duron, or about the speed of a 875-900 Thunderbird....

 

[Wangel]

I'm trying to find ram for this combonation motherboard and CPU. Would I want ECC or Non-Parity RAM? What is the difference?

 

[HappyFace]

You'd probably get similar performance with an oclocked Duron setup. There isn't much of a performance difference, and the Duron set up will save you $30-45

 

[natenut]

here is the old thread, its got some links to reviews of the moboard. I noticed the 950 classic athlon has dropped alot on pricewatch recently, from about 210 to about 130.

here is the old thread

here are some bechmarks between the duron, classic athlon and the T-bird

bechmarks

 

[Nutzo]

Anyone know what motherboard they are shipping now ?
Originally it was listed as a SOYO, but now they don't list the brand name or model. I can't seem to match the picture up with any of the common boards.

 

[diablonhn]

I like the Slot A athlons better, easier to cool down and will run a lot cooler with the right heatsink, but they are no match for the Durons' overclockability.

 

[SuPeRCHiNk13]

i got mines too day. looks ok

 

[scoreadeal]

$10 off if you use your Mastercard as well.

 

[Nutzo]

What brand/model is the motherboard & how long did shipping take ?

 

[Keck]

Tiger has me backordered for 2, lol, after 20 mins on hold for customer support he says probably at least 2weeks, and really closer to 3 for delivery. They are still taking orders for sock they don't even have. Oh well, seems like the cheapest route to a 950 solid Atholon w/o overclocking (I build to sell, o/c'd scares duds off). Guess I'll be patient

 

[TheDon]

Still taking orders? I called twice and talked to two different people on January 4th, and was told they were sold out and that I couldn't order one. I really hate Tiger Direct! No one there seems to know anything.

 

[Wangel]

When I called they told me that the motherboard is a Epox KXPA7+. I hope I don't have to wait too long. I already order 512 MB of Ram CAS 2 from Crucial yesterday! I think I'll call again!

 

[mattyrug]

I'm late to the party, but...
the Cache Runs @ half the speed of the chip on the "Classics"

or at least mine does
Link to Screenshot

 

[Kreggo]

Epox is good. I am running a classic Athlon 650M in an Epox 7KXA mobo. It's been running flawless for several months. And I payed a lot more for my mobo and processor than the deal at Tiger Direct.