Athlon XP+ SDRAM = which mboard to buy?

[gordita]

I only have $$$ to go for athlon Xp 1700+ and a Mboard.
I have about 600mb of SDRAM lying around.

so, wot options do i have as far as buying a motherboard?

are there any that support athlon xp's and SDRAM?

I have no clue......thankz a bunch!

 

[AA0]

get a Tbird, not an XP, an XP takes up too much bandwidth for SDRAM, especially a 1700, get a 1500 at the most.

KT133A boards are probably the best performance for SD RAM.

 

[Confused]

I'd suggest the ECS K7S5A, takes both SD and DDR ram, so if you want to get some DDR later, then it will be OK.

I've had one for a couple of weeks, and it is a lot faster than my Athlon 1.0GHz on Abit KT7 (KT133 chipset) overclocked to 1.4 🙂



ConfusedBW

 

[tsnyder]

agree, the ECS board is a good starting point... good features, good performance, great price. I hear it's finicky with low quality power supplies though.

 

[cmaMath13]

I am running an XP 1900+ on an Asus A7V133 (kt133a) without any trouble. Very stable. I have seen a lot of these used for sale on the forum for under $80.

 

[waqasusman]

I'd suggest the ECS K7S5A, takes both SD and DDR ram, so if you want to get some DDR later, then it will be OK.
Exactly!
I am also looking for an SDRAM based solution in the near future, will upgrade to DDR Later.

 

[cmaMath13]

I saw an Asus A7V133 on the forum today for $50! Doesn't come much cheaper than that.

 

[crypto1300]

It is important to note that the ECS K7S5A has 2/2 SDRAM/DDR slots. Just incase someone was looking to use more than 3 SDRAM DIMM's.

 

[johndoe52]

I'd agree with either the ECS or the Asus board. I'd like the ECS board cause you can upgrade to DDR and then when you buy the next new motherboard you can put your SDRAM back in.

 

[Ionizer86]

get a Tbird, not an XP, an XP takes up too much bandwidth for SDRAM, especially a 1700, get a 1500 at the most.

That's not really true....just go for the fastest chip that's reasonably priced (XP 1700+). Even with an SDRAM board, using a faster chip will give you more performance since Athlon/XP chips don't demand nearly as much bandwidth as a P4.

I'd get a K7S5A or possibly the new K7S6A. It has integrated AC97, integrated LAN, and you can upgrade to DDR once (and if) prices drop a bit 🙂

 

[AA0]

actually, it is true. PC133s bandwidth is saturated at 1.2Ghz for a Tbird. The XP uses more bandwidth then Tbirds because of their prefetch.

 

[alpineranger]

I'd posit that the whole memory bandwidth issue with t-bird vs xp is a marginal contributor in this situation, and is not a reason to go with one type over the other (if it was, we'd all have p4s). Even if it was, with a board that supports both SDRAM and DDR (and I feel safe to assume that that is what most people would suggest), the memory bandwidth consideration as it has been presented becomes a non-issue.

 

[jmorrell]

There is another SDR/DDR motherboard solution that was just recently released: I just got the new Shuttle AK32 motherboard and retail Athlon XP 1800+ two days ago. The AK32 uses the VIA KT266 chipset, and has 2 SDRAM slots and 2 DDRAM slots. I'm currently using 2 sticks of SDRAM - one 256 mb stick and one 128 mb stick - left over from my old Shuttle AI61 Slot 1 mobo. Only lost the use of one 128 mb stick of RAM in the process.

 

[alpineranger]

From a performance/price perspective, I dont' think the K7S5A can be beaten.

 

[CoDerEd]

<<actually, it is true. PC133s bandwidth is saturated at 1.2Ghz for a Tbird. The XP uses more bandwidth then Tbirds because of their prefetch. >>

It's true but for it's gonna be hard to sell the tbird1.2 if he wants to upgrade latter
my suggestion: get ECS K7S5A and the XP 1700, use couple of your SDR
then sell the rest of it on ebay so you can buy the DDR, you can sell the SDR thet you use
after you get the DDR, you don't want to keep your SDR any longer since the price might drop again.

<<The AK32 uses the VIA KT266 chipset>>
The Shuttle is more expensive about $15-20
here is no much difference when you use the SDR
but when you upgrade to DDR later SIS 735 on ACS
is a hell lot faster then KT266.


peace