Building a new system ... Comments please.

[Lon3W0lf]

AMD Thunderbird 1.15ghz Processor - 750mhz or better core o/ced
Alpha PAL6035 Heatsink
Abit KT7 Motherboard / Microstar K7T Pro2-A
Antec SX1030B Case
512mb PC133 (2 Sticks)
IBM 45gb 75gxp HDD
32mb Geforce 2 DDR/GTS/MX
Sound Blaster Live X-Gamer
Creative Soundworks Digital Speakers
Running Windows 2000 Professional

1. I want to keep sound down so is the Alpha PAL6035 a good choice for overclocking/sound?

2. Should I get a KT7 or the Microstar board? Which is better for overclocking/stability?

3. What RAM should I get? Should I go for cheap generic from Pricewatch or go for 2 Crucial CAS 2 sticks?

4. Can anyone recommend a good deal on a video card? I was going to get the Elsa Gladiac DDR card but buy.com upped the price to $192. I am currently looking at a Hercules Prophet II MX.

Thanks,
Lon3W0lf
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPDATE: I play a lot of Quake 3 and Counter-Strike and I'd like them to work under win2k. If there are instabilities please inform me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Lon3W0lf]

BUMP

 

[nortexoid]

i've read mixed thoughts about thermaltake chrome orbs...some show great cooling performance, others show mediocre...but the thing is quiet...

fop32-1 is considerably quiet and cools really well...

as for mobo - why don't u get a kt133a chipset board?...if u don't like any on the market now, wait for MSI's turbo, Asus', etc. etc. - there are currently 2 decent boards that i know of now, and 1 crap...the two decent are the Epox EP-8KTA3 and DFI AK74-AC...the Epox probably being better...i read a review where they got 155mhz fsb on it...

if u're planning on doing major fsb overclocking, i'd suggest crucial (or other name brand) mem, but if u're not, generic is fine - i.e. infineon, micron generic models..

but if u do get one of thsoe two boards, most people would probably vouche for the MSI K7Tpro2a...which has rather dismal performance comapred to some other mobos, but apparently good stability...(reference, tomshardware)

video card, i'd get any brand - they're all the same...except for the few that have subpar memory...i.e. visiontek's.

 

[Lon3W0lf]

Respond M0th3rFvcK3r5

 

[Shu8]

good luck ocing that thing...why don't you just buy a duron 800 to do that job. unless spend 200 bucks on a 1ghz. i dunno what you need 512mb or ram for. 256mb is enough...anything greater than that is not really noticable unless you're doing stuff with graphics [photoshop, 3dmax, etc..]. get the elsa gladiac for 130. how much you getting the speakers for...you can get the cambridge soundworks fps2000 [4 speakers] for 100 bucks. i think the abit is better for overclocking to the max but msi is much more stable. and just incase you forget, buy some artic silver, unless the alpha comes w/ it.

 

[minus1972]

phat rig...cooling might be rough though...depends on case fan placement/mods

the only thing I'd change would be to go from TBird to Duron; little less, you could still get a gig out of one.

Other than that; great system...nice choice!

 

[VinY]

Well I can either get a pretested unlocked processor that is a 750 or better core that is guaranteed to hit 1100. Or should I get a 1ghz chip off Pricewatch and hope it is unlocked or can be unlocked? Are most of the higher speed chips in circulation unlockable? Thanks.

 

[OverclockMe]

As for ram, alot of overclockers have took a liking to Kingmax pc150 128mb for 72bucks at mwave, shoot I got a stick of it too

 

[VinY]

That price is a little high...256mb can be had for that price. Any other suggestions?

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

You will not have to have great RAM if you only overclock by the multiplier. You can also raise the FSB independently without overclocking your RAM on the KT7. SoftMenu III Bios rocks!! But, since the price of memeory is so damn cheap now, get the good stuff. I like Mushkin. As for the Athlon, get a Tbird blue core and it will fly. There is Mushkin and Blue Cores going around in For Sale Forum for cheap! Good luck.

 

[Dulanic]

That is inncorect... you can not adjust the FSB independently of memory etc on the KT7... it was worded wrong in the manual, all thats for is so that you can do 1Mhz increments.

 

[Dulanic]

Oh BTW buy a $72 stick of 256MB Ram and your risking it. Ive used generic like that and had it cause lots of lockups etc.... Socket A boards can be a tad picky with RAM. Your better off going with 256MB of good RAM then 512 of crappy ram.... 512 will make NO difference unless you are doing video editing and or HUGE photoshop image editing.

 

[Insanity]

I Recommend the Mushkin pc150 Ram if your gonna overlcock also from what i have read the Microstar is a more stable board.

 

[VinY]

Can anyone tell me which is better? Abit KT7 or Microstar K7T Pro2A? I don't want to make the wrong decision when I buy this.