Building a system. Need your help.

[mjolnir2k]

Ok I am building a new system that will allow me to play around with OC'ing. Bear in mind that I am not trying to make the "Ultimate" system, just one that will be fast and give me some experience with OC'ing. Also MONEY IS AN OBJECT so I am trying to keep cost reasonable.

So far I have:
-iwill KK266 MoBo
-AMD T-Bird 1.33 (AJHYA Model)
-swiftch mc462 with sunon 42 cfm fans
-256 Megs of Crucial PC133 CL 2

what are your suggestions for the rest of the system?
-OS
-HD
-CDRW
-Video card
-Sound Card
-Case w/psu

Also what cables and assorted pieces do i need to make this run?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< So far I have:
-iwill KK266 MoBo
-AMD T-Bird 1.33 (AJHYA Model)
-swiftch mc462 with sunon 42 cfm fans
-256 Megs of Crucial PC133 CL 2 >>


Not the best plan. The old KK266 was a poor performer and uses SDRAM. The iWill XP333 is a good overclocker and has nice onboard features, then match that with 256mb of PC2100 DDR SDRAM from Crucial, Kingston, Kingmax, Mushkin, or Corsair. As for the HSF, you would save money by getting an Alpha PAL8045, and that would help defray the cost of the memory. I strongly advise you not to buy a T-Bird, as it lacks SSE instructions. An Athlon XP is isn't that expensive these days.



<< what are your suggestions for the rest of the system?
-OS
-HD
-CDRW
-Video card
-Sound Card
-Case w/psu >>


OS: Windows 2000 Pro SP2, preferrably pirated.
HDD: Maxtor ATA133 7200 rpm drive
CDRW: Plextor 24x would be affordable, and much more reliable that Lite-On.
Vid Card: ATi Radeon 7500 (possibly a Gigabyte Radeon 7500)
Sound Card: Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Case w/psu: Antec SX840



<< Also what cables and assorted pieces do i need to make this run? >>


The things you buy should come with the cables you need.

 

[Legendary]

If you get a Lite-on RETAIL 24x...then reliability is hardly an issue, and the price tag will change your mind to the Lite-on.

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< If you get a Lite-on RETAIL 24x...then reliability is hardly an issue, and the price tag will change your mind to the Lite-on. >>

What's the retail price tag? Performance is still lower, but this is a budget system...

 

[mjolnir2k]

Daovonnaex,
Thank you for your reply. I must say now I am really confused as EVERY review I have read (Even Anandtech's) gave the iwill kk266 the HIGHEST marks and all selected this MoBo as editors choice, or top pick etc...Why do you dislike this board (other than it doesn't support the XP platform?)

Now I know the XP system would be "faster" but it would require a larger investment on my part b/c I already Have the MoBo, CPU, HS/F and SDRAM. To switch to the XP platform I would need to start all over again and I lack the funds for that. So I am committed to building from this foundation (for this system anyway).

Thanks for you suggestions about HW though. i will look into those suggestions.

anyone else wanna chime in?

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< Daovonnaex,
Thank you for your reply. I must say now I am really confused as EVERY review I have read (Even Anandtech's) gave the iwill kk266 the HIGHEST marks and all selected this MoBo as editors choice, or top pick etc...Why do you dislike this board (other than it doesn't support the XP platform?)

Now I know the XP system would be "faster" but it would require a larger investment on my part b/c I already Have the MoBo, CPU, HS/F and SDRAM. To switch to the XP platform I would need to start all over again and I lack the funds for that. So I am committed to building from this foundation (for this system anyway).

Thanks for you suggestions about HW though. i will look into those suggestions.

anyone else wanna chime in? >>

The KK266 was a great platform, but a I dislike it now as it has performance killing SDRAM. Since you already have these things, I guess there's not too much you can do, unless you can RMA things.

 

[mjolnir2k]

Well, a quick search reveals that this board will support the XP's with a simple BIOS update. Still does not solve my RAM (SDRAM vs. DDRAM) but would the XP be a better solution for this board "speed wise"

IE. an XP1500 vs my T-bird 1.33 OC'd to 1.5...which is better? worth the upgrade to XP without DDR?

Learning as I go....

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< Well, a quick search reveals that this board will support the XP's with a simple BIOS update. Still does not solve my RAM (SDRAM vs. DDRAM) but would the XP be a better solution for this board "speed wise"

IE. an XP1500 vs my T-bird 1.33 OC'd to 1.5...which is better? worth the upgrade to XP without DDR?

Learning as I go.... >>

Any upgrade to the Palomino core would be worth it, due to the SSE instructions, reduced heat dissapation and power consumption, and the data prefetch logic.

 

[Texun]

mjolnir2k

For what this is worth, I had the KK266 and it was without a doubt one solid rock. I never had one hiccup with that board. ANANDTECH rated it higher than the ASUS or ABIT, and if you have your sites set on it and can live without DDR then you should be happy with your selection. I almost cried when I sold mine. Would have bought the 333 over the MSI that I have now but it wasn't out then.

 

[Willoughbyva]

I would say

OS- Windows xp using ntfs
HD- Western Digital, but really any 7200 rpm drive (except IBM of course) Make sure the hd has at least 2meg of cache more is better.....
CDRW- Liteon 24x10x40
video card- ATI AIW 7500 or any recent ati card,ati 2d is awesome.
Sound card- are you going with 4.1 or 5.1? if not get a cl 512, (if you get a sb live, make sure it is one that is compatable with xp, there are is one versoin that has a chip that is not xp compatable and creative said that they are not going to give xp support for it).

Case- not sure 300+watt mid tower.