BX motherboard

[kornermi]

It's been 2 years since I assembled my first pc, and now I'm itching to upgrade to the next level. I have no complaint with the current P2 350Mhz + Aopen AX6BC + then $200 mushkin pc 100 128MB memory combo for the general purposes. The only reason I think about upgrading is that, I am beginning to heavily use the pc for home video editing, and I was advised that a more powerful CPU may improve the video capture/editing ability. It may or may not be true, but now that P3 800 Mhz is only around $230, I guess I can afford a little bit more up to date system.

I can flash the motherboard bios so it can accomodate 800 MHz CPU, but since my major purpose for the upgrade is video editing, I need a big fast storage device, and I'm attracted to the newer motherboard which offers RAID support. Abit BE6-II looks good.

My question is, what's the fate of traditional (well, sort of) slot 1 + BX chipset motherboard? Are they exiting fast enough for me to regret the purchase only in a few months? Is 370 socket/815 chipset the future trend? Thanks.

 

[LXi]

The BE6-II does not have RAID, you'll need the BX133-RAID. And if then, why not upgrade to Tbird with Abit KT7-RAID? There is no point in buying slots anymore, P3 is also a waste of money.

 

[Double Trouble]

Actually, someone in your situation has a pretty good upgrade path. Simply buy a new PIII-800 or 900, add a promise ULTRA ATA RAID 100 card with a couple of IBM GX ATA 100 drives, and you're good to go. Don't need to invest in a wbole new system. If you also want to play games, add a nice nVidia Gforce MX card to the mix.

The BX chipset has plenty of life left in it, at least until midway through next year..... don't bother spending a bunch of money on a new system, you won't get much benefit.

 

[Adul]

What tagej said. Also, bump up your memory a lot more. Add another 256 MB of ram. Can't have too much memory for video editing.

 

[LXi]

If you were to go with 900MHz, AMD has a $150 advantage($316 for P3 and $160 for Tbird). That would equal out the cost of the motherboard, plus you wont have to buy the Promise FasTrack.

 

[darth maul]

Correct me if I am wrong, but most video editing programs do better on Intel's SSE instructions, then AMD's. Also, yes a processor upgrade will help you, but yes, fast storage is very important too.

 

[xtreme2k]

there is no need to upgrade your motherboard if you go intel P3
but you will have to change mobo if you go Tbird

at this point, you really have 2 choice
800E + Ultra 100 Raid + 128MB RAM
or
Tbird 900 + MSI K7TPro2 + Raid + RAM

the 800E route will be a cheaper solution
personally i would go for the 800E and with the money saved by not getting the Athlon Mobo, get some more ram and a better Hard disk

thatz my opinion

but whatever you do
please DO NOT get a new Intel based mobo, there is no need for one
if you plan to get a new mobo, get AMD, go the AMD route

 

[Suki]

all of their advice sounds good. r u looking to upgrade ur existing pc or planning to buy one. if ur planning to buy one then my advice is wait till the DDR system is on the market. This will help a lot for video editing and make sure that it has a raid capability also.