cheap/reliable duron board recommendations?

[Kaido]

So I was cleaning my room, sorting my spare computer parts, when it dawned on me...I have enough parts to build a new computer! All I need is a motherboard and cpu! So I thought, I'll just slap a duron in there and make myself a lil' server...newegg has 1.8ghz durons for $46 shipped. Now all I need is a motherboard for like fifty bucks or so. I did a quick search on newegg and came up with an ECS motherboard for $41 shipped...four stars, doesn't look too bad. Any comments on this motherboard, or recommendations for another cheapie?

I have a mouse, keyboard, mid-tower case, super-flower 350w psu, smart 80mm case fan (orange!), cd-rom drive, 40gb 5400rpm maxtor hdd, and 128mb pc133 ram (at least, I *think* it's 128mb). I'll probably have to get a cheap-o vid card since most mobos don't seem to come with video. I have Windows 2000 and Red Hat linux lying around...I current don't have a linux box, so I may do that, and I kinda want to mess around with running apache again...hmm...hmmmm

Eh...maybe I'll just try out one of those mini-itx computers with the VIA/Cyrix chips...hehehehe...

 

[DieHardware]

Originally posted by: Kaido
So I was cleaning my room, sorting my spare computer parts, when it dawned on me...I have enough parts to build a new computer! All I need is a motherboard and cpu! So I thought, I'll just slap a duron in there and make myself a lil' server...newegg has 1.8ghz durons for $46 shipped. Now all I need is a motherboard for like fifty bucks or so. I did a quick search on newegg and came up with an ECS motherboard for $41 shipped...four stars, doesn't look too bad. Any comments on this motherboard, or recommendations for another cheapie?

I have a mouse, keyboard, mid-tower case, super-flower 350w psu, smart 80mm case fan (orange!), cd-rom drive, 40gb 5400rpm maxtor hdd, and 128mb pc133 ram (at least, I *think* it's 128mb). I'll probably have to get a cheap-o vid card since most mobos don't seem to come with video. I have Windows 2000 and Red Hat linux lying around...I current don't have a linux box, so I may do that, and I kinda want to mess around with running apache again...hmm...hmmmm

Eh...maybe I'll just try out one of those mini-itx computers with the VIA/Cyrix chips...hehehehe...

The ECS L7VMM3 has onboard everything, including a soldered on mobile Athlon.

 

[Kaido]

ahahah cool! that looks like my ticket, thanks DieHardware!

 

[Peter]

... but it won't use your SDRAM DIMM. You'll need at least DDR266 for either of the suggested boards.

This would be the prime choice for a budget Duron machine - short of using the L7VMM3, of course.

 

[Insane3D]

Hey Peter, not to intrude on this thread, but I was hoping you could answer a ECS question for me. You have no profile or PM's enabled, otherwise I would have emailed/pm'ed you.

Is the K7S5A still in production, or has it been phased out?

Thanks.

 

[Kaido]

ahhh good point Peter...thanks for that hot deal! $46 for a 1.8ghz duron and $29 for the motherboard = $75 shipped...not bad! I think I have another HSF lying around too. I may just wait a bit and save up for a 512 meg stick of ram. Having a slower, cooler (=quieter) computer on in my room 24/7 would be preferable to a faster, louder one I remember using my Athlon 1.4ghz thunderbird for double duty as a heater in the winter lol.

Anyone know how a 1.8ghz duron compares to an athlon? (like, comparable to a 1.4ghz athlon or something)

 

[Peter]

It's an Athlon XP with 1/4 the level 2 cache. From a Duron 1800, you get the raw speed of an Athlon XP2200+, with weaker performance as soon as the tasks get large. In normal business applications and typical games, you won't notice.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: Insane3D
Is the K7S5A still in production, or has it been phased out?
Thanks.

It seems it ain't - neither ECS nor PC-Chips list it as an active product anymore, and availability has dried up everywhere.

Else I would have recommended it here, to be able to reuse that PC133 RAM ...