Cheapest Mobo for a 1.2 Athlon

[magomago]

I'm not sure if the Athlon is the 200mhz or 266mhz, but that doesn't matter. I have the option of getting one for 15 bucks (well, my friend said 40 which is VERY expensive and i'll just tell him 15.)

The problem is my current Pc. It has 320 megs of ram(all generic brands ), a geforce2 and nice extras but there is one thing that pisses me off: The processor. Its a 500mhzk6-2 and it blows chunks. Linux takes on the average 4 minutes to load. If I click on "home" or attempt to open up Konquerer (the Linux version of Windows Explorer) I wait 15 minutes.


I am getting a brand new pc in January anyways (I'm making that one and using my experiences from creating my bros pc after a long period of being away fromt he pc arena)

But I just need a better computer.

If the mobo is a AT mobo (did they make AT mobos with Socket A?) then all the better as I won't need to replace my case (which is currently housing the Lucky-Star 5MVP3)

Requirements:
1.2Ghz Athlon
3 Ram Slots (SDRAM...I have 2 128s and a 64)
AGP Slot (1x,2x,4x doens't matter. My current card runs at 1x)
3 pci Slots
1 ISA slots


anything onbaord would be welcome however it'd have to be compatable with Linux....

If not that is fine as I spent a LONG time getting my modem and my Soundcard to be compatable with linux.

3 pci slots mainly b/c of my Modem, soundcard and an extra free one

1 ISA mainly b/c of my Ethernet card.

obviousle this is not a preformance intensive machine (as my new one will be) but i would welcome a 700mhz boost in speed + a chip with FPU calcuations that are worth a damn.

Thanks And i'll alaso be searching. Remember, the cheaper the better (even if it means to sacrifice onboard) and a AT mobo would be a HUGE plus

 

[soni]

Well I use a ECS K7S5A+, and even if it only have 2 SDRAM slots, and is ATX, it have all the goods and it all autodetected under Mandrake 9.0

For ~55 $ its hard to beat ...

 

[DimZiE]

honestly i can't think of any decent board under 60 bucks beside the ECS k7s5a..

it's a solid board.. had some problems with the CMOS battery on some revisions but you can't go wrong w/ it

 

[Peter]

You will at least need a new power supply unit, the early ones aren't strong enough. Power supplies are cheaper when bought with a case. Then use an ECS K7S5A and there you go. If you dare continue with the AT case, there's only Jetway 849BS for you.

Besides, a K6-2/500 machine makes for quite a smooth Linux box, if done right. I bet your HDD performance isn't tuned, and you might have too little system RAM.

Login as root, then type

hdparm -iTt /dev/hda

(replace hda with wherever your drive is) and post the results here.

regards, Peter

 

[magomago]

Well, Peter Linux doesn't recognize your commands at all

It says command not found, and yes i logged in as root (su press enter, then enter root password)

As for system ram, there are 320 megs of it so I doubt that is a problem

I know you guys want to help me find the longest lasting, but that really is unecessary.

I'l lbe building my monster in january (well, for what my parents will give me which'll be about 1000 dollars + a few hundred I add).

I just need a pc that is not so slow. You don't realize how laborious its become to use Linux, but I still do because I don't want to use Windows.

But anyway, I'll check out both of the Mobos but look specifically at the Jetway 849BS ...and now that i think of it I have a 200Watt system (hehe when i got my geforce2 it said 250 minimum ).

I'll see my options.

 

[magomago]

That ECS supports pretty high.

I really need more of a standard. If it supports anything more than a 1.2GHZ its pretty useless to me because this computer will prolly end up networked to my newer one and i'd like to be able to play CS.

At most i'd like it to support a 1.4 if i ever decided to oc it for some odd reason.


EDIT:

I say that because I need it to be VERY cheap. I can't blast much or else my parents will assume this is my new pc and i don't want that

 

[Peter]

Well if your system doesn't even have the hdparm command, then your IDE performance is NOT tuned and you're running PIO mode 0! Which obviously sucks beyond description (2 MB/s). This problem is not going to go away if you swap mainboards. Fix it, and watch that K6-2 suddenly grow wings.

 

[Frodolives]

Originally posted by: magomago

But anyway, I'll check out both of the Mobos but look specifically at the Jetway 849BS ...and now that i think of it I have a 200Watt system (hehe when i got my geforce2 it said 250 minimum ).

lol, you think that's bad, my last system was a typical HP heap with a lousy 90 watt ps (and with integrated video, no agp ugh) and I ran a gf2 pci on it


btw, I'm currently using an Asus A7V133 (rev 105/bios 1009) that I got about 10 months ago from newegg as a "refurb" for around $50 shipped. Outstanding!

 

[faZZter]

My wifes computer uses an Abit KT7E. They claim it doesn't officially support 133MHz bus, but you can run it and it works just fine. Don't know if you can still get em but they gotta be cheap by now. Has a blue PCB too, looks nice.