Chipset Recommendation and M/B

[dt]

I am upgrading my system to a pIII800+ system. I would like any info people have on various chipsets. I am trying to be open minded about chipsets because I have had problems with non intel chipsets in the past. I tend to like Intel if i buy an intel processor.

I am leaning towards the Asus CUSL2 Mother board

 

[dakost]

You have already choosen the cpu, so there isn't really too much to choose in terms of motherboards and chipsets ! i810 motherboards are a joke, BX motherboards are very fast but with the lack of 1/2 mode for the AGP thus they are a bit restrictive. So all you're left with is the i815 motherboards.
The cusl2 is a good choise, the cusl2-c without the onboard no good video adaptor an even better one, you can also have a look for the new Abit SAR6 with softmenu iii and raid.

 

[dt]

Thanks for the imput.

What is your opinion on AMD's. What Chipset and M/B would you recommend?

I have a Matrox g400 video card, External USR modem, 3com 905 NIC, adaptec 2940Pro SCSI, Sound blaster live sound card, Yamahah SCSI CDRW and Epson 1200s SCSI scanner.

I do a lot of photoshop and may get into doing Video editing for home movies using Adobe Premier software.

 

[KaiLord]

Dt,

Wait for somemore DDR platforms to show there face, then we'll see which of them are better.

 

[paulip88]

But, if you need to buy now, go with the MSI K7T Pro2a with the KT133 chipset. But if you can wait, better chipsets should be arriving very soon.

 

[dakost]

If you don't want to stay with intel, you have the following options :
1) Get an Abit KT7 (Via KT133 chipset)and an AMD T-bird at 1 GHz (that should cost you less than the cusl2 and a piii 800 or even p iii 750) and you can also connect the L2 bridges of the T-bird and overclock it, you can also buy an verclocked guaranteed cpu.
2) Wait around one month untill the VIA KT133A chipset motherboards come out and get one which is overclockable then according to initial reviews you could overclock at higher fsb frequencies, up to 133 fsb if you're lucky. In that case a T-bird 850 should be a better choice if you overclock because you could get it up to 10*100=1000 or maybe 8*133=1064 (if you're lucky or if you buy a guarantted 850 T-bird at 1GHz) or try combinations inbetween. Arguably a 1 GHz cpu should
be more difficult to take up to 133 fsb since T-birds are getting very hot above 1.2 GHz.
3) Wait even longer and get a DDR motherboard, DDR memory and a 133 fsb rated T-bird. The current price of DDr in the few places which sell it is double that of SDRAM at the moment, so its probably better to wait for them to drop.
To find out which is the best solution you can have a look at :
http://www.ocworkbench.com/
they have a test -review of the Epox KT133A new motherboard and comparison with bot KT133 motherboards and the Iwill DDR motherboard, there is also some overclocking information. Also Anatech has a review of the iwill ddr motherboard. If you look around online you can find furhter information.

Of course, if you wait you have also the option of the VIA 266 DDR motherboard which supports intel cpu's. Some of these will also support both DDR and SDRAM memory (although not running at the same time) so you could keep your old memory untill DDR prices go down).
Best of luck with your decision. You got a number of choices there !

 

[bupkus]

Guys,

I'm afraid I'm lost in this discussion of memory bus clock, FSB, cpu buses, etc. Can someone post a URL to a couple of sites that provide a good tutorial on these concepts?

Thanks!