Confused about KT133A and KT133

[blues008]

Ok, this has probably been beaten to death. But, I am planning to buy a new 1Ghz Tbird CPU. I don't plan on overclocking; but I will be using PC133Mhz ram. Do I need the KT133A? Would it help with future upgrades??

thanks!
blues

 

[Informant X]

Well if you plan not to overclock then the KT133 would be fine. However the KT133A is more suited to last longer because it supports the new AMD cpu's soon to come out. The KT133 can't get over 115 FSB (In most cases). The KT133A Officialy supports 133 FSB, and has Onboard RAID. (If that suits your fancy) The ram you have is fine. With the KT133 you have the ability to fun the cpu, and ram independently so you could take full advantage of the ram being able to do 133. You can run your ram at FSB +/- 33. So you can run the CPU at 100, and the RAM at 133 on the KT133.

/EDIT

So basically even though the KT133 would be fine for you, i'd definitly spend the extra bux to get the KT133A

 

[blues008]

thanks informant X!

i guess the next logical question is:

do you know when AMD's new chips are expected? i ask because if soon, then i can wait a while. any reviews/previews on the web would be appreciated as well.

blues

 

[Dulanic]

They are the Athlon C CPUs... they run at 266 instead of 200.... youll need the KT133A to use them. There are a few on pricewatch already for 1.2Ghz.

The only REAL difference between the 200 and 266 T-birds are their default... the CPU is really the same. So you can still run a 1Ghz at 266 if you unlock it... its not really OCing... but then again thats up to you.

 

[Informant X]

Yeah the new althons coming out, and the ones out now are exactly the same basically. They just bumb down the multiplyer of the current ones. That's really it. I plan to get a Thunder 1 gighertz now and run it at, at least 133 FSB. If i need to i'll bumb down the multipler a little bit which is all amd will be doing. However you can expect to see some new chips in the next few months i'd say.