Help me decide some upgrades plz

[Lokan]

I currently have two AMD 800's that I'm looking to upgrade to. I have about $700-$800 to spend to upgrade both and am trying to get the best "bang for the buck" upgrade, while keeping system stability in mind.

With that in mind, I'm looking at 512mb PC2100 DDR ram, KT266A Mobo, and an Athlon XP.

Using Newegg.com for some price guidance (and because they're rated higher than some of the other sites on pricewatch), I can get 512mb Kingston Ram, a Shuttle kt266a mobo, and an athlon 1700+ shipped for around $740.

However, I'd really like to get the 1800's and an Epox board.

My main questons are: Is the Epox a better board than the shuttle, speed and stability wise? OC'ing is NOT a concern as I don't plan on doing that (no need w/ those speeds and stability is very important). What are the advantages/disadvantages to both board? Is there a better choice?

Another question: Is Kingston ram decent? I know Crucial in anand preferred, but currently Kingston is about $16 cheaper for what I need per PC.

Yet another question =) : I have 512mb PC133 ram in my system now. Will I see a huge rise in performance with DDR ram? If not, what *good* mobo's support sdram and athlon XP's?

And finally; If you know of a good deal that will still be around in the next 2-4 days with any of the above mentioned items, please let me know 🙂 I'm looking to get the most I can but money is tighter than what I expected and the Ram prices jumping hurt me a bit more than I can to admit 🙂

Thanks in advance and I look forward to reading some replies.

 

[Migroo]

Ram: Kingston RAM is very good. I would get the cheaper of the two (Crucial or Kingston)

Board and 133 memory - AFAIK the Athlon XP required DDR memory? I might be completely mistaken here, but I havent seen any XP boards with support for 133 memory.

 

[Lokan]

Good to know I can trust Kingston ram. What about the two classes of Athlon XP's, is it worth it to shell out the extra $$ for the 1800+ vs. the 1700+, or even the 1600+ for that matter? And what about a stable MB?

 

[BFG10K]

Board and 133 memory - AFAIK the Athlon XP required DDR memory? I might be completely mistaken here, but I havent seen any XP boards with support for 133 memory.

Almost any Socket A motherboard can support Palominos provided the vendor has an updated BIOS version for it.

 

[Lokan]

Bump for more guidance. I know you all are knowledgable in this area and I just can't afford to make the wrong move.

If I do use the pc133 ram on an older mobo, will I suffer in performance, at least notably?

I just need to know what's the best value right now and if I'll see a huge difference between 1800 and 1700 and the two mobo's. Thanks

 

[uhohibrokeit]

the epox and the shuttle are both great boards. ive used many more of the shuttle ones because they are a great price and have nicer features. even in my main game system i run the shuttle with an XP 1600+ on it with win2k. its rock solid and very nice. got two 256mb sticks back when i got it, and i love having 2 more slots open for later upgrades, over just one more slot that the epox would have. plus the shuttle costs much less, as the 6 PCI slot version of the Epox costs about $25 more

also, both of these boards require DDR memory. when doing memroy intensive things the DDR is noticibly better than the old SDR memory

 

[Lokan]

Ok, so shuttle is a stable board then.

Would I then see much difference between the 1700 and 1800 cpu's?

 

[Lokan]

...bump for more response? Sorry to seem pesistant, but I can't find to much on the benefits of the 1700 vs the 1800.

 

[Migroo]

The chip difference is just speed and cost

To be honest I find out the MHz / Pound (or dollar) ratio, and get the best one.

ATM in the UK the best value is debatable between the 1600+ and 1700+. I am upgrading in January and will probably get a 1600+.