Here's what I got...

[shilala]

I have an AMD Thunderbird 1400, an Abit KT7A, Crucial 512 PC133 SDRAM, two 40 gig maxtor 7200 rpm 2mb cahe hdd's, an Enlight 300 watt psu, and a 4 channel creative labs sound card.
The board only supports up to 4x agp.
If you were staring at this pile of stuff, what direction would you go with it?
Does the board bottleneck the psu and ram? What would be the best vga card I can put to it before it bottlenecks?
Is it worth building this out, or should I dump the whole pile on FS/FT?
Any suggestions or plans would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[PhoenixOrion]

I wouldn't put more money into the box.

- based on my current needs and other existing, faster boxes I own.

(you have to ask yourself on above statement)

 

[Fern]

Sell the mob/cpu/ram

 

[Duvie]

Based on that and assuming the 1400mhz tbird is the 266fsb model I would say the board and the ram since you should be running DDR ram by now and the bandwidth of 133mhz memory is way too low.

I would say a cheap upgrade may be to get an XP in the 2100+ range with a decent DDR mobo. Any upgrade whether it be to A64 or Intel P4's is pretty much going to require DDR memory anyways.

I guess you could always get a cheap ECS mobo and 1 stick of DDR and that could help a bit but nothing monumental. BUt hey, if the 1400mhz Tbird is all the computing power you need then why waste the money on a new cpu....Get what you can afford but anyway you look at it the mobo and the ram are the foundation. You could get this now and still leave yourself upgrade room by getting one that will except XP,s, Bartons and 333 to 400mhz fsbs....

 

[shilala]

This pile of stuff is left over from an upgrade that I did for a customer. It's literally "a pile of stuff".
I guess what I'm thinking "is it worth throwing a few bucks at this pile of stuff to build a box and resell it".
There's 5 computers and two laptops in the house already, and it would only be an upgrade to one of them. That's the one sitting in the basement.
It'd make a nice little machine for someone's mom.
I'd probably have 100 to 150 bucks finishing it out.
I suppose I could dump the parts in an old packard bell case I have in the basement, and just find a vga card for it.
What's the greatest legacy card this board/mobo would support?
Oh, yup, it's the 266 fsb chip.

 

[mafioso]

sell it in the paper to some old lady and tell her its a badass computer, u can probably get at least 300 for it, thats a steal!! put it in a case with some flashy neons and a brand new black keyboard and some cheapo wireless optical mouse, odds are that there not going to use it for anything other than internet ususage, and there not gonn afind a computer that cheap anywhere else other than a 500$ wallmart special, in that case your computer with an abit board and some real name parts is actually better and more reliable.ive did this with many old systems including a old compaq celeron system (1200)mhz and i sold it for 275 buks, to a computer power user its worth pennies but to grandma or some moronic non-gamer college student its worth 300 all day long.

 

[mitaiwan82]

Originally posted by: mafioso
sell it in the paper to some old lady and tell her its a badass computer, u can probably get at least 300 for it, thats a steal!! put it in a case with some flashy neons and a brand new black keyboard and some cheapo wireless optical mouse, odds are that there not going to use it for anything other than internet ususage, and there not gonn afind a computer that cheap anywhere else other than a 500$ wallmart special, in that case your computer with an abit board and some real name parts is actually better and more reliable.ive did this with many old systems including a old compaq celeron system (1200)mhz and i sold it for 275 buks, to a computer power user its worth pennies but to grandma or some moronic non-gamer college student its worth 300 all day long.

:thumbsdown:useless post and user...

If you don't need any more computers, you can keep these parts as back-up in case any of the existing components crap out. Or sell it as parts/system. You should be able to put in AGP 8X cards (backward compatibility) in that mobo as long as it supports the correct voltage.