Looking to build AMD system

[Astien]

Hello!

I've read, tons, and tons of reviews, but I would like to get some personal experience opinions.

I'm getting ready to drop about 1200 to 1400 dollars in building a AMD system. I'm looking at building a Thunderbird Athlon-C 1.13gig (266FSB) system. I need a motherboard that supports ATA100. I've looked at a couple MB's, but am undecided. I won't be overclocking, so I just want a fast motherboard, that will keep me gaming for awhile. Any suggestions on the MB, Memory, and a Good GeForce2 GTS card?

Thanks

 

[amdskip]

I like the Asus A7V because it has the promise ATA100 built in and this thing rocks for gaming. Get some good RAM, probably 256MB PC133 name brand, not generic. Make sure to use either IBM DESKSTAR(my choice) or a maxtor hard drive. Have Fun!

 

[KameLeon]

Just wait 2 or 3 weeks, and the new motherboards bases on the KT266 chipset will be out. It'll be a good idea to build a new AMD based system then with DDR memory.

 

[Astien]

I believe that those MB's are already out. Am I mistaken?

 

[KameLeon]

No. The Ali magik and the AMD 760 are out. Not the KT266...
It'll have both DDR and SDRAM slots, and USB 2.0 I believe, and some other stuff worth waiting for...

 

[bigrash]

I have the Asus A7V, and I like it so far. I only had it for 1 month.
I don't know a whole lot about the GeForce GTS, but I have the CardExpert GeForce MX and it's awesome. It was rated #1 in pcworld mag so i bought it. I wasn's sure as to if i should have purchased it at first, but now i have no complaits. it's awesome

 

[Geek]

I just built (actually rebuilt) a system using the MSI K7T Pro2-A. This m/b runs about $106, which is less than the Asus boards. Thus far I am very pleased. Rock solid stability with a fairly good m/b monitoring program included. It supports ATA-100. O/C features are pretty decent as well, but you aren't interested in those.

 

[broadwayblue]

i have been waiting for the asus a7v266 board but i read in another thread that some people don't like the asus boards because they have no multiplier adjustments. is that the case on all of their boards, and if so is that really that big of a deal?

 

[erub]

broadwayblue:

There is no currently a7v266. This is the planned board based on the KT266. I think you know this but I just wanted to clarify for Astien. There is an A7V133, which does have multiplier adjustments built into BIOS as far as I know. Some of the older Asus boards required you to adjust the multiplier via dipswitches, which is a pain, but still can be done.

The A7M266, a DDR board based on the 760 chipset from AMD, which is rumored to being pulled. it is very expensive right now as well, and there is very little reason to go DDR unless one is going to get a 1.1 GHz+ CPU, although that could fit into your budget.

IMHO, best to go with KT133A chipset. Probably the Iwill KK266. I don't think DDR's price is going to come down very much in the next couple of months, at least not to the levels of SDRAM (which is still dropping) and I think it will be a little longer than 3 weeks before we see KT266 boards.

 

[broadwayblue]

erub, the reason i am waiting for the a7v266 is because it will accept pc100/133 or pc1600/2100 ram so i can use the cheap ram that i have now until the ddr comes down in price and not have to upgrade my mb. it's supposed to be out this month...but that's what they all say!

asus a7v266

 

[Howard]

MSI K7T Turbo-R. Great stability, great performance, onboard RAID.

Generic memory will do you fine.

Pick up a GTS from either Hot Deals or For Sale/For Trade (new) forums.

Post here again when you've decided what you want for the system. We'll give you some advice.

 

[tigger80]

yea if you aren't really going to overclock the MSI Trubo is great. Make sure you get good heatsink for those cpus because they get pretty hot.