Mobo/CPU recommendations

[Nevyn522]

Hi all -

I've been an Intel baby up till this point, but the pricing on the AMD processors is just too tempting.

I'm looking to upgrade my 400MHz PII with PC100 RAM, so I'm only expecting to carry over my peripherals.

I'm (obviously) looking at Socket A boards, with at least 2 RAM slots, preferably more. I need at least 5 PCI slots, preferably 6, and one AGP (at least 2X). I have no need of onboard sound, as I have a brand new Soundblaster Live card. I would like to use DDR RAM, but if someone can give me a conclusive reason to avoid it... well, I won't have my feelings hurt. I would like the OPTION to overclock, although I am not likely to (at least at first... ).

I'm on a bit of a tight budget, however, so I'm trying to find a reasonably good deal. I can get RAM reasonably cheaply, but am unsure what motherboard to get.

Unfortunately, I'm not really able to find any reviews of the motherboards that are out there. I've seen a couple of comments on different boards in various threads, primarily in the Hot Deals forum, but very few recent reviews. Since I'm sure you readers have bought motherboards recently, I figure I should go to you for information on the most recent boards.

The AMD 1.2GHz at 266MHz is at just over $100, so that looks like the chip for me to get.

So which motherboard should I look at? I'll take any pointers -- boards to avoid, to look at, etc.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Boonesmi]

epox 8k7a
high quality board, 6 pci slots, only 2ddr slots, 4x agp
supports duron/tbird(200)/tbird(266)/athlon4
it does have onboard sound(most new boards do) but its easy to disable.
it also has lots of overclocking options.

NOTE: there are several good ddr boards out right now. this is just my preference

 

[Einz]

i agree, either the epox or asus a7m

 

[NelsonMuntz]

I agree, the Epox offers a lot of bang for the buck. I just bought one from Newegg.com and it has been great so far. Another one I looked at was the Gigabyte DDR solution they had on thenerds.net because it had creative sound built in instead of just the AC97. It costs about $30 more, but if you don't have to buy a separate audio card, saves money. Whatever you do, have fun!!!

 

[frankroh]

I've had my A7M for a month and I totally recommend it. Got my system up in no time. Almost everything can be set through the BIOS. It allows incremental FSB bus speed control. OC'ed my 1.33 to 1.4 by simply bumping up the 133bus to 140. Took all of 2 minutes. Very easy to OC. Doesn't have clock multiplier dips though.

5 PCI slots, AGP Pro (2x/4x) and 2 UDMA100s. The only drawback I can think of is its price which is $180~$190. Cheaper DDR socket A boards can be had for $120~$130.

DDR RAM is the way to go. Price difference is now irrelevant. Crucial has 256MB DDR 2100 for $59 (free 2day shipping to boot.)