motherboard newbie needs answers

[CanOWorms]

I'm planning on upgrading my system and plan on getting a new motherboard & chip (AMD). I have a question on the RAM. I see all these posts for PC100, PC133, PC2100, DDR, etc. Which type is the best? Is there a motherboard that supports it and an AMD chip?

Thanks a lot.

 

[Athlon4all]

Ok, all of the memory you'll ready about is support by AMD, except for PC800, PC700, PC600 which is bad RDRAM and only used by Pentium 4. Here's a description om the Athlon mem types:

PC100: Runs at 100MHz, isn't popular anymore, lowest performance, and has given away to PC133
PC133: Runs at 133MHz, most common RAM, low latency
PC1600: Run at a 100MHz DDR bus, meaning that it really runs at double it's clock thus getting the effective rate of 200MHz, isn't a good option, PC133 most of the time performs better with Athlon
PC2100: Runs at 133MHz DDR (266MHz effective), Is the highest performing type of RAM on Athlon, costs the same as PC133, you should get it.

For a mobo that supports PC2100, either Epox 8k7a, or MSI's K7 Master are great DDr boards, for PC133 Iwill's KK266-R, and Asus' A7V133 are also great mobo's.

 

[wfbberzerker]

i would recommend pc2100 + epox 8k7a motherboard, thats what im getting

 

[AMDPwred]

I have the Epox 8k7a and 256 Crucial PC2100 DDR. Definately go with the PC2100 its worth the very little extra money have to spend on the mobo and the RAM.

 

[GremlinHater]

Athlon4all gave a very good overview, if you pick SDRAM or DDR Athlon4all gave you top picks.

 

[CanOWorms]

Great! Thanks for the help.

What kind of AMD processor can the 8k7a support, megahertz-wise?

Also, what kind of power supply should be used?

 

[neuralfx]

it can support the fastest ones out there now.. and it's and oc'er's board as well.. any socket-a cpu you get should work
-neural

 

[Quickfingerz]

300W power supply is reccomended.

 

[CanOWorms]

I did a search on the Epox 8k7a and was reading the threads and some of them mention the Epox 8k7a+ that has RAID. I don't plan on using RAID in the beginning, but it would be nice to have that extra feature. Do I have to use a RAID setup or can I just use a normal 1 hard drive?

 

[Grendel99]

You can just use one hard drive if you don't want to use the RAID. Also, look on AMD's website for recommended powersuplies. Anything over 300w should be enough. But just make sure its a good quality PS. Like Enermax, Antec, or Sparkle etc. Highest processor you can get right now on the Athlon side is 1.4GHz....