Motherboard Question

[DarkKobold]

I am putting a computer together for the first time. I have been doing deal hunting, thanks to the Anandtecher's Hot Deal people. (Thx for the 234 dollar 12x burner!) I haven't seen much on Motherboards, but I did find this one for 124 at Onvia...

VIA KX-133+686A SLOTA ATHLON UPTO 768MB ATX 6PCI 1ISA 200MHZ

http://www.onvia.com/usa/products/i...archText=Athlon&IdCatalog=2485523#Details

But my problem is, how do I get specs on this Motherboard? Is it a good one? How do I compare motherboards?

Also, is NEC a reliable place to buy?

 

[Ulysses]

It appears, from your link, that it's a Tyan Trinity K7 (S2380), which is an ATX single processor Slot A mobo using the VIA Apollo KX133 chipset. It is designed for the old Athlon up to 1 GHz.

This is probably a good mobo since Tyan is known for quality. But their boards are usually not setup for aggressive overclocking.

A more serious problen is that the board can only be used with the old Athlon, not the new Athlon or Thunderbird or Duron. If you want to go with an AMD CPU then you should look for a mobo based on the VIA Apollo KT133 chipset and having a Socket A connecter for the CPU. You can put a new Athlon or a Duron in those and have an up to date system, not an outdated one. Boards for those new CPU's are just coming out.

Go to AT's home page and look up their monthly Buyer's Guides - there's a high end one & a value one.

First pick the processor you're interested in, then look for mobos to match.