Motherboard Suggestions

[zimmie6576]

I am currently weighing the pros and cons of a motherboard/processor upgrade. I currently have a AMD 1.2 GHZ T-Bird on an ASUS A7V motherboard, with of course PC-133 memory. I am thinking of going with an AMD XP (cost and performance are good), or waiting for the next group from AMD in a few months (the hammers are too far off, I probably won't have the money then). I have a few questions.
First, is my upgrade needed? I don't want to waste the money if I don't need to.

Second, what motherboard can you guys suggest? I've looked at a few, but none seem to have exactly what I need. The A7V has an onboard Promise controller that gives two more IDE connectors (allows 4 more devices), and I am using one of these for my secondary hard drive. The main IDE connectors are full, as I have a hard drive, CD-RW, DVD drive, and Zip drive (I do use this). And no, a combo CD-RW/DVD drive is not something I would consider. I am looking for a motherboard that will allow me to keep all of my devices. I'm not sure if the currently more or less standard RAID controllers would work for my needs (each hard drive is independant, no striping, each has 3 partitions).

I thank you in advance for your suggestions and input.

 

[Boonesmi]

if your current system does everything you want, then there really is no need to upgrade


but if you do want to upgrade i would get a board based on the kt333 chipset (you will need to buy ddr ram though)
the epox 8k3a+ has an onboard promise controller that can either be used as RAID, or as a plain ATA controller (meaning it can be used exactly like the promise controller on the a7v, plain ata)

as for performance you will see a large increase by going to the kt333 chipset in relation to your current kt133

**edit** oops i just realized a mistake the 8k3a+ has a highpoint controller not a promise... but still you can use it as a plain ata controller just like your current setup

 

[cipher00]

Well, my 2¢ is that your setup appears to be fine - 'course, it depends on what you do with it. I can't see huge performance gains from upgrading now. Is there something in particular you need, like better graphics (at which point, perhaps a card upgrade is in order....)