Need Help on Athlon CPU / Motherboards.

[MaDHaVoK]

Here is the deal. I want a Athlon Thunderbird CPU.

Whats is the best one out of these 3?
AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1GHz 266MHz Bus Socket A PGA = $96
AMD Thunderbird 1.2GHz 266MHz Bus Socket A processor = $111
AMD Thunderbird 1GHz 266MHz Bus Socket A processor 256K = $125

Basically are the 2 1 Ghz Cpus different other than one is a retail version and comes with a heat sink and fan?? If not does the 1.2 Ghz out perform the 1 Ghz with cache??

Also I am not sure on what motherboard to go with. I do not want on-board audio.
I will be hooking up 2 small hard drives. 8 gb and 5 gb, but will upgrade in the future. Will Raid benefit me??
Abit KT7A Raid - Via KT-133A Chipset 200MHz / 266MHz FSB = $134

I want to keep my sdram and eventually upgrade, and will this run on a 230 watt power supply or should i upgrade my case with a 300 w??

If you have any thoughts or help i would really appreciate it, I haven't built a system in a while and really don't have any reviews of this stuff.
Thanks anandtech members.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

All those tbirds are the same exept the 1.2(clocked higher). They all have the same cache, same interface, etc. Personally I would stay away from abit(I got an A7V133). You should probably be fine on that 230 watt.

 

[Odin30]

If yer ever gonna put a higher chip in there ie-above 1400 mhz and if you have 4 or more case fans along with at least a hd cdrw and dvd i would get at least a 400 watt p.s.
I have a chip that runs fine at 1400 but if i go higher i get problems i tried it with a 430 watt enermax and it broke 1600!

 

[MaDHaVoK]

So i think i'll get the 1.2 Thunderbird but what motherboard? Is raid good?

 

[SpeedTester]

<< I want to keep my sdram and eventually upgrade, and will this run on a 230 watt power supply or should i upgrade my case with a 300 w?? >>




You will most definitely want to upgrade that Powersupply to 300-400 Watt Range.

 

[hairygit]

<< So i think i'll get the 1.2 Thunderbird but what motherboard? Is raid good? >>



Depends on what RAID you are using.
RAID0 cheap but fairly pointless unless you are using massively intensive HD operations.

Read storagereview.com
Very good

 

[MaDHaVoK]

Thanks for the website, i'll check it out, can i get oppinions for a motherboard to go with 1.2 Ghz thunderbird athlon?? I would prefer one without audio.