need help on picking a mobo

[tjr2mental]

Here is the situation. I want to buil a computer, but I still have not decided on what board or processor to get. I do know that I will be getting a T-Bird, but I do not know if it will be a 1.0, 1.1, or 1.2 GHz yet. I was looking at the Asus a7v mobo, but I do not know if that is the best board for what I need. Do I need a mobo taht has RAID? What is Raid?

Also, what type of box would be the best for me. I know that I need a 300Watt power supply min. but I should I get a 400Watt to be on the safe side?

Any Ideas?

 

[StickHead]

If you don't know what RAID is you probably don't need it. The A7V is a fine board, I would rate the MSI, EPox, and ABit boards a little higher. You may want to wait and get a KT133A board.

You will want an ATX case with like you said at least an 300w AMD approved p/s. 400w might be overkill unless you have lots of hard drives, cd-roms and fans.

 

[bluesky]

You can choose from MSI ,Asus and Abit. Those are most popular at least among this forum's users. Also you could get KT133A based boards, which are coming out on market right now, if you want more performance.

If you buy a case and a power supply separate, you have choice for 330W and 350W also. I think if you get over 1 gig and put 2 hard drives and 2 cd drives you'd better get 330W or 350w, just to be in safer side.
I have 300W, but if I buy a new PS, I would definitely get 330, or 350W.

 

[tjr2mental]

What is the diffrence between the 133 and the 133a? I have searched for it, but I can not find anything that really says what the diffrence is. Also, it seemes that there is diffrent types of 133a boards made by the same people. Some have raid, some do not. SOme have sound and others don't. I know that you said that I do not need a raid board, but would I be better off going with one that had sound or just getting a seperate sound card? Is there a special type of ram that I would need?