Need to buy a Duron NOW. Best place to get a motherboard and CPU/Fan.. possibly a cheap combo

[Shudder]

While a combo isn't that important, if anyone knows of a place, reliable place (anyone can just look on pricewatch) for a good priced Combo or separate parts, I'd love to hear about it.

I'm looking at a Duron 650 and MSI k7t pro. Thanks. I will buy the bloody thing in an hour or 2 : )

 

[GT1999]

Multiwave Direct has always been great to me.

 

[DaddyG]

TCWO may not be the cheapest but they are very reliable.

 

[owensdj]

Shudder, I'd recommend you take a look at Dynasty Express(http://www.dynastyexpress.com/). They have the Duron 650MHz for $78.75 and the MSI K7T Pro mainboard for $128. I've bought a lot of components from Dynasty in the past, and they seem like a good company.

Shudder, so why are you getting the MSI K7T Pro? If I was picking a Duron or Thunderbird mainboard, I'd go with the Asus A7V. It's more expensive at $146.25, but has an AGP Pro rather than 4X slot and supports ATA100 rather than ATA66. Asus also probably has a better reputation for quality than Micro-Star International.

 

[Kulgan]

Not just that but if you (hopefully) get a chip with the multiplier pins still in place, an Abit KT7 or ASUS A7V will give an option to change the multiplier. The MSI board won't let you do that (well at least without having to modify the L2/L3 bridges or rigging up your own dip switch banks - not recommended)

 

[prontospyder]

Got the retail Duron 700 (3 years warranty) for $70 shipped.
Got the MSI K7T Pro from Onvia for $136 shipped.

Both of those retailers ships quick and are very reliable.

 

[Shudder]

Thanks everyone. I figured all it would take would be a little pencil or wire to connect two pins to unlock the multiplier on the duron.. or do you need the MB to then set the multiplier? Doesn't really matter too much to me, but if it doesn't work out there's always Eb@y

 

[Ulysses]

Yes. You should have a motherboard that facilitates the adjustment of the CPU multiplier - connecting the L1 bridges alone will not do it. The MSI K7T Pro does not permit this, AFAIK, unless the BIOS has been updated to allow it.

See AnandTech review.

And of course all the chip's pins have to be there, as pointed out above. See this image of the missing pins.

 

[Doggiedog]

One place not to buy is Neutron USA.

They are the worst! If you want to return something they have to test it out before you get credit it for it and if they say there is nothing wrong with it they will charge you for the testing. That kind of return policy is bull. Stay Away from them!

 

[K6 3]

Another vote for Multiwave Direct !!! They got my Asus A7V w/duron600 and cooling fan bundle off to me promptly and for a good price! And thats not the best part. I had trouble with the 3rd pci slot on the motherboard. Didn't want to work right, I don't know if I zapped it or it just came that way. So I call mwave to get an rma, expected to have to go through a bunch of sh!t to it replaced. Told the rep I wanted an rma #, she asked for a brief description of the prob, and then gave me the number ! I couldn't beleive how easy it was. You can bet I'll order from them again, at least SOMEONE still beleives in customer service still.

Heres what I suggest you order: get an a7v w/dipswitches for adjusting multiplier, with a duron of your choice. I would personally go with the 600 if you are planning on overclocking, as all the different speed grades overclock about the same. Mine is running at 900 right now with the dinky cooler it came with at 1.69 volts. It is also stable at 950 but gets a little too warm for my liking so I'm waiting for a better cooler. Mwave seems to have gotten a hold of some GOOD chips. Hope this helps

 

[Dyflam]

I purchased the Duron 600MHz with heat sink and fan and Asus A7V with dip switches for $235 including S&H to FL. Having some problems with setup but a fair deal from Micro-Pro.

 

[AmigaMan]

I love my new MSI K7T Pro from Multiwave. I had originally bought a Biostar for my Duron 650 from them. It had a couple problems with the IDE connectors so I RMA'd it for the MSI board and have been running well now for the past couple days.

owensdj, why do you think Asus has a better rep for quality than MSI? Just wondering because you say that, but don't back it up with any facts. Do you have proof of this?

 

[AmigaMan]

Stinkin double post.

 

[Doomsday]

Micro-pro.com, they're based in Ohio, and you can add a 3 year warranty through them. I also have the MSI pro board. I recommend you go with the 600MHz, because the MSI board comes with Fuzzy Logic2 and that can slightly overclock it to 650MHz without even giving a power increase. I've heard rumor that MSI is planning on adding a BIOS update for the multipiers, but you'd still have to mess with the golden bridges. Just a note that the ABIT board is the best. I bought the MSI one before it came out, and I've been kicking myself ever since.

 

[Jack568]

I would go with Multiwave Direct. They might not always have the lowest prices, but if something goes wrong you know they will help you out. I have ordered from them twice and everything arrived on time. That is good considering they are in California and I am in NJ.

 

[Shudder]

I'd probably stay away from Ohio companies simply because that would add about 9 bucks to sales tax for me

And I'm not a big overclocker or anything. Hopefully by the time I get sick of the 600 there will be a bios upgrade. I probably should have gotten the Abit board, but after everything I've heard from the k7m, k7v, and k7a (or whatever asus's socket a board is) I'm going to stay away from the Asus line.

 

[owensdj]

AmigaMan, that's a good question. It's my impression that Asus generally has better quality mainboards than MSI, based on the numerous mainboard reviews I've read and on personal experiences with Asus mainboards. Asus tends to get more positive reviews than MSI in terms of the stability of their mainboard products. Also, I've seen many different reviewers acknowledge how good Asus products tend to be.

 

[Doomsday]

ASUS products are good. The MSI board was one of the first socket A board to come out, and it was the most stabble, then ASUS released theirs at least a month later, and that one became the most stable followed by the MSI board. The MSI board has better performance specs then the ASUS board, unless you get the Promise 100 controller for the ASUS, and finally ABIT released theirs a few weeks ago. And that one became the most stable. MSI still has yet to release the K7T pro's big brother, the master. I don't know as much about that, but it may surpass the ABIT board. But right now I'd buy the ABIT board.

 

[T0mahawk]

I recently ordered a 12x dvd-rom(oem) from multiwave, got the package in, opened it, and lo and behold did it have they dvd-rom in there. Only problem was that it was in a logitech mouse box. Now, i don't know about you guys, I at least would expect a white box, not a mouse box. Makes you think if it was a pull...

I don't care about it, it was for a buddy, but I don't like the way mwave is moving. I don't really care either, cuz i usually just buy my stuff whenever there's a hotdeal posted for it...

 

[hans007]

the asus a7v is at onvia for $159

 

[Shudder]

Well, I got the Duron 600 and MSI k7t pro. The sent me the wrong Duron, a 650, but you didn't hear me complain

Been pretty stable so far. I'm having some trouble in UT or Deus Ex with it sometimes not quitting back to the desktop correctly. It has the same problem as before where when I exit my monitor is completely blank until I run the mouse over the taskbar icons or open another program. Something with beta 3dfx drivers I'm sure. Sometimes though the machine seems to lock up, but I'm willing to bet it's because I can't see whatever the heck the screen says.

Thanks for the rec's everyone. I don't know if my Duron 650 is faster than my Classic 600 (in an Irongate Chipset) but it probably is and it's definitely not slower. Anyone know of any benchmarks comparing the Athlon classic and duron? (preferably on a AMD750 MB)