new processor.........

[bullion416]

My motherboard might have just fried my processor. I have a 1.4 Ghz Amd Athlon (t-bird). I want to stick with an AMD processor.....what one would you recomend for the money? I don't want to spend more that about $130 or $150. Also, I noticed that some of the AMD XP processors use a 333 bus speed. The current bus speed on my system is 266 and I am using PC2100 DDR (266 Mhz). If I were to buy an AMD XP processor that uses the 333 bus will that cause a problem with my current system configuration?

 

[amcdonald]

First of all, I'd try to make sure that only your cpu is fried. What happened that destroyed your cpu? The board & memory could also be damaged. See if you can switch out components to determine exactly what doesn't work.
Assuming you only need a new cpu, I wouldn't consider a 333bus cpu. You could run it on your board, but its a waste of money as it would be running at 266.
If I were you, I would take the $150 and buy an nforce2 board and a 1700+ tbred b, and overclock it.
You could upgrade the memory later if you wanted to get a higher fsb.

 

[cow123]

if your motherboard doesnt have a 1/5 divider i guess you would have problems running on a 333ddr bus, otherwise you could try modding the chip or something, increasing multiplier and lowering fsb to 133

 

[bullion416]

MY processor may not be bad, although I won't have a chance to check it on another machine for another week. As far as an nforce2 board...........what band/models do you recomend that are reliable and fairly cheap? Thanks

 

[Jeff7181]

I think the Epox 8RDA is under $100... nice board from what I've heard about it.

 

[amcdonald]

yup, the 8rda+ is $89 shipped from newegg. Its what I'm using right now.

 

[MachoDonut]

The Epox is a solid choice and a good value. If you find that you do need a processor, you can go to eXcalliberPC and get an Abit NF7-S and combo it with a 1700+ or a 2100+ with a discount. It has the benefit of guaranteed stepping.

Link

 

[amcdonald]

Donut, I looked into that combo and thought about recommending it.
While the nf7-s 2.0 is better than the 8rda+, the combo you mentioned is $200 shipped (YMMV a dollar or two)
It would be $30 cheaper to order the 8rda+ from newegg and that chip from excaliberpc.
Thats fairly close to your $150 expectation bullion.