Older Tech question: mobo/Barton compatibility

[niall]

I'm looking for a complete upgrade, but not to any bleeding-edge tech, partly to keep compatibility with older parts, partly for budgetary reasons. I'll remind that I'm in Canada, so prices are higher and availability is lower. And Newegg doesn't deliver up here.

My question: looking at older motherboards, how worried should I be about Barton compatibility? Or is this a non-issue? I'm looking at a desktop Barton 2500 non-overlocked, and want a motherboard that will be compatible with as few frills as possible: no firewire, RAID, digital audio (MCP-T, S/PDIF) or the like.

My latest in a revolving sight of motherboards is the MSI KT4AV, for which its 333 FSB max is not a concern since I'd be running the Barton and memory at rated speed anyway (if I can still find some 2700 RAM). But looking at different user manuals, some specifically state "Barton core support" and others don't, so I'm unsure if there's a hardware requirement for it. An online search has yielded no results.

I looked at more recent boards, such as the Asus A7N8X-X, but as for now I intend on keeping Win98SE as my OS, I want something perhaps a touch older which will have fewer problems. When I do upgrade, it would be to 2000, which won't have problems with any older or newer board. But right now, I can't afford both hardware and software upgrades, and hardware is more pressing (Asus P5A anyone?).

Thanks!

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: niall
I'm looking for a complete upgrade, but not to any bleeding-edge tech, partly to keep compatibility with older parts, partly for budgetary reasons. I'll remind that I'm in Canada, so prices are higher and availability is lower. And Newegg doesn't deliver up here.

My question: looking at older motherboards, how worried should I be about Barton compatibility? Or is this a non-issue? I'm looking at a desktop Barton 2500 non-overlocked, and want a motherboard that will be compatible with as few frills as possible: no firewire, RAID, digital audio (MCP-T, S/PDIF) or the like.

My latest in a revolving sight of motherboards is the MSI KT4AV, for which its 333 FSB max is not a concern since I'd be running the Barton and memory at rated speed anyway (if I can still find some 2700 RAM). But looking at different user manuals, some specifically state "Barton core support" and others don't, so I'm unsure if there's a hardware requirement for it. An online search has yielded no results.

I looked at more recent boards, such as the Asus A7N8X-X, but as for now I intend on keeping Win98SE as my OS, I want something perhaps a touch older which will have fewer problems. When I do upgrade, it would be to 2000, which won't have problems with any older or newer board. But right now, I can't afford both hardware and software upgrades, and hardware is more pressing (Asus P5A anyone?).

Thanks!

Yeah! A fellow Canuck.

To answer your question:

The KT4AV-L (L for lan) is a fine motherboard as it is a KT400 chipset board. It works great with a barton.

Now as for those CDN prices: that board should go for less than $100 CDN.

If you need an online place to shop, go to Canada's version of Newegg:

http://www.ncix.com

 

[niall]

Heh, thanks for the confirmation; sometimes compatibility can be tricky. NCIX, like most online vendors, only carries recent stuff, at prices very similar to local stores - not counting Expresspost shipping from Vancouver. So it tends to not be worth it, unfortunately.

It doesn't have any MSI K4 boards, for example - but yes, I found it locally for $77, definitely cheaper than the A7N8X-X at $97 (105 at NCIX...).

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: niall
Heh, thanks for the confirmation; sometimes compatibility can be tricky. NCIX, like most online vendors, only carries recent stuff, at prices very similar to local stores - not counting Expresspost shipping from Vancouver. So it tends to not be worth it, unfortunately.

It doesn't have any MSI K4 boards, for example - but yes, I found it locally for $77, definitely cheaper than the A7N8X-X at $97 (105 at NCIX...).

This is true. For me though most local stores can't get the newest stuff.

That board is no longer made I believe. I sold one to a friend to make his computer. I put a XP2800+ and 512 megs of PC2700. That thing flies for what it is. The 6 channel 5.1 surround onboard sound is pretty good too. I got him a set of Logitech Z640s.

Flash to the latest BIOS for better support and updates.

Oops! I just realised you are refering to the KT4AV(L). I thought you meant the KT4V(L) which is what I used. Same basic thing just slightly better memory performance because of the KT400A chipset.

 

[niall]

Yeah, London isn't known as Tech Central, while Ottawa has a plethora of little indie computer stores, so enough competition to keep things interesting. They eventually get the newest tech, but meanwihle manages to keep older tech around as 'new' for a while.

Yeah, I'd think the 400A chipset would be better; I don't nede the Lan, but I can't find the version without it, so oh well.

But now I have more searching to do, since I finally bought my video card, and have to check for ITS compatibility too - it's an older Asus nVidia card (GeForce 4 Ti4400 factory-overclocked), so I'm half-wondering if a MB with nVidia chipset would minimise compatibility problems... so the Asus A7N8X-X is back as a contender. The match continues!

Thanks for the input, though, it's well appreciated!

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: niall
Yeah, London isn't known as Tech Central, while Ottawa has a plethora of little indie computer stores, so enough competition to keep things interesting. They eventually get the newest tech, but meanwihle manages to keep older tech around as 'new' for a while.

Yeah, I'd think the 400A chipset would be better; I don't nede the Lan, but I can't find the version without it, so oh well.

But now I have more searching to do, since I finally bought my video card, and have to check for ITS compatibility too - it's an older Asus nVidia card (GeForce 4 Ti4400 factory-overclocked), so I'm half-wondering if a MB with nVidia chipset would minimise compatibility problems... so the Asus A7N8X-X is back as a contender. The match continues!

Thanks for the input, though, it's well appreciated!

I actually found a good supplier here that can actually get the newer stuff. Even OCZ ram.

As for the card: it doesn't matter. I used Nvidia cards on VIA chipsets and on Nvidia chipsets. It made no difference at all.

The KT4V-L that I got for my friend uses a MSI FX5200 video card with 128 megs of ram.