PIII 700E + MSI 815E Pro or Thunderbird 900 + MSI K7T Pro2

[NFS4]

My Dad wants to buy my old system (wants to rip me off by giving me $200 for everything including my case and innards--but he IS my Dad)

So I have these two choices listed above. Givin the overclocking reputation of each of these chips, which would you recommend for good, clean, stable computing (w/o the need for loud fans)?

 

[LXi]

Tbird 900 + K7T Pro2A, cheaper, faster, better.

The other choice is almost as nice, heck anything with an MSI mobo is nice.

 

[odog]

somehow i doubt NFS4 will be paying for this

but then again... maybe he is regardless, i'd go the TBird route.....theirs a very good chance that it'll hit 1100, while the chances of the 700e doing 933 a very good.... 1100 is kinda well....pretty bloody unlikely

 

[Taz4158]

Tough call. In terms of compatibility and stability go with the P3. I myself am going to change over to AMD for a bit of a difference and the tweakability..

 

[NFS4]

Well, they are exactly the same price using Pricewatch and the Anandtech Buyer's Guide.

I'm almost tempted to go back to Intel, but AMD keeps screaming in my ear

 

[LXi]

Well the Tbird 900 is faster, and Im pretty sure it will OC higher than the 700E.

 

[Leo V]

The MSI should be very stable, thanks to the missing LowPoint (OK, they're Promise, crime is the same!) controller. This cursed controller wreaked havoc on my uncle's Asus A7V with resource conflicts. Thank god MSI didn't follow the crowd, and settled with native ATA100. Keep it simple you big stupids!

PS: My K7T Pro2-A sitting right here, awaiting the retail Tbird1.1GHz...to underclock to 1GHz

 

[LXi]

<<This cursed controller wreaked havoc on my uncle's Asus A7V.>>

I believe the A7V has Promise controllers, which are suppose to be much better than CraPoint. MSI use Promise controllers too.

 

[Windogg]

T-Bird,

EDITED FOR DIALUP USERS

 

[Radboy]

Heard here that 3D gfx has probs with Via chipset in W2K. Not sure how relevant it is, but I'd find out before buying.

 

[Leo V]

You're right, LXi, it's a Promise. But it still caused disastrous instability whenever a soundcard was plugged into a &quot;forbidden&quot; PCI slot (which is like 3 of 6).

 

[LXi]

Leo V:

Exactly, I think it was pretty smart of MSI to stay away from the controller, but their next motherboard lines, K7T Turbo and 815EP Pro-R, will have Promise RAID controllers.

 

[NFS4]

Does the K7T Pro2-A have the KT133A chipset? If so, I might pickup snap that one up

 

[dennilfloss]

It has the KT133. The Turbo will have the 133A.

 

[NFS4]

Damn, the Motherboards forums is LOADED with problems with the K7T Pro2-A. It looks as every other post is about the motherboard:Q

 

[Windogg]

Get the MSI one.

Windogg

 

[LXi]

NFS4:

I wouldnt call them &quot;problems&quot;, these &quot;problems&quot; are easily solved, and its usually not the board's fault.

 

[Remedy]

Yo brandon you notice that too? I dunno if you can blame the users or the batch of boards itself! :Q

 

[NFS4]

Hrmmm....

Pricewatch has a few K7T Pro2-A/Duron 700 retail combos for $175 w/2 year warranty. Doesn't seem like a bad price.

 

[Windogg]

What companies? Are they the ones that lowball you and they jack up the shipping?

MWave has the MSI board + 700Mhz Duron (OEM w/ 1 year warranty) + heatsink for $170 + shipping.

Windogg

 

[NFS4]

I'm just using Pricewatch as a reference...is MWAVE a good company?

 

[GT1999]

The &quot;problem&quot; with as system I was building off of the K7T Pro2-A was easily resolved with Soltek's IDE drivers. I HIGHLY recommend you install them, if you are running Win2000. This system is SMOKIN' now! Great board, great processor - great system! WTG MSI/AMD!

 

[GT1999]

BTW: NFS4, Mwave is the best of the best IMHO. I bought my stuff from there.

 

[NFS4]

Hmmm, my Christmas money is burning a hole in my pocket I might just order the Duron 700/Pro2-A in the morning.

 

[dennilfloss]

A lot of people are getting the K7T, so more people will post. Since people who have no problem don't tend to post just to praise the board, you end up with seemingly too many complaints. Twas like that when the P3B-F was the fashionable board.