Poll: Need System Advice

[senior guy]

My 5-year old PII PC is dragging, and my wife's XMAS gift to me was her approval to spend up to $2.5K on a new system. Not wanting to give her time to reconsider, I need to get going soon.

Anand recently wrote "it?s almost painful to put money down today on an obsolete 100MHz FSB/PC133 (Athlon)platform". However, the 266MHz FSB Thunderbirds and KT133A chipset motherboards are not available yet!

I wouldn't mind waiting another few weeks, but the 266MHz FSB T-Bird - KT133A chipset situation seems all too indefinite. So I'm giving thought to a P3-933EB on a D815EEAAL or CUSL2 mobo, which would result in a true 133MHz FSB solution.

Any advice to my dilemma would be most appreciated (but no "pw" remarks please)!

 

[office boy]

IMO your still better off with a T-bird solution.

 

[LXi]

Proposal 1 (if you can wait)

Tbird 1.2GHz 133MHz FSB
MicroStar K7T Turbo
Kingmax PC150 256MB
Dual IBM 75GXP 45GB RAID
GeForce2 Ultra
SB Live! Platinum 5.1
Modem or NIC
DVD or CD-ROM
12~16x CD-RW


Proposal 2

P3 1GHz
MicroStar 815EP Pro-R
Kingmax PC150 256MB
Dual IBM 75GXP 45GB RAID
GeForce2 Ultra
SB Live! Platinum 5.1
Modem or NIC
DVD or CD-ROM
12~16x CD-RW


Personally I'd much rather wait for 133MHz Tbirds and KT133A.

 

[senior guy]

"Personally I'd much rather wait for 133MHz Tbirds and KT133A"

In my gut I would like to, but when will it happen? And when KT133A mobos finally do hit the street, like any new mobo, the first versions will have their infancy problems.

 

[pdo]

LXI.. Don't think he's a gamer. So a Geforce Ultra would be overkill for him. I don't think you'll need to spend that much on a system since you can probably move some of the old stuff over. I would suggest getting some RAM right now since there's no better time to get them.

 

[office boy]

No kidding, by the time you can get a GOOD kt133a it will be almost summer, heck just get any old kt133MB now, and then eba[/b]y it in 6 months and get a kt133a.

 

[DaddyG]

I don't believe that the KT133A will have much in the way of issues. Its pin compatable with the KT133 so major mobo rework is not required. Maybe some BIOS tweaks but little else. Good mobos from EPOX, SOLTEK will be available very soon. The Gigabyte mobo will open some eyes, first OCing mobo from Gigabyte, just about identical to the MSI PRO2 Turbo.

Why not start out with a Duron, lots of 'em are OCing to 133 and higher. When you finally decide on a 133 cpu, your Duron will sell for $40-50 so your out almost nothing. Durons running at 1 gig with FSB Oc are performing very close to 1 gig BIRDS.

 

[office boy]

If you unlock your CPU (or have one thats already unlocked) there is no reason to get a 133Mhz FSB CPU. Just decrease the multiplier, and bump the FSB.

 

[senior guy]

Correct - I'm not a gamer, nor an oc'er (not that there's anything wrong with either one). I just prefer spending most of my PC-time scanning/editing/printing images.

But at this point, I'm honestly interested in your feelings as to why a P3-933EB on a D815EEAAL or CUSL2 mobo isn't the better way to go...

 

[office boy]

Price.
An i815 board will cost the same as a KT133, and the AMD CPU will be much cheaper (MUCH MUCH) in fact, just looking at pricewatch, a 1.2Ghz T-bird will cost you less then a 933-P3.

 

[GNY]

I"m running a P3 933 on a Asus Cusl 2 board. Also running 256 meg of Crucial PC133 cas 2 mem. Running dual boot Win ME and Win 2000 Pro also running Matrox G400 max. Very Stable System. I LOVE IT !!!!

 

[LXi]

office boy:

<<If you unlock your CPU (or have one thats already unlocked) there is no reason to get a 133Mhz FSB CPU. Just decrease the multiplier, and bump the FSB.>>

Thats not right, 133MHz is not possible on a KT133 board. Your method can only be done on a KT133A board.

Also, GOOD KT133A boards will ship this January, just to give some examples, the K7T Turbo and the Abit KT7A-RAID.


senior guy:

I dont know how to spend all those $2.5k without throwing in stuff like GeForce2 Ultra and Platinum 5.1. Oh yea, a nice 21&quot; isnt a bad investment.

 

[micron]

Just get the AMD 1.2GHZ T-Bird.

 

[senior guy]

Office Boy: While I realize that AMD is cheaper than Intel clock for clock, a 1.2GHz T-bird for the price of a 933MHz Coppermine you say? Give me a break (it's almost $200 more)!

GNY: Wow, I was beginning to believe there were only Athlon guys allowed in this forum!

LXi: Thanks for the good info. (just as I thought re: running a full 133MHz on a KT133 board). BTW, even with a KT133A board, wouldn't you also need a 133/266 FSB T-bird?

 

[office boy]

Where you shopping?
I know that pricewatch prices are not alway what you want to be going by, but they are within about $15 of what can be reasonably found.
Go look for yourself.

PentiumIII 933 = $298
Thunderbird 1.2Ghz = $274

I mean you can get the P3 if you would like, but getting the P3 instead of the tbird because a faster chipset is almost out is like getting a Geo instead of an Porsch because a new turbo 911 is coming out in a couple of months. The T-bird with a KT133 or KT133A will be faster then the P3.


LXi
<<<<If you unlock your CPU (or have one thats already unlocked) there is no reason to get a 133Mhz FSB CPU. Just decrease the multiplier, and bump the FSB.>>

Thats not right, 133MHz is not possible on a KT133 board. Your method can only be done on a KT133A board. >>

I know that the KT133 won't do 133Mhz, But there is no reason any Tbird won't. What I was trying to say is that he would only have to replace his motherboard in the future, and then he could turn down the multiplier on the CPU. And then with his shiny new KT133A he could bump the FSB up to 133 (or more if feeling frisky)

 

[Pyro]

I would wait too personally.

If you are affraid about reconsiderations just withdraw the money now and tell your wife that you already ordered the stuff, but they are outta stock
be creative.

on the system side, how does this sound:

1.2ghz 133FSB tbird
K133a
Live 5.1
ACS56 speakers
Radeon 64mb Vivo
Ati TV wonder
modem/nic
21&quot; monitor
cordless keyboard/mouse
a nice 2.1-3.2 megapixel digital camera.

that's a nice package