Seeking advice on a new AMD setup... gimme your $.02

[cherrytwist]

OK here's the deal.

I'm running a Classic Athlon 650 on a MSI 6195 mobo. I really want a change. The slot A architecture has never "felt" right so I'm thinking of going Duron. I can afford to spend maybe $250 on a cpu/mobo combo after all is said and done.

What are some good combos that would allow me to o/c? I'm not real comfortable hacking into the case of my classic Athlon, so my o/c potential now is next to zero. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Judah7]

I love my Epox 8KTA3+ board. Very stable and good o/c too. The IWILL KK266 is great too. Most of the heavy overclockers like the ABit KT7A or Asus AV133. Most of the KT133A chipset boards can be found for $100-$150. However, all of these "Latest" boards are the 266 FSB and if you stay with a Duron you don't need that. Therefore, just go with the 200fsb/KT133 version of these boards. Prices are not much different. This leaves you $100 for a CPU and the Durons are dirt cheap. If you wanted to go T-Bird, the 1 gig/266fsb cpus are about $150 now. So to sum it up, for stability but still overclockable I would go with Epox or IWILL, and for better overclocking I would say Abit or Asus. I don't know if your planning on buying this new hardware off the internet or at a local retailer but if you ARE gonna order off the net, check out Newegg.comThey have the Epox 8KTA3+ mobo for $108 (free shipping) and the 1 gig/266fsb cpu for $148. Thats right around your price range and that would be an AWESOME combo.

 

[bonkers325]

iwill kt133a mobo
1ghz avia or axia and overlock it

 

[etech]

Judah7, one note, you can use the 133FSB with a Duron on the KT133A motherboards.

In all most all cases you will have to unlock the duron to lower the mulitplier when you run that high. The increased memory bandwidth makes that worthwhile.

anandtech ocw/ 133 FSB

I think the Iwill or Epox would serve you well with the Iwill being in the lead. One advantage of the Iwill is a better on-board sound if you have an old soundcard that you don't want to upgrade.
Reviews

Check viahardware for details on the new bios's that hopefully has solved the last of the data corruption problems that some people were having.