Socket A mobos w/DDR and PC100/PC133??

[dkellogg3]

First - I'm sure this has been covered numerous times, but I can't seem to get the search function to find what I am looking for - sorry!

I'm trying to piece together a system for my fiancee because she works for a non-profit in NYS, and with Pataki's budget cuts, $ is a little tight for them.

Will you guys please provide a list of mb's that support both DDR and PC100 / PC133 RAM? ...or at least point me in the direction (link) to where I can find this info. Also, if you have it, the chipset would be nice. I know the SiS 735 supports both, but does KT266 or KT266A?

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[bambam]

There is a thread about a week back that has a list that would be helpful . Two $ 55-60 KM266 SDRAM / DDR boards which might interest you are the Biostar M7VIG Pro and the MSI KM2M Combo-L . Both have integrated sound and video . If you don't like the onboard video , you can use the available AGP slot for the video card you like . BTW- I believe the Biostar boards have a 2 year warranty but their maunal is not much .

 

[Peter]

The ideal ultra-low-budget thing is the current ECS all-in-one offering. You get their K7SOM+ board with a Duron-950 soldered on, fan and heatsink, for well below $100.
It includes graphics, sound, LAN, modem card (not in all shops), CPU, fan/heatsink. Put it in a case, add RAM (it takes SDR or DDR) and the usual peripherals, and you're set.

Identical gear also seen as PC-Chips M810DC. Minus the C, the board is also available with standard CPU socket instead of soldered Duron.

http://www.ecs.com.tw/products/pd_spec.asp?product_id=242
http://www.pcchips.com.tw/product/M810DLUv52c.html

 

[tcsenter]

Will you guys please provide a list of mb's that support both DDR and PC100 / PC133 RAM? ...or at least point me in the direction (link) to where I can find this info.

Funny you should ask! I have a list of such boards going in another thread. Take your pick:

Amptron M825LU (a.k.a. ECS K7VMM+)

ASRock K7VT2 Distributed in U.S.A. by Amptron - Also see ASRock Website

ASRock K7VM2 Distributed in U.S.A. by Amptron - Also see ASRock Website

ASUS A7A266-E

BIOSTAR M7VIG

BIOSTAR M7VIG Pro

BIOSTAR M7VIW

ECS K7S5A

ECS K7S5A Pro

ECS K7AMA

ECS K7VMM

ECS K7VMM+

ECS K7VTA2 (no product link available from ECS)

Matsonic MS8137C (A.K.A ECS K7VTA2)

MSI KM2M Combo-L

MSI KT2 Combo-L

Shuttle AK32A KT266A/8233

Shuttle AK32E KT266A/8235

Note: There are other integrated boards which offer SDR and DDR slots but are not listed here because they offer no AGP slot.

 

[Vette73]

Like the others ahve said.

If you need onboard video or a mATX board look for a KM266 with the 8235 southbridge

If you don't need mATX and or Video, then look for a KT266a with the 8235 southbridge

They are several board, like the ones tcsenter listed, that have both yet still give a good bang for performance.

 

[dkellogg3]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! You guys rock.

I've got an Athlon 900 on the way, RAM, Floppy, CD-ROM, smallish hard drive, and a couple of vid cards (1 PCI (8MB) and 1 AGP (4MB)) that I can shove into this, but the all-in-one solutions w/onboard sound, vid, and LAN is probably my best bet as long as the vid and audio can be disabled in the future.

Any specific recommendations? I'd like the opportunity to upgrade, so XP capability would be nice. Are all of these ATA100?

Anyone have one they'd like to sell? (i know, wrong forum, but I might as well try here while i've got you're attention.)

Thanks again!

 

[yodayoda]

i digress, but the best all-in-one solution is probably the Asus A7N266 from newegg. $72 shipped and it has geforce2 builtin, good nvidia sound, ethernet, but is DDR only. solid board, easy install, only thing you might need is a modem for a mommy-box =)

 

[Peter]

dkellogg3, yes, any of today's integrated VGA cards are better than THAT. Although they won't be as fast as they can while you use SDR RAM, e.g. the SiS 740 chipset (aka 730D) will give you quite good performance.

 

[tcsenter]

Peter, you have your IM turned off. But I have a question fer ya!

Is there any kind of utility out there, or maybe a debug script, something, that I can use to evaluate the APM structures/service of a motherboard BIOS?

Reason I am asking, is that this @!#$ Biostar M7VIG made my Standby option disappear. The only PM options I have now are BIOS origin, not OS origin. So I can set in BIOS to 'suspend' at certain intervals (1min, 2min...45min, etc), but I can't configure any PM/Standby options in the OS.

Biostar sent me a beta BIOS but that didn't work, either. Now they are telling me its a 'Microsoft problem'. Funny, this doesn't happen on a dozen other boards I've used!

 

[dkellogg3]

YodaYoda - thanks for the recommendation, but I'm trying to keep this low-cost, and I already have some extra SDRAM. Any other specific recommendations?

Peter - Thanks for the info

everyone - please provide specific chipset recommendations - I'm thinking KM266, but is the SiS comparable? better? KLE133? HELP!!!

Thanks!

 

[colonel]

I been building computers lately with Biostar motherboards using the KM266 chipset and I like the new board from BIOSTAR M7VIW, very good brand, you can use two different kind of Memory, DDR and Sdram

 

[bambam]

Marlin1975 or any others . Are ther any of these integrated boards with the OC potential of the Shuttle AK32A ?

BTW - For those who are thinking about getting an ECS , Matsonic , Pcchips boards . Make sure that the warranty terms are clear in the representations of the reseller and only by from a reputable reseller . I got burned on a retail boxed ECS K7S5A which went bad finding out later it essentially was gray market with no warranty beyond the resellers 30 day return policy . Maybe some other brands are sold like this too but Biostar USA has a direct factory warranty .

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: dkellogg3everyone - please provide specific chipset recommendations - I'm thinking KM266, but is the SiS comparable? better? KLE133? HELP!!!

Thanks!

KM266 uses the well aged S3 ProSavage graphics core, with rather miserable 3D performance and features. KLE133 is even worse, using the ancient Trident CyberBlade graphics.

SiS 740 (aka 730D) uses the graphics core borrowed from SiS 315, the chip that predated the current Xabre generation. This is a halfway current graphics core, with bearable performance. SiS 730 uses the older SiS 300 graphics core, an older DirectX7 part.

VIA will come forth with a new graphics core in KM400, announced just a few days ago. It'll be a while until we'll see boards with that though.

The general rule for onboard graphics is: Give it fast RAM to maximize the available bandwidth, and then don't exaggerate on resolution and color depth when running 3D to keep the bandwidth consumption low.