Thinking about an Athlon system... any comments?

[Hyun]

Hi folks,

I'm thinking about getting the following setup locally. I'd appreciate if you guys could take a look and let me know if there are any obvious problems/conflicts. Or any other comments would be welcome. Thanks very much in advance!

Athlon 1.3GHz 266MHz FSB
Asus A7M266 DDR motherboard
256MB PC2100 DDR DIMM
64MB nVidia GeForce2 MX-400 4X AGP
Maxtor 40GB IDE UA100 7200RPM
Toshiba 16x DVD-ROM
Creative Labs SB Live! Value Edition

 

[majewski9]

Looks great! I'd get a Radeon 64 DDR instead. Your DVD's would look and run better with a Radeon. A Radeon is also better than a 64meg GF2mx or gts!

 

[andalas]

Yep, get Radeon 64 to watch a good dvd playback.

 

[ToBeMe]

That'll be a fine system! If you want to spend just a bit more, as was mentioned, opt for a GF2 GTS or Pro, or a KyroII, maybe even a Radeon but IMHO I'd hang back on the Radeon for the second iteration of it which should come along soon but, will most likely be a bit higher still! I've had all three of the aforementioned cards and to be quite honest, there's not much difference between any of them!

 

[VBboy]

Why is it that everyone gets only 256 MB?... Get 512 please.

 

[mchammer187]

epox 8k7a or ASUS AV7266 both beat the A7M hands down and cheaper too

make sure you get mem from crucial.com and i would go 512

get liteon or pioneer DVD instead of toshiba both of the rip at 16x while toshiba rips at 2x
or get the toshiba 12x which is also good

there is a deal on SBlive + mp3 for about 20 bux at staples on the hot deals forum so i would pick up on that or get a Santa Cruz

also i would get any other vid card than the MX

Radeon LE -80
Kyro II - 100
GF2 Pro -150

any of these would rock in your system and be able to play todays games very well

 

[Flatline]

I agree with the general feel of the forum on your choice of video cards, as a Radeon 64 DDR will outperform the MX in every conceivable way; you shouldn't NEED more than 256MB of RAM unless you're doing some very specialized sh** or you just love to multitask. I would go with the Asus motherboard...I have built every machine at my company based around various Asus boards and have never had a mb problem.

 

[mchammer187]

flatline i said for him to get the "ASUS" A7V266 which will be out in about a week which is far better than A7M

 

[Flatline]

Wasn't disagreeing with you, man--just said he I thought he should go with an Asus board over an Epox...the A7V266 does look like a pretty hot board

 

[EliZ]

I'm taking an identical system, but I prefer the Radeon.

 

[AGodspeed]

That system will rival just about anything. But I think I will go ahead agree with everyone else by saying that the video needs a tweak. No doubt, it's a really good card right now, but if you want to get a card that will last you (a few years maybe) a GeForce 3 is in order. Get the VisionTek GeForce 3.

I know it's expensive, but I've talked to retailers about the future price of GeForce 3 cards, and most say they will be between 175 to 225 bucks by X-mas. Dish out the extra 125 bucks now, so you won't have to wait more than 4 months for the price to go down.

Or, if you can't spend the extra money right this moment, stick with a low end GeForce 2 (i.e. don't spend extra for a non GeForce 3 card right now) but then upgrade to a GeForce 3 by X-mas.

 

[JeffDogg1979]

Dude...Unless you're running win98 or ME for the rest of your life, forget the single CPU athlon. A SMP solution is a nice long term solution for someone who runs Win2k, NT, XP, Linux.

Pick up a nice Dual board(SuperMicro, Tyan or Asus(if they still make dual boards)) with dual P3's, and you'll be in SMP heaven! Win2k will run nicer, if you ever install XP it will be nicer, and you'll be a nicer person just by having dual chips!

Also, don't skimp on RAM. Go for the gusto, 512mb if you go DDR.
But if you go the dual route, run 1gig of PC133 ram...Win2k will love you for it . Booyah!

 

[Hyun]

Thanks for everyone who replied. It's great to get such varied and informed response so fast.

Well, here's what I finally decided on:

AMD Athlon 1.3GHz 266MHz FSB
Asus A7M266 motherboard
512MB (2x256MB) Kingston PC2100 DDR memory
nVidia GeForce2 MX-400 64MB 4X AGP video card
Two Maxtor 40GB UA100 7200 RPM hard drives
Toshiba 16x DVD drive
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Value Edition
Linksys EtherFast 10/100 PCI NIC

I know a lot of you suggested other video options, but I decided to stick with GF2MX because it was cheap, and I am not a gamer. Likewise, I stuck with the Toshiba drive because 1) I hardly do any ripping; 2) the local store I wanted to do business with had it but not Pioneer.

You know, when I started thinking about getting a new system, I just wanted a "basic home" computer--nothing fancy. I don't do much gaming (nothing 3-D intense), and my computer is mainly used for home finance, internet, and light-duty digital photography. Maybe to most of you the above specs are for a basic home computer, but it's pretty mind-boggling to me.

It's pretty amazing to see how much you can get for around a grand (mine cost a bit more, though) today. My last system was built by me three years ago (a K6/233), and the last time I purchased a complete system was back in 1989--a 386SX/16--and I think they both cost more than the above!

Amazing.

 

[formulav8]

<< Thanks for everyone who replied. It's great to get such varied and informed response so fast.

Well, here's what I finally decided on:

AMD Athlon 1.3GHz 266MHz FSB
Asus A7M266 motherboard
512MB (2x256MB) Kingston PC2100 DDR memory
nVidia GeForce2 MX-400 64MB 4X AGP video card
Two Maxtor 40GB UA100 7200 RPM hard drives
Toshiba 16x DVD drive
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Value Edition
Linksys EtherFast 10/100 PCI NIC

I know a lot of you suggested other video options, but I decided to stick with GF2MX because it was cheap, and I am not a gamer. Likewise, I stuck with the Toshiba drive because 1) I hardly do any ripping; 2) the local store I wanted to do business with had it but not Pioneer.

You know, when I started thinking about getting a new system, I just wanted a &quot;basic home&quot; computer--nothing fancy. I don't do much gaming (nothing 3-D intense), and my computer is mainly used for home finance, internet, and light-duty digital photography. Maybe to most of you the above specs are for a basic home computer, but it's pretty mind-boggling to me.

It's pretty amazing to see how much you can get for around a grand (mine cost a bit more, though) today. My last system was built by me three years ago (a K6/233), and the last time I purchased a complete system was back in 1989--a 386SX/16--and I think they both cost more than the above!

Amazing. >>





Change the mobo and get the Epox. Its hard to find that Asus and when you do find it it is very expensive. $180 for the Asus or $120 which is better also for the Epox.

 

[nortexoid]

if u're not a gamer and u want something cheap, at the very worst, get the geforce MX200 32MB...the 64MB MX400 yields no performance advantage over the MX200 - ti's a big waste of money.

i'd honestly consider going ATI Radeon LE 32MB DDR...it'll destroy the MX200/400 in 3D and 2D and costs roughly between an mx200 and mx400...but it's better than both.

u can also easily registry/bios hack it into a standard DDR.

your board is a big rip off as well...u can get other amd 761 boards for a lot cheaper that offer equivalent or better features...and though most people dont' recommend them, there are good kt266 boards around offering comparable performance to 761 based boards...and they're often cheaper...they also use vlink (though that's more a marketing gimmick)...

 

[jeffrey]

If 3D isn't a concern you might consider the Matrox G550. Best 2D around.

 

[FlippyBoy]

I think the vid card can also be improved on. If you dont plan on gaming at all, a matrox card is definitely in order. the g450, or 550, as jeffrey said, would be a very economical and quality solution. if you think you may dabble in games at all, then the radeon would be my reccomendation, as well. it has very good 2d quality, as well as much better gaming performance than the geforce2 mx.

 

[DTBH]

Hmmmm

what dun u try the SIS735 chipsets from ECS? its reviewed at socketa.com suppose to perform better than 760 and kt266.... well... I guess only the people with BALLS would try the chipset cause it is unproven...but hey its dirt cheap( with onboard lan and sound still the cheapest ddr mobo in the market) not to mention it can use both ddr and sdram. And if it turns out to be anything like the mobo socketa.com tested it shld kick all the other mobo ass...

one thing though... it does not all multiplier changing.... i think

 

[smp]

yeah.. and the radeon isn't that much more expensive.

 

[TunaBoo]

If you didnt get already, consider trying to get the shop (or building yourself) something like this:


Qty Category Item
1 x Case Antec SX830
1 x Power Supply Enermax 350 Watt
1 x CPU AMD Athlon 1.2 GHz
1 x Motherboard EPOX 8K7A Socket A DDR
1 x CPU Cooling Globalwin's WBK38 Socket A
1 x RAM 256 MB DDR PC2100 CAS2.5
1 x Video Card Hercules Kyro2 64MB
1 x Sound Card Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
1 x Hard Drive IBM 60GXP 40GB 7200RPM
1 x CD-RW Teac IDE 12x10x32
1 x DVD Pioneer IDE 16X DVD Slot Load
1 x Modem Zoom 56k PCI Winmodem
1 x Network LinksysPCI 10/100
4 x Case Fans 80mm Panaflo
1 x CPU Overclocking Options Multiplier + FSB