thoughts on my purchases ?!?

[Soulkeeper]

my desktop system has been out of commission for awhile now
I finally decided it was time to waste some money and get it back running again
so here is what i am getting from newegg:

$197-----retail boxed xp 2400+
$59------512mb pc133 kingston valueram c2
$6--------artic silver 3
$38------slk-800 heatsink (not in stock)
$7-------enermax adjustable 80mm fan
$8-------YS tech adjustable 80mm fan
$109----80gb western digital 8mb cache hard drive
$95------antec True power 480watt psu with blue led
$215-----Asus GF4 TI4200 128mb 8x card

this all comes to just over 700 bucks


I have an older asus a7v (kt133) motherboard which will run XP's but it can only run at 100mhz fsb
so my 2400+ will be running at about 1800+ speeds if all goes well and i will prob undervolt it just to have a cool running and quiet system
I don't wanna spend more for a new motherboard just yet cause then i would need to get some ddr mem
so basically front side bus and mem bandwidth will be my bottlenecks (as well as running the cpu 33% slower)

I was considering getting a 1700+ T-bred but decided i might as well spring for the 2400+ and get a T-bred B
also i am curious if my motherboard will use the 15x mult the 2400+ uses
besides i've already owned a 1700+ palomino before

As far as the video card goes I was torn between two equally matched GF4's
ALBATRON GeForce 4 TI4680P TURBO
Asus V9280S/TVD 128MB Geforce 4 TI4200
the asus one was only 5 bucks more and they both had 128mb, agp 8x, the faster mem, and the thicker boards
as well as good cooling
the capacitors on the asus board looked higher quality and i've had good experience with asus before
anyone have any thoughts on this ?

the western digital drive was a nobrainer decision. I didn't really need a 120gb version so the 80gb version was good enough for me


what do you guys think about that memory ??
you think it will hold the fastest timings at 133mhz ??
i've always thought kingston was lame but i might just give them a chance

the antect 480 is great i didn't want to spend more for the 550 and the 480 has the lighted fan to light my case up. this should be a nice replacement for my cheap 300watt psu
I chose to get the retail cpu because I wanna see what the heatsinks look like these days and it never hurts to have an extra heatsink
the slk-800 heatsink is nice


I'll probably place my order tomarrow or whenever they get the slk-800 back in stock
hopefully I won't have to break up my order


anyone have any thoughts ??

much appreciated
--sterling

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

....i dont think teh a7v will take the tbred cpu's...
nor will it accept the higher mults ibelieve..

but i could be wrong on both accounts...(i have the same board, just never tried a pally/tbred in it before heh)

ram would be definite bottleneck...it can probably run at cas2 if its listed as cas2

maybe look into the relatively cheap ddr/sd hybrid boards?

 

[Soulkeeper]

yeah i'm not interested in the sis 735 based boards
they just aren't worth it to me
either i'll have pc-133 or i'lll have the single best ddr board at the time

but yeah i ran an xp 1700+ in my a7v
the 2400+ should hopefully work as well
but if it won't post then i'll just hafta get a new board

i wish my board was an a7v133
anyone know where to pick one up real cheap (like 35 bucks) ??

 

[Jeff7]

$215 for a GF4 Ti4200 seems a bit much; don't bother with the 8x cards either; from what I read, even the Radeon 9700 Pro doesn't really even take advantage of AGP 8x.
Of course, I rarely buy new things anymore, except maybe cables and small accessories - I'm used to the lower prices of used stuff from the FS/T forum.

 

[Soulkeeper]

yeah i realize that agp 8x is of no consequence, but i am getting the board for other reasons
it's basically a ti4600 and should easily hit those speeds

thanks for the advice guys keep it comin

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
$215 for a GF4 Ti4200 seems a bit much; don't bother with the 8x cards either; from what I read, even the Radeon 9700 Pro doesn't really even take advantage of AGP 8x.

forgot that part
agp8x is a waste of cash for now

msi/leadtek/albatron seem to be good overclockers

stay away from gainward too....i remember reading something about massive card failures lol

the above can also be had for cheaper probably...

 

[Soulkeeper]

i just placed the order
it should be here next week sometime

 

[Wind]

Originally posted by: Soulkeeper
i just placed the order
it should be here next week sometime

Seems a right decision to me. But do prepare some $$ for a new mobo. I doubt tht the A7V133 is capable of firing-up a t-bred @ 2400+.

 

[Soulkeeper]

yeah it will run it at 1.5ghz
which kinda sucks but i'll lower the voltage and use a low speed fan
my system will still be faster than it's ever been and cooler running than ever
so i'm happy

i might be able to up the fsb to 110 or 112 but we'll see
i'm just having fun with it

 

[Soulkeeper]

yeah it isn't even an a7v133 it's the older a7v with the kt133 chipset
if you know of anyone that has an a7v133 for cheap let me know