Time to upgrade my AMD box, need some advise.

[Allen7]

Hi all,

I am ready to do a major overhaul for my AMD box (See my sig. for it's config.). I am thinking about a XP2200+ and a mobo for it, plus a stick of 512MB DDR.

What do you guys think? A KT333 or KT400? I am used to Asus, don't really like Abit

from past experiences, but open to other like MSI and Gigabit.

I have a budget about $450, help me guys...........

Things are prefer are:

Promise IDE Raid (Almost a most since I don't plan on changing the HD's)
8x AGP (would be nice but can't afford a new 8X VGA card now )

 

[Oakenfold]

A KT333

Depending on what kinda ram and videocard you plan to use in the future could affect your choices.
I myself would stick with the KT333 just because of the performance increase/decrease(according to some) between it and the KT400

 

[Allen7]

I am planning to get a 9700Pro or NV30 soon, do you all think running a AGP8X capable VGA in a AGP4X slot will degree it's performance much?

 

[mechBgon]

You might consider waiting a little longer for reviews of production nForce 2 motherboards as well. The onboard nForce sound is very good and doesn't load the CPU down much. The onboard NICs (two of them), onboard USB 2.0, and onboard FireWire capabilities add value too (do make sure the mobo maker actually implements the ports, of course). The performance is apparently right up there, and these boards should have end-to-end SocketA compatibility all the way from a 600MHz Duron to a ????MHz Barton. Furthermore, it's supposed to cost less than the original nForce did at its launch, and it's rumored to offer some interesting overclocking options (no dividers, the busses run at individually-adjustable speeds).

With the onset of Serial ATA, nForce2 boards may not show up with parallel-ATA RAID chips, so I don't know how that would pan out. Just an idea.

 

[Insane3D]

Take a look at the Epox 8K5A2+. Full support for 333mhz FSB Athlon's, onboard LAN, USB 2.0, 5.1 sound, and ATA133/RAID for under $100. It's pretty much the fastest KT333 board, and it usually matches or beats out the "faster" KT400 chipset. Also, instead of buying a 2200+, you might want to consider a AGOIA 1600+ for $52. Just about all of them run 166mhz FSB, 1.75ghz (2100+) with no additional voltage. I have two of them on the Epox boards. One runs 166mhz FSB, 1.75ghz @ default 1.75v, and the other runs 1.8ghz (2200+), 172mhz FSB, with only 1.80v. Neither setup ha excessive cooling, in fact, one of them has no case fans at all.

The larger "Palomino" core is easier to cool than the 2200+ as well.

 

[tRaptor]

Gotta agrree with Insane, he got me on the right track, proudly running mine at 185 FSB, an it seems to be solid, it jsut did 3dMark 2001 SE 41 times without a hitch

My athy 1.4 is @ 7.5X185.

Having Onboard RAID, SOUND, LAN, its great.

My few complaints:
-Floppy connector is at WAY bottom of the board. so i need to find a longer cable when i head home this weekend. Not a biggie.
-No Northbridge active cooling, not to big since its at 185 and i cant feel any heat on it barley, but still.
-BIOS go by way to fast, i cant see anything, right now i jsut tell it i have a floppy so it gives me the error and pauses so i can see whats going on, im sue there is a better method

Thats really about it, my lame complaints. GET this board it kicks ass.

~tyler

 

[Allen7]

Hummm.........Epox.

I have 2 friends working at Epox USA, they can hook me up with a great deal.....But, how's the Hotpoint raid controller now days? I remember back in the old days when I had horrible experience with Abit, it was Hotpoint raid controller they used.

How about AGP8X in AGP4X? Any comments?

 

[Insane3D]

But, how's the Hotpoint raid controller now days? I remember back in the old days when I had horrible experience with Abit, it was Hotpoint raid controller they used.

I think most would agree Highpoint has done a complete turnaround. Their HP366 chips, the Ultra 66 RAID chips on Abit boards were horrible. However, ever since their ATA100 RAID chip, the HP370, they have done nothing but get better and better. Their latest chips, the four channel (two port) HP372 and the 8 channel (4 port) ATA133 RAID controllers are top notch. They equal or beat the Promise chips, and they don't cripple the RAID bios like Promise does on their on motherboard RAID solutions.

How about AGP8X in AGP4X? Any comments?

IMO, AGP is just a marketing feature now. There are only two real AGP 8X cards out right now, one from Sis and the Radeon 9700. To my knowledge, their is no performance gain on the 9700 between AGP 8X and AGP 4X. Also, check the thread stickied at the top of this forum for several review links to the Epox board.

 

[Allen7]

In that case, the EP-8K5A2+B1 looks interesting. The addition of onboard bluetooth, I can link to my SE T68i handset w/o wires .

Thanks for the suggestions Insane3D.

One more thing, when moving from Promise to Hotpoint raid controller, will it mess up my partitions?

 

[Insane3D]

Are your partions in a RAID array now, or just partions on a single disk? If you have a RAID array setup, it *may* pick it up on the Highpoint, but if not, you may have to set it up again.

 

[Allen7]

I have 2 x 45GB IBM 75GXP running in raid array. Lots of back up to do if Hotpoint does pick it up.

 

[Insane3D]

Wel, if you connect them the same way, it's a good bet the Highpoint will pick it up. Just don't let it chage anything if you haven't backed the stuff up.