Tired of waiting for KT266A/nForce - buy KT133A board?

[Pluto]

I really want to upgrade my two rigs at home right now.

One is a Asus CUSL2-C with a P3-500E. I bought the CUSL2-C last year with the intention of upgrading it to a newer faster P3. Now I find out the most I can put in it is 1ghz thanks to Tualitin and i815ep STEP B. Thanks alot Intel! Plus the fact that a P3-933 or 1ghz is far more money than a 1.4 ghz Athlon! The other system is a Abit BH6 w/ a P3-450. I also have a spare BX board (QDI) that the 500E was in before I got the CUSL2-C.

I was planning to replace both machines with a Athlon/DDR platform, hopefully KT266A or nForce, but I'm getting a bit tired of waiting. Also wanted to wait until Palamino was available but that doesn't look like its happening soon either. Plus the fact that I have 512mb + 256mb in the other of SDRAM chips is extra incentive to get a platform that supports SDRAM.

So I'm looking now at selling the CUSL2-C and buying an KT133A board w/ a 1.4ghz Thunderbird. At least having the KT133A board will allow me to use my SDRAM, plus its a proven platform at this point. I was even contemplating buying a Duron until the Palamino came out but its just not worth it! The price difference between the durons and 1.4ghz Athlon is so little...

So I'm considering the MSI K7T Turbo-R, I like it because it has 6 PCI slots (Asus A7V133 has only 5) and is more stable (according to Anandtech roundup) than the KT7A, plus its pretty affordable. If anyone has any specific comments on that board I'd like to hear them.

As for the other rig, I will wait for a good DDR platform and Palamino before upgrading it. (Heck, I might even consider P4.... nah)

So thats my plan. sorry for the rambling. If anyone bothers to read all my thoughts and has any suggestions please post them!

 

[thraxes]

you said you wanted to upgrade anyway to a DDR system eventually. Hve you considered the ECS K7S5A?? It's extremely cheap, has a good speed, will take your old SDRAM and DDR should you upgrade the Ram later and because of the price you shouldn't feel to guilty if you replace it in a couple of months with an Nforce or KT266

Of course in this case you wouldn't have any bragging rights that you have the fastest thing available. Is that really so improtant to your ego?? If not check out my suggestion, I am sure other opinions will follow shortly

EDIT: I don't think going for a SDRAM system is worth it anymore with DDR RAM so cheap, that's another reason for ECS: the money you save there can be invested in DDR for optimum performance.

 

[Pluto]

I am guessing the ECS K7S5A is based on the SiS chipset? I've heard pretty good things about that chipset so I'm not opposed to looking into it. How many SDRAM/DDR RAM slots do you get though? I was hoping for at least 3 or 4 SDRAM slots (Are there any KT133A boards with 4 slots??)

I can't find ECS at any of my local retailers. Do you know if any other board manufacturers are producing boards based on that chipset?

 

[Jlreed77]

Yes, It is the Sis 735 chipset. I think there might be a Mini ATX board with this set, but im not sure. You get 2 SDRAM slots, and 2 DDR slots, upgradable to 1 GB.

 

[Pluto]

SiS reports that Asus has a board using the 735 http://www.sis.com/wheretobuy/635735cus.htm but Asus' site makes no mention of it. Maybe it's release is pending or Asus has cancelled its release altogether.

Here's a question, using SDRAM which performs better, SiS 735 or KT133A? Obviously SiS 735 w/ DDR outperforms KT133A but how do they compare when both on SDRAM?

 

[tazdevl]

I wouldn't even consider SDRAM @ this stage of the game. PC2100 DDR is priced at almost the same level as PC133. Crucial has 256 MB sticks for $35 with free 2nd day shipping. Why go with SDRAM when you get an extra 15% bandwidth with DDR?

KT133 is going to get lapped in just a couple of weeks with the KT266A boards and nForce. The SIS 735 Chipset is a bit buggy which is why Asus hasn't released their board yet. They might be waiting for the second revision of the 735 which is supposed to come out in a few weeks.

Just wait.

 

[Pluto]

if one already has large quantities of PC133 SDRAM that they don't really want to discard is it not worth considering SDRAM or solutions that support SDRAM & DDR ?

Was not aware SiS had a revision to the 735 coming out. Geez, first KT266, then ALi Magic (?) and now SiS... Can't these chipset makers get it right the first time?

 

[MCS]

I just can't give up my IWill KK266 board right now!! It has 512MB of SDRAM in it running at 150Mhz FSB and it's so stable and has no issues whatsoever. Sure I am tempted to try out DDR but not until the "KK266 of DDR boards" arrives. As far as I can see there aren't many (if any) DDR boards right now that are as stable as my IWill. This will probably get argued

Everyone who says you might as well go DDR has got a point, but this does not make the KT133A chipset completely worthless, especially if you already have a bunch of good quality SDRAM.