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upgrade suggestions for 1700 XP

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daveqb

Senior member
i have an Athlon 1700 with MoBo GA-7ZX-H KT133A

i cant find any reviews on the GA-7ZX-H to know where i currently stand ( as i bought the board before i knew anything)

i have often had stability problems, with my system freezing often, so was considering a new MoBo

whats the suggestions around here?

i as looking at the GA-7VTEXP or maybe the latest Epox KT266A board

keep in mind budget is an issue, especially with currently no DDR SDRAM.


thanx all

 
If no DDR then you can't get the epox board, if i understood you correctly. I mainly know about DDR platforms now but my asus a7v-133 worked flawlessly when I had that. Not much of an upgrade though(pretty much just better stability).
 
what i mean is that i havent any DDR RAM so therefore need to buy that too with the new motherboard.
The point i am making is that the price needs to be considered, i just dont want to hear about the best board ever, but costs an arm & a leg.

DDR is what i want to upgrade to.

 


<< DDR is what i want to upgrade to. >>




I own a XP 1700+ with an Epox 8KHA+ board(KT266a) so it uses PC1600 & PC2100 ram ,it`s rock stable and very easy to setup,however you could try and fix your freezing problem first unless you want to upgrade to a DDR board,good ram like Crucial is excellent.


Try updating your Bios for your Gigabyte board,could be a IRQ conflict problem or even PSU, heat, without more info we can only guess.
 
That board is not unstable, I suggest you fix the problem. The one I set up runs fine, or so they tell me. Throwing money at something usually doesn't fix the root problem.
 
hmmm, i have updated everything with this board being the one consistant thing.

since the board i have a new CPU, new HDD, new CD-ROM's, new fans, new case, new heatsink, new Power Supply, new Graphics card, new Sound card, new Modem, Network card and a new TV Tuner card.
And also i check for new BIOS upgrades all the time, as it can be flashed thru Wiws with the Gigabyte Utility program, so have the latest BIOS to recognise XP chips.

The freezing has always happened & i put it down tothe OS (Win98) & all the programs i run concurrently,
but now with XP which starts off stable after a new install then freezes like crazy after a few days (gonna make a fresh post in OS about that), i thought my board could be the coz.

so ppl dont think its the board ????

PS cpu runs at 33 C now & case at 25C

 
If you should decide that you can not fix your motherboard issues, the 8kha+ KT266A is a great choice.
I think it is a better choice than the Epox 8k3a+ KT333 at this time.
The new 8kha+ Bios shows PC2700 supported, and my unlocked XP1700+ has no problems running 165x9.5, or 1574MHz.
Sandra memory scores are right up there with same fsb clocked KT333 boards at 2501/2306.
Older Bios could run my XP1700+ at 200x7 in 8kha+ when mem was set at 3/4 (SPD in Bios). (Generic PC2700 ram).
8kha+ also has same audio, AGP, and is setup for 6 USB 1.1 ports, while the KT333 only has 4 USB 1.1 ports, no USB 2.0.
The 8kha+ is tried and true. It has evolved into probably the top board as of now.
Most review sites use it for everyday hardware testing, as it's a great reliable testbed.

If not the 8kha+, then waiting for 8k3a2, or better yet the KT400 chipsets would be a good move.
 
WOW! thats a good rap for the 8kha+

i thought the KT333 chipset looked really good
the GA-7VRXP running it has got some great reviews & it does run USB 2.0
in fact it comes with 8 PHYSICAL USB ports, not just the ability to upgrade. ( http://www.motherboards.org/articlesd/motherboard-reviews/1152_1.html )


i am thinking that if i am going to upgrade i may as well go with an upgrade that will last me a long while,

thanx for the replies guys

and PS my problems with XP atleast appears to be XP setting ur HDD to PIO mode after a little use, a real pain to get i am finding out too!!

 
would this be the fault of the MoBo ?

i built my mum a computer
i used the Duron 1 gig, the k7S5A board with the SiS 735 chipset with onboard sound,
i used some RAM out of my system, i used an old 4 gig hdd i had (Fujitsu, same as the one i have running in this one)

my old VGA (GeForce2 mx200)
used a cheap 250 Watt PS
in my old case
& with Win XP

the sound of hers runs with no problems!!!

my sound, with a sound card no less, distorts & reverbarates when the CPU is under any sort of load, even openning Notepad.

Also, programs like Word open up faster once they have been loaded to RAM. They are slower from the HDD though.


did i accidently give her the better RAM or something ??????



 


<< my sound, with a sound card no less, distorts & reverbarates when the CPU is under any sort of load, even openning Notepad. >>




Could be an IRQ conflict problem ,try moving the Soundcard to another slot,also you did disable the onboard sound in bios ? And install the latest Soundcard drivers.

Try installing latest VIA 4 in 1 drivers as well.

 
i would get the epox 8k3a (or 8k3a+ if you want raid)
its very similar to the 8kha+ but its a little newer with the newer kt333 chipset
 
by the way since crucial pc2100 ddr ram had such a large price drop in the last 2 days it might be a good time to buy ram

256mb stick was about $100 and now its $69
 
thanx Mem, i am not sure if the sound card has moved slots in late, but i will give it a go to make sure

thanx for the advice boonesmi

i think may have found a fix for my sound .............
 
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