Upgrading MB, Processor, and Ram. Need opinions..

[GEShields]

I am going to order an Athlon XP 1800 tomorrow as well as the Mushkin 512 MB DDR ram. What I am still uncertain on is the MB choice and heatsink. I am choosing AMD over Intel because of the price/performance margin.

No overclocking will be done with this system and I need it stable as well. It will be getting average use, not a lot of games, mostly internet and office stuff. I know this combo is overkill, but I like speed(extremely impatient). Is the retail HSF enough for my needs. If not, I need a good solution that is quiet as well(hate noise). Also, I am looking at the ASUS A7M266 MB..I only would choose this MB because of the least hassle dealing with drivers, etc. I would like to keep the AMD 760 chipset..

Here will be the rest of my system

Athlon 1800
MB??
512 MB Mushkin CAS2 Ram(single stick)
Quantum 10K 18.2gb HDD
Adaptec 2940U2W
Plextor 32X Cd-Rom
Plextor 12/10/32s CD-R/CD-RW
Leadtek Geforce 2 64MB
Monster Voodoo2(used by win 98SE)
WIN XP Pro/Win 98SE dual boot

All housed in a Lian Li case with Enermax whisper PSU.

Greg

 

[Croda]

I just this weekend built a new 1600+ system, and I'll tell you this. I went with the retail processor and used the stock HSF combo and have had no problems. The only thing I added was a Sunon 80mm fan for outtake. I'm oc'ing the processor to 142FSB and oc'ing my vid card a lot. Heat has not been a problem at all. My readings are 23C mobo/43C chip/63C Chip Internal diode. Honestly, I'm astounded by these numbers. So to answer your question, the stock HSF should be ok if you don't plan to oclock at all.

As for a mobo, I can't really speak to the 760 chipset, but I bought the Shuttle KT266A chipset and haven't had a single problem. I'd recommend it to you if you didn't want to change from 760.

 

[Pabster]

Save yourself some money and get the ECS K7S5A. Unless you are an overclocker. (K7S5A overclocks as well, but not as easily as other boards.) That said, SiS 735 is often a breath of fresh air for those who have endured shoddy VIA chipsets in the past. Some people report excellent luck with Shuttle's AK31A (about $25-$30 more than the K7S5A) but many others report issues. Personally, both of the AK31A's I had were pieces of sh!t. (voltage regulation problems, memory troubles -- particularly with all 4 DIMMs populated, IRQ difficulties, and general stability issues -- even after the 4-in-1 "fix" packs and driver updates.)

 

[GEShields]

TTT for some opinions??

And money is no object within reason for the MB...