What AMD motherboard to get....

[bullion416]

A buddy of mine recently had some troubles with his processor and motherboard so he is going to purchase a new board and processor. He doesn't need anything cutting edge. In fact he said he doesn't need much more performance than what his old system offered which was a 1.2Ghz t-bird. He is looking to spend no more than $110 on everything (motherboard and processor....AMD that is). What is the best setup he could get for that price range?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Well, I'm going to presume he has an old vid card too and suggest the Biostar M7NCG 400 with G4MX on-board-65$ and Duron 1.6ghz Applebred-$39 He should be able to use his present cooler with this CPU as it shouldn't run much hotter than that T-bird does. On the board, even if he doesn't need the G4MX video he can always stick his card in it Heck he even get's a free Newegg t-shirt too :beer:

 

[bullion416]

What chipsets out there right now are good and would be on an AMD motherboard for less than $70? It has been a while since I have shopped around.

 

[mechBgon]

I think you can find every Socket-A chipset on a board for $70 or less, at this point. DAPUNISHER just nominated a pretty darn good one, with the only likely hangup being that it takes DDR memory modules and you would want at least PC2100 memory for the Duron to be 100% happy. What kind of RAM does your friend have, can you find out?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Doh! I should have considered that having that old a CPU it was probably using PC133, thanks Mech :beer: If it is PC133 then I'd go with the K7S5Apro for $42 since it's dirt cheap, takes SDRAM and DDR, and I've had great luck with the original K7S5A's I've based builds on.

 

[Peter]

Careful also: All the most recent mainboards do not take AGP 2x cards anymore, while the K7S5Apro still does. So if you're going to recycle the gfx card too, you better use that old classic.

 

[hytek369]

Originally posted by: Peter
Careful also: All the most recent mainboards do not take AGP 2x cards anymore, while the K7S5Apro still does. So if you're going to recycle the gfx card too, you better use that old classic.

good point

 

[bullion416]

What other boards would you recomend that would be compatible with a x2 agp card.....I am not too fond of ECS motherboards. He said he wouldn't mind spending as much as $60 or $70 on the motherboard so what other options does he have? I believe he is running PC133 memory.

 

[mechBgon]

Here is another option: a KM266-based Microstar link to motherboard

 

[bullion416]

What about something with 5 pci slots to it fits in his case better?

 

[Bonesdad]

Consider keeping his Athlon 1.2 and upgrading to NF2 board and getting a stick of DDR memory. Will cost him more than $110, but not much.

 

[Zepper]

I would say the KM2M as well. Finding anything new that still supports AGP 2 is going to be lots of fun, but the on-board video may be as good as his current card and it does have an AGP2/4 slot for an upgrade if needed. Besides it is rock solid and has USB 2 as well as some other newer features. It'll support the Applebreds with the latest BIOS update. You will need a PSU that has the P4 Aux connector (4-pin square or an adapter to use a drive power connector - dalco.com is the only place I know of that has them for sure, but expensive - check SVC.com too, been OOS for a while - found 'em at cablestogo.com at a reasonable price. Worse to worse, PM me). If he's not using more than 3 PCI slots already, why worry about it.
.bh.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: bullion416
What other boards would you recomend that would be compatible with a x2 agp card.....I am not too fond of ECS motherboards. He said he wouldn't mind spending as much as $60 or $70 on the motherboard so what other options does he have? I believe he is running PC133 memory.

There aren't many choices left for running SDR RAM and a 2x AGP card, and the K7S5Apro is a solid choice - after all, it is the final revision of the K7S5A which is the best selling single mainboard of all times.

An alternative still out there is the Syntax KV266A board - Syntax being an Elitegroup spinoff, and the board being nowhere near as common, it isn't anywhere as good a choice.

The secret to getting a stable system is to use an adequate power supply, and make sure the RAM is OK and the CPU cooling mounted properly.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Peter

Originally posted by: bullion416
What other boards would you recomend that would be compatible with a x2 agp card.....I am not too fond of ECS motherboards. He said he wouldn't mind spending as much as $60 or $70 on the motherboard so what other options does he have? I believe he is running PC133 memory.

There aren't many choices left for running SDR RAM and a 2x AGP card, and the K7S5Apro is a solid choice - after all, it is the final revision of the K7S5A which is the best selling single mainboard of all times.

An alternative still out there is the Syntax KV266A board - Syntax being an Elitegroup spinoff, and the board being nowhere near as common, it isn't anywhere as good a choice.

The secret to getting a stable system is to use an adequate power supply, and make sure the RAM is OK and the CPU cooling mounted properly.

Yep. My experience is that if the ECS works right out of the box it'll keep doing it indefinitely. I have clients using them in work enviroments now for a couple years with zero issues so I know both the K7S5A and K7SEM are solid and stable. Also, as Peter stated, this is the latest revision of a board that's been around for years and they have it rock solid plus better sound from all indications I've seen. Heck, MSI is the only mainboard maker that has ever caused me substantial money and grief so I avoid them like the plague. Many others swear by them, I swear at them

 

[episodic]

Woops just reread and saw he wanted SDRAM board . . .

 

[bullion416]

Okay, it sounds like it boils down to these two boards as being my best choice: KM2M or the K7S5Apro Is one better than the other?

 

[Peter]

You gave your answer already - you want a full size board, and you want to plug a graphics card in. Quite obviously, the ECS board fits that bill better than the MSI, the latter being microATX and w/ integrated VGA.

 

[pnutfound]

SDRam, that's a big mistake if you're wanting a somewhat new rig. Before the cost of ram though you could get a Shuttle AN35-Ultra and an AMD 1800+ for about $100, and i must say it's quite a package. The 1800+ is clocked at 1.53 ghz, but i have mine at 2.13 ghz with 2 sticks of 256 mb PC3700 ram, which would cost about another $100. But for $200 your friend could have quite the PC, and then slowly make ad ons from there with video card and such if he wanted to.