What to get?

[f1br0pt1kl]

Ok guys, as you know my hard drive failed on me and well I think its time for a new computer.
Though I have decided my case, but I need to know what motherboard/cpu/hsf/memory combo I should go for?

Keep in mind that I only do Internet, E-Mail, ICQ, AIM, News for sites, reviews, previews, website design, and case modding, video, graphics etc...

Here are the choices:

ABIT KT7 Raid w/ Duron or Thunderbird w/ some hsf? Ideas?
ABIT BX-133 Raid w/ Pentium 3 700e w/ Golden Orb
ASUS CUSL2 w/ Pentium 3 700e w/ Golden Orb
OR a different combination

And what memory of PC-133? Mushkin and Infineon are good. So is Crucial and Kingston.

Well, what do you think I should get and why?

And always, e-mail me at fiber@virtualhideout.net and I'll be glad to help you if you have any ideas or questions or anything...

 

[SilverBack]

I would suggest for a value system :
Abit KT7 and a Duron 600 with Kingston PC133 and a Chrome G Orb HSF

For a higher quality set up:
Abit Kt7 and a Tbird 750 with Mushkin PC133 Rev 2 at 222 and a F0P32-1 from GlobalWin
You can't go wrong with either.

I was dissapointed with the CUSL2 as I had heard so many good things about it. It's lack of a 1/4 bus setting for 100 MHz cpu's was a shock. ( when overclocking for instance a FSB of 132 makes the bus for the PCI slots 44 mHz which can make some systems unstable.

 

[cpars]

I am running A Tbird 900 @1050 ($329 retail) at the moment and just pulled a Duron 600 @ 950 ($95.00 with HSF) out to to test this tbird. Honestly I cannot tell the difference in performance between the two except in some benchmarks.I am running Crucial Pc133 memory on An Abit Kt7 with voltage Mod. No luck on bus overclocking probably due to the memory. Mushkin will probably be my next choice. I am still using the stock HSF that came on the Tbird (does a pretty fair job)but Alpha always is a good choice as is Globalwin fop 32-38.

Anyway If I had it to do over again I would stay with the Duron on An AbitKT7 no raid with mushkin mem and globalwin.

My benchmarks here

 

[SilverBack]

Cpars I looked at your benchs, the memory scores look low. How do you have it set up? ( your memory )
I'm getting 524 over 608 on My TBird at 1 GHZ

 

[cpars]

It's sorry A*s crucial Pc133 Cas 3. Will be changing out to Mushkin soon. I believe it is the culprit not allowing me to overclock the bus also. What are your thoughts?

 

[SilverBack]

I agree.
I have the Mushkin Rev 2 in my system now it's very good stuff.
BTW I can raise the system bus only to about 112 MHz before the EVA bus starts to really cause problems. I would suggest that since you know that your cpu will operate at 1050 MHz that you get a speed increase across the bus and components by setting the clock to 9.5 and using the fsb at 110MHz.
I have had mine running at 1050 , but it became flacky during benchmarks. It actually is running at 1026 now. 9.5x108....

 

[cpars]

Tried and no go on The FSB overclocking

 

[SilverBack]

I would think that you are right and it's your memory holding you back.
Word of advice.
The way things are running DDR memory and the AMD 760 chipset is right around the corner at 200 MHz and the 266 coming shortly after ( maybe 2 months tops ).
The quickest ram out today is the 150MHz 2,3,2 HSDRAM but in a Tbird or Duron system, it goes to waste. The Mushkin 222 PC133 still seems to be the best buy for our hardware at least untill the DDR chipsets hit the market.